Rotary Club Burlington Central 
8th June  2017. 

 

Pres. Mike Molloy at the helm.

 

It's worth mentioning the anthem today as it was finished off with a great flourish by Karmel Sakran to a standing ovation.

 

We welcomed our guests, Anne Anderson, wife of Eric Anderson
Sue Watson, daughter of Eric Anderson
Tanya Villinger, mother of Sasa 
and our own exchange student Wiktor

 

Lawrence Leung reminded us of the upcoming presidential induction on June 22 which will take place at the Art Gallery of Burlington. It will be a semiformal evening, dress code business casual.

It was noted that Pres. Mike Malloy appeared to be fading away little by little but he assured us that there was still more to go.

Jamie Edwards was welcomed back after a trip to South Africa and Europe.

Pres. Mike thanks Jamie Edwards for his generous gift to the club, a replacement for the defunct or lost projector. Jamie has just come back from not one, but three safaris in which he saw all five of the key animals and the migration of wildebeest.

 

Wiktor had an eventful week in which he met friends from Austria and Japan and watched soccer games with them. He was bemoaning the fact that all the teams that he follows have lost this season but he has enjoyed it all nonetheless. Last week he also stayed with Peter Skoretz and family and went rock climbing with his son. 

Wiktor had given Mike Molloy one of his Polish flag pins which Mike has been wearing for the past few months and it always generates conversation. In return Mike gave Wiktor a rather unusual Canadian flag pin that flashes!

 

Karmel Sakran requested a better view of Mike's physique given all the reports of impressive weight loss. (Others were not as impressed by Karmel’s physique as he was wearing tