In This Bulletin:
Meeting notes with Activities and Events
Notes for Members
Birthdays, Anniversaries, Rotarian of the Month
President Bill’s Presentation
MEETING NOTES:
Opening
President Bill Rang the bell for the first time at 7:30 AM with 31 participants in attendance; grew to 41.
Bill Arnone led us in the Pledge of Allegiance
David Ruprecht led us in the song, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”
Alison Huber provided the inspiration:
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other times. We are the change we have been waiting for. We are the ones that we seek.” Barack Obama
Leslie Lewis was introduced as Fine master for 2020-21 . . . with a heads up about upcoming anniversaries.
Sympathy: President Bill noted that member David Culley’s sister has passed away. Dave and Kathy’s mailing address: 9501 Duvander Lane, Windsor, CA 95492; cell 707.292.5315 and his email is [email protected]. We extend our sympathy to David, Kathy, and the family.
Visiting Rotarians: None today
Guest of Rotarian:
Joining us today, fresh from her shower: Shirley Mae Rickets, a retired educator, mother of Karen Ricketts, from her home where Karen is visiting.
Activities and Events:
Food Security Drive continues; Heather Cullen is the leader. Watch for developments.
This Sunday, July 12 . . . “BEST NIGHT EVER, ONLINE”
Don’t Stop Believing – wonderful music and dancing by Transcendence Theater Benefit for Polio Program of The Rotary Foundation this Sunday at 2 PM. Tickets are free but your tax-deductible donation goes toward a polio-free world! https://www.rotary5130.org/1789-2/
Thursday, Aug 27 – Windsor Candidates Forum – Town Council and Mayor
Tuesday, Sept. 15 District Gov. Doug Johnson Official Visit
Tuesday, Sept 22, Tri-Tip Tuesday, a mini-fundraiser with WHS Vineyard Academy
Club Business
Racial Awareness Resources . . . On our club website, following last month’s frank talk on racism, we’ve started an information resource. A list of films and books is posted on our “Community Service” menu, select “Diversity” and click on Racial Awareness.
Club Manual – available windsorrotary.org/my-club/clubmanual/ and windsorrotary.org/calendar
Bill presented his 2020-21 Board of Directors:
Bill Bolster –President
Maureen Merrill –Past President
Pam Moulton –President-Elect
Leah Hansen –Secretary
Ed Turner -Treasurer
Glenn Sugden –Community
Carol Martin –Community
Sandie Krutz –Youth
Doug Williams –Vocational
Ken Moulton (John Hackenburg) –International
Renee Hyde –Membership
Alison Huber –At Large
Club Goals were presented:
Bill presented his Goals for the Year:
The theme for the year –“Doing More” with Less and “Having Fun”.
- Keep ZOOMing and making that work as long as we have to and evolve back to regular meetings.
- Fundraisers
- Focus Community effort on projects that engage us with the Windsor community as we work through the pandemic.
- International has about $15,000 to spend. Our efforts will be to find ways to help less fortunate places in the world get through the COVID-19 pandemic with this.
- Get Interact going at Windsor High School.
- Membership -Continue to find and add new, engaged membership.
- Documentation. –Get the Club Processes and Procedures on-line for access for all: “Who Does What” “How Things Get Done”
Fundraiser for 2020-21
Upcoming Program:
July 14: Jon Stout, Mgr, Sonoma County Airport
Today’s Program:
President Bill’s Program in the form of a Craft Talk:
When approached and asked if he wanted to be president of The Rotary Club of Windsor, Bill’s first thought was “Are you kidding? Why me?”
Background and Youth
Bill’s mother and father are the ones who helped him become who he is. “They were people of the Depression and WWII. They only bought what they could afford and could pay cash for.” In addition, they stood for many of the qualities of character and values that Rotary stands for. Bill’s father grew up in Washington and became an electrical engineer educated at U Wash. His mom, from upstate New York, earned her degree in mathematics and became a businesswoman with MetLife, taking “a man’s job” during the depression.
Bill grew up boating and loving sports, claiming to be not very good at the latter. He grew up on Long Island for part of his life, going to many Brooklyn Dodgers games, sitting behind posts, and watching his mom’s favorite player, Jackie Robinson.
