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1. How long have you been in Rotary?
I had joined Dover Rotary two years ago in July of 2018 at the recommendation of our gracious neighbors Noreen and Frank Biehl.
2. My favorite Rotary moments:
As a “newbie” within Rotary my favorite moments are probably yet to come, maybe pulling the ace of spades again with a winning ticket. Seriously though, I mostly enjoy the camaraderie within the Club and I’ve met many great and dedicated vol-unteers. I believe giving back to our community and helping the less fortunate, be it senior visitations, planting and mulching our Park gardens, delivering food, helping with Rotary Bingo or making worthy contributions are all rewarding moments. I be-lieve providing school back packs and recognizing “students-of-the-month” were my favorites.
3. Where I currently live and where I grew up:
I’m a Midwesterner, growing up in Nebraska and Illinois, living and working in Chi-cago before my company transferred me to New Jersey and subsequently to Mas-sachusetts in 1972. I finally settled in Newburyport where I met Lorrie. We had lived there for 45 years until relocating to Dover about four years ago.
4. My Hobbies:
Besides woodworking, the gym and reading, today Lorrie and I love working on our new home while enjoying the benefits that come from living in such a beautiful set-ting on the river here in Dover. We are also looking forward to traveling again, visit-ing our kids and grandchildren spread across the country, in addition to touring Eu-rope and the Caribbean.
5. My Business Profession or Current Working or Non-Working Environment:
After graduation I began my engineering career with Western Electric (Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs). Although I had enjoyed my 34 years in engineering and management, it never provided the satisfaction that comes from creating and build-ing things. Having had the opportunity to retire 20 years ago has allowed me to en-joy and enhance my hobbies and volunteerism. While in Newburyport I was heavi-ly engaged in many civic and social organizations. I chaired the Planning Board and the Waterfront Trust. I was president and still am a member and of the Dalton Club, led several historic preservation initiatives and had worked closely with the Mayor and members of the City Council.
6. Something my fellow Rotarians don’t know about me:
Fate brought us to Dover. We had never considered leaving Newburyport when we had seen this property in Dover from a real estate advertisement on Zillow. A habit of mine was browsing these RE apps checking out historic homes. There was this beautiful drone flyover video on YouTube of the Bellamy River, the reservation and Royalls Cove that spiked my interest, the house not so much. After dinning up in Portsmouth we drove by the property out of curiously. Ironically the agent was there with a couple that had the property under agreement. We stopped by, gave the agent our number then went back to our lives in Newburyport. She called us a week later saying that the agreement fell through and are we interested? Not really, but I gave her a low bid on the property anyway. It was Christmas Eve when we had received her call saying our bid was accepted. After some major home renova-tions, the rest is history.
7. Final words?
Moving to Dover was a decision that far exceeded our expectations. And joining Rotary had put the frosting on that cake. Thank you, Noreen and Frank for introduc-ing me to this great organization.