While it is difficult to predict the future, one thing is very predictable. For any association, corporation or other organization to succeed and grow, they need a combination of both young and old members.
Age gives you the knowledge where youth brings you the energy. Well today, I have the pleasure of introducing our newest Rotarian who brings us both!
The highly technical term for this is a “twofer”!
Standing beside me is Mary Johnstone, who joins us today under the classification of Technology.
Mary hails from the great state of Tennessee where she grew up in Kingsport and went to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Although she was originally a journalism fan, Mary discovered computer engineering which would become her major along with a minor in cultural anthropology (which really goes well with computer engineering). Mary graduated from the U of T and immediately went to work for Environmental Systems Corporation where she traveled the country studying and helping power plants control the air emission standards.
After five years, a small company called Google came calling and made Mary an offer she couldn’t refuse. So, she left the exciting world of power plant emissions and went to work for Google in Washington DC. After two years, she transferred to Seattle and for the last six years, she has been the Corporate Operations Engineer for numerous projects. For the non-geeks like myself in the room, this is the integration of computer hardware and computer software.
Mary is single, lives in Belltown and is committed to making Seattle her permanent home.
What is interesting about her is that she doesn’t fit the mold of what you would expect from someone who has devoted over a decade to the study of computer integration. To my surprise, instead of a serious and introverted individual, Mary is fun, outgoing and very conversational. Instead of an introvert, she is more of an extrovert. I like to think of her as an extraverted introvert!
When Mary talks about computers, she tends to speak of them from a human perspective. In fact, when I asked her why she chose computers as a career, she said, “computers are easier than people to understand.”
Very true.
There are several reasons why Mary decided to join Rotary:
- Her father was a lifelong Rotarian and spread the word of service to his children.
- Mary loves community service as evidenced by her involvement in almost every Google service project they have.
- Mary is smart enough to realize she needs balance in her life and to do that she needs to reach out and meet people with other interests.
Mary loves sports, is very good at fixing things both physically and electrically and has a pretty good alto singing voice so Rotary Rouges, listen up.
The only thing I could find that she says she is bad at is cooking. In fact, Mary holds the Guinness World record for being the only person in the world who can burn water! And she holds that record to this day.
Mary is proposed by Taylor Shimizu and Kathy Williams and we thank them for bringing this young, knowledgable and fantastic new member into our club.
Please join President Cindy as we welcome our newest Rotarian, Mary Johnstone. Classification, Technology.
