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We were fortunate today to have our longest living member and highly esteemed Past District Governor as our speaker to talk about the history of our Club. Jim Thompson has been a member for 61 years, is a Paul Harris +5, and was District Governor in the 1989-90 Rotary year. He recently was inducted into the District 5180’s “Hall of Fame” at this year’s conference at Incline Village.
Jim was District Governor when the District was 5190 (it originally was 519 but when computers came along, they added an “O”) and had 70-71 Clubs and was a much larger territory including Nevada north of Tonopah and Walnut Grove to Alturas to the Nevada border. It was very time consuming and arduous for the District Governor to visit every Club at least once – But Jim and his wife did it. Later, in 1995, the District was divided into 5190 and 5180. 5180 is our current District of 40 some Clubs.
The Club was formed in 1948 and was sponsored by the Fair Oaks Club which gave up territory to make space for the new Club. Fair Oaks president was Dr. Chester Kilpatrick. Lyle Folette was Carmichael’s first President. Also He owned a string of 5 & 10 cent stores.
In 1958 they had their first 4 of July parade down Fair Oaks Blvd and Jim was the “Grand Marshall” on Don Peterson’s patrol horse “Buddy”.
The Club met at the Corkwood Restaurant on the corner of Eastern and Arden, the went to Donovan’s Corner – Crestview where there was a Thrifty’s Drug store, then to Nicks at Fair Oaks Blvd near Standley, and, of course, we meet at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course.
Dr. Larry Porter, dentist, father of good friend, Peggy Porter, was a long time member of our Club and later sold his practice to current member Dr. Rich Shipp.
There was also fun District Conference in Carmichael for the year 1958 when Dr. Robert Hall (Dentist) was District Governor.
Our Club has produced three District Governors, Bert Bertagna who bought our Fletcher’s Pharmacy in Carmichael and became a member of the Carmichael Club, and was District Governor in 1962-3; Joe Svilich, and Jim Thompson, 1989-90.
Many of the successful projects that we have had over the years were:
-The Children’s Receiving Home over on Auburn where the Club did various projects – notably helping with the landscaping.
-Rotary Golf Tournament which was suggested by Bill Munsterman and former member Bob Paulson suggested that Easter Seals be the beneficiary. Of course, as is known, we have raised and funneled over $1,000,000 (maybe more like $1.2 million) to Easter Seals.
-The Special Olympics Soccer Tournament which provides 500+ luncheons for their participants. Bill and Karen Munsterman were instrumental in bring this project to fruition.
-The Crab Feed which is an annual event and vital to fund our charities.
-Chili Cook-offs, we used to have them and Jack Shearer was much involved with the projects.
-Effie Yeaw projects – Effie Yeaw lived on Panama Street and was a teacher at Carmichael School and took children on nature walks and founded the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. We have done a number of projects there.
In the beginning, Rotary stressed Classification. There was supposed to be one Lawyer in each Club, one Doctor, one Dentist, one insurance salesman, etc. The idea was that members would do business with one another and each didn’t want undue competition. Over the years, the Classifications have changed and split up – example Jack Shearer, Attorney specializing in domestic law and Jim Thompson – corporate law. Classification has become less important.
Jim went on to talk about the great achievement of the Polio+ project which had such tremendous success in inoculations – and has eliminated almost all paralysis world -wide.
Jim also spoke about Rotary International which meets every three years and takes up constitutional issues. It is a good thing and one of the great things that Rotary did was to include women as members in the Clubs. He went on to talk about the two ladies in Southern California who filed a law suit that went to the Supreme Court and eliminated the exclusion of women on May 4th, 1987.
Jim stressed that he has produced a pamphlet on Rotary when he was Public Image director and he recommends that everyone in the Club should have a copy. It is entitled “Facts about Rotary”. Should anyone want a copy, Jim will be happy to make it available to you.
Of course, as was stated by “Acting President” Dick Bauer, a book in Jim’s honor will be dedicated to Carmichael Library (Sacramento Public Library).
Pictures
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| Jeff Thompson, Peggy Porter, Jim Thompson, Dick Bauer |
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Rotarian Guest Peggy Porter, Past President Dick Bauer & Guest Dr. Hamid Adami |
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| Rotarian Guest David Von Aspern, and Past President David Thorman |
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