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History
of
The Rotary Club of Space Center (Houston), Texas, U.S.A.
Club 2010 District 589
for
Rotary Year 1974-75
President
Richard D. Chandler
Chartered August 6, 1964
Eleven years of serving the local
and world communities with a passion for
“Service Above Self”
Officers
Vice President
Don Kirk
Treasurer
Fred Joy
Secretary
Harry Jennings
Editor
Gene Lindquist
Historian
Allen Heidbreder
Directors
By Baldridge
Lionel Garcia
John Hoff
Roy
Pezoldt
Al Ligrani
Marvin Matthews
Jim Wyatt
Chuck Jacobson
The
history for the Rotary Club of Space Center (Houston), Texas,
U.S.A. has been compiled from previously written histories
and chronologies which can be found in the Welcome section
of the Home Page. For the most part, the wording
of these previously written histories have been used verbatim
except for the insertion of additional information found
elsewhere, obvious errors, and annotations by Historian
2009.
The history file contained very few
documents. There was 22 Board meeting
minutes,
29 letters and the program regarding the tenth
year anniversary of the Club, and no financial
documents. There were 9 out a possible 46 newsletters,
Blastoffs,
assuming that one was issued every Club meeting
day. The
Club Programs and Special Events
listing noted 21 programs.
The Blastoffs were legal size written on front and back
in various colors such as pink, orange, and blue.
The Club met at the Nassau Bay Resort Hotel.
The only budget
information is on the second page of the
September 19, 1974 Blastoff
and the following letters: letters
1, 2,
3,
4,
5, and
6. The
available information states $5,000 went to
service projects
and $1,000 to The Rotary International. Based on
the 1978 Shrimporee Report, the amount of
funds raised from the Shrimp
Boil was approximately $7,400. The amount of monies made from
fund raisers since the first recorded fundraiser in
1968 was $23,106.
The
July 1, 1975 Semi Annual Report of Club
Membership
noted a membership
of 122 with 2 Honorary members. The
Club's Roster
is based on the July 1, 1975 Semiannual
Report of Club Membership. Six previous presidents
were on the membership roster.
The avenues of services committee members
can be viewed by clicking on
Committee Members.
The Board
of Directors established the
Sergeant at Arms position as an elected office
on
March 12, 1975
effective July 1, 1975.
The big events for the year
was the ten year anniversary dinner party and the first Shrimp
Boil (Shrimporee). Pictures of the planning meetings and of
the day of the Shrimporee can be viewed by clicking on
photo gallery.
The following information was taken from a
previously written
History by Walt Wicker.
This was billed as an outstanding fun
and fund raising project, and indeed it was, with membership
participation beyond all expectations. Local merchants
and individuals were most generous in donating auction
items. DYHYSBTY (Do You Have Your Shrimp Boil Tickets
Yet) badges appeared. The auction committee did not have
a lot of hope until Mr. McCree with McCree Ford heard about
the event. He was a member of the Dickinson Rotary Club
and he wanted to shake his club into action so he donated a
used car. This woke the committee up and we learned the
sky was the limit. We went to Norman Frede and Chuck
Miller, and they donated used cars. Both Norman and
Chuck have continued to do this every year. Their
contributions have been enormous.
The
auction items that sell are sometimes hard to understand,
but some of the items that do sell well are popular dolls,
stuffed animals (the larger the better), golf clubs, shotguns,
cars, paintings, jewelry, video games and bicycles.
Small-dollar items and gift certificates are very difficult
to sell at reasonable prices, and often are not worth the
time expended. We have had several auctioneers over
the years, but Harris County Commissioner Jim Fonteno has
by far been the best. Judge Steven Phelps has long
been Jim’s assistant and has made a large contribution.
The giving of their time and talent has meant a great deal
to the success of the auction.
Approximately
3,000 dinners were served and the net profit was $7,000.
Thus, by any standard of measurement, the event was a huge
success and destined to become the club's annual fund raising
project.
