Lydia Frenzel

Lydia Frenzel
District 5190 Governor 1997-1998
R.I. President, Glen Kinross
International Theme: “Show Rotary Cares”


It was a privilege and honor to serve as the inaugural female district governor in 5190. Lydia belonged to the Rotary Club of Ione, who chartered in 1987 with the inaugural 5190 woman president, Georgia Schulz, and who claims it was the first Rotary Club in the world with a Charter Woman President.

While the past district governors liked to think that 5190 was progressive in the issue of female membership, Lydia ran into the humorous threats of members leaving the room in mass or having to arm-wrestle with clubs and individuals that were alarmed by the change in Rotary. The threats never materialized because Lydia had a personal involvement with each and every club from her prior experience as District 5190 secretary. Her positive supporters outweighed all the negatives. The majority of the clubs were absolutely marvelous. We focused on the projects and club concerns.

Lydia’s objective was to encourage the individual viewpoint of each member, help the clubs fulfill their individual goals, and to continue PDG Joe Coffin’s work to forge an identity for the new District 5190. Lydia and Charles shared their vision to merge creative and personal interests. As a result, the District Conference at South Lake Tahoe had record attendance, and sold-out sessions. The GSE team was from Brazil. We left our Rotary family to care for elderly parents, but we left our hearts with Northern California.

Currently, Lydia serves as an advocate and global resource for sustainable resource approaches to basic blast and paint industries.