When Dad’s job took them to Bristol, a small town straddling Virginia and Tennessee, the Bolster family experienced culture shock. The town Welcome Sign had, Bill says, an unseen but effective addition of “if you’re white”. They encountered two sets of public drinking fountains and restrooms, labeled “white” and “colored” and the requirement that Black people sit at the back of the public buses. “People were very gracious, and you learned to always say “Yes, Sir and Yes, Ma’am,” but the warm southern welcome was because we were white.” It was strange to the family, which never adapted to the racism displayed in their new town.
Bill was a Boy Scout and has a photo of himself and his dad at the Boy Scout’s National Jamboree at Valley Forge, Penn. Sadly, Bill’s father died when Bill was a teenager.
In high school, “I was a nerd — actually a closet nerd, because back then it wasn’t cool to be a nerd. I did stuff like build a boat, and I took stuff apart. I was a difficult kid in High School, and the teachers would ask me, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” But, he said, “My grades were OK.”
University and the U.S. Navy
Bill’s mom told him that since he would have to serve in the military, he might as well choose how he would serve. She also advised him to go to a non-engineering school, so that he could get a well-rounded liberal education. He went to Vanderbilt (Ed. note: with his “OK” grades) and joined the Navy ROTC in honor of his dad, and got an ROTC scholarship from Uncle Sam for tuition and books
Nashville was racially segregated in those days. “Students at Vanderbilt were mostly privileged, like me, and many were used to the old southern ways. There was no big movement for civil rights on my campus, though most of these do come from college campuses.” There were Black students in town, though, and along with others they held sit-ins in local coffee shops. Bill observed that this did not work until the students organized an economic boycott of the downtown businesses, encouraging antiracists to refuse their shopping dollars to the discriminators.
“Another unique aspect of white privilege was that in the fall, professional basketball teams would come to town to play, but they couldn’t go downtown to the main arena. I went over there myself and saw some great basketball players. But you couldn’t do that downtown.”
Bill claims an “undistinguished career at Vanderbilt”, saying he did OK in technology courses and OK in liberal arts. He remembers his required 8 AM -each-Saturday engineering classes all 4 years.
After graduation in 1965, Bill’s debt to Uncle Sam landed him in the uniform of an officer in the Navy. He was sent to various places, including Pearl Harbor, the South Pacific, New Zealand, San Diego, and San Francisco – when, in his words, “I was a bachelor in San Francisco in the 60’s – it was fantastic!”
Family, Career, Business Ownership, and Home
Two events that year, 1969, were big stepping stones. He met Joan in San Francisco, and “I was hooked. Once I met her my life changed completely.” In ten months, Bill and Joan were married. Bill, just out of the Navy, became a sales engineer for industrial adhesives, sealant insulation, and the like for Dexter Corporation’s Hysol division.
Bill claims that though he “cannot read or write” he was good at sales and engineering. After buying their first home in San Francisco for $12,000 (now available for $2M), the Bolsters lived in the Sierra Madre, for a time before relocating to 6500 Faught Road, just south of Windsor, 43 years ago. The house needed a LOT of work!
Bill and Joan adopted their two children, Bill Jr., and Tiffany. Eventually, Bill went to work at Electro-Optical and his mentor there, co-founder Victor Yen, encouraged him to eventually buy the business. Bill did that in 2007, signing the deal “scared to death, with a shaking hand” but became debt-free after 3 years.
The 2017 fires burned at Bill and Joan’s Faught Road acreage and the entire barn burned. They lost several classic cars and two-story barnful of antiques and keepsakes. The amazing firefighters were able to save the 170-year-old house that the Bolsters had remodeled and fixed up over the years.
To celebrate, Bill and Joan held “Billy’s Burned Barn Bash”, inviting Windsor Rotarians. Tom Boylan brought a package of marshmallows, expecting smoldering ashes perhaps?
Rotary giving
Member Laura Buhrer invited Bill to visit Rotary in 2014. At the time, he’d been trying to “figure out how to channel time and money into good things. With Rotary, doors opened up.” His first involvements included holiday Bell Ringing and Youth Exchange. He has taken many YE kids to baseball and basketball games, and become a counselor to outbounds as well. He joined in the Lake County tree-planting (Ed. Note: . . . and began showing up and pretty much every single Windsor Rotary activity ever.)
“Giving back is what Rotary is about, and I am ready to help us all do that,” Bill concluded.
Closing thought:
From Pres. Bill, a quote from Katherine Hepburn: “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun!”
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Member Notes:
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Respectfully submitted by today’s scribe,
Maureen