The principal
beneficiary for
the year was the Clear Lake City Emergency Medical Corp, with
the remaining anticipated profits to other current beneficiaries
as follows: American Field Service, Boy Scouts of
America, Earth Awareness Foundation, NASA Little League, Freeman
Memorial Library, Bay Area YMCA, American Legion Auxiliary
(Girls State), Clear Creek Art League Scholarship and
Harris County Youth Village. The Medical Corp received
$3,500 for a high dome ambulance cover. There was
no evidence of the drug awareness program except for
the Earth Awareness Foundation mentioned above. This
would have been the seventh year of the program the drug
awareness program.
A
letter dated February 20, 1974
by Marvin Matthews gives a brief overview of
the Shrimp Boil and the committee
assignments.
The committee to plan the ten year anniversary
was established on
March 20, 1974
with Don Kirk, Dick Allen, and Martin Gracey as members.
Space Center's Tenth Anniversary (Program)
was celebrated during a dinner held in the Lakewood Yacht Club
October 5.
Dr. Alfred Neumann
presided as Master of Ceremonies and one of his
remarks of interest was that the club had started with 35
charter members, 328 have been inducted, and 208 members have
been lost, with a present roster of 120 (Historian 2009:
124 in accordance with a
newspaper article
about the tenth anniversary) members. The turnover
has been largely due to membership being from a transient
aerospace industry personnel rather than lack of interest in
Rotary. Eleven of the original 35 charter members were
in attendance. A
picture of Dr.
Neumann when he became a member of the Club October 15,
1973.
Special honored guests included
Ellis R. Bareiss,
founder of the Space Center Club. Presently he resides
in Austin, Texas, is a member of South Austin Club, and has a
perfect attendance record of 28 years Ivan E. Brown, first
President of Space Center, served two terms - 1964 & 1966
- and presently resides in Jackson, Tennessee.
George Shoultz
was guest speaker and is a past District Governor. Other
Past District Governors present and introduced were Wayne
Holland, Ed House, and Ernest Upham.
Ten year Perfect Attendance Awards were given to
Dick Allen, Frank Morgan, and Gene Lindquist.
Announcement of
Paul Harris Fellow
awards to two of our club members was the surprise
for the evening. The Board was commended in their
selection of Martin Gracey and Harry Jennings. (Note
by Historian 2009: The Rotary Foundation listing of
Paul Harris Fellows does not list Gracey). Martin
received his award for 10 years of outstanding contributions
in club service and his many civic endeavors. Harry
received his for 9 years as Secretary for the club.
Letters and articles associated with the tenth anniversary
are listed below.
(1) A
note dated September 12
from Gene Lindquist to Ellis (probably
Bariess)
(2) A
letter dated September 23, 1974
from Brown to Ellis
(probably Bariess)
(3) A
letter dated March 5, 1975
from unknown to Dick
(4)
Article 1 and
article 2
Attendance
of meetings before Christmas and New Years is minimal and
guest speakers are difficult to obtain. The last two
meetings in 1974 were declared holidays by the club, but
the District Office vetoed the proceedings. December
30, 1974, was billed as a fellowship songfest. The
Program Committee provided a champagne luncheon. The
sparkling stuff produced a variety of toasts, including
Martin Gracey in Gaelic, Al Neumann in German, and Lionel
Garcia in Spanish. Rev. Dean Woodruff read an unusual
horoscope for several of the members present.
Floyd Boze was featured with an article and a
picture in the February, 1975 issue of the Rotarian and the
November 28, 1974 Blastoff.
Floyd Boze won the 1974 Rotary
International Golfing Tournament held at St. Andrew's Golf
Course, Scotland with the best individual net score in the
0-12 handicap division.
There were one
Paul Harris Fellow
named bringing the total for the Club to
three.
The
66th Rotary International Convention was held June 8-12,1975 in
Montreal PQ, Canada. There were 12,975 in attendance. President
Elect Donald Maclyn Kirk represented
the Club.
District 589 Conference
was held at the Astroworld Hotel in Houston, Texas
May 2-4, 1975.
Rotary year 1974-75 was placed in the archives in July 2009.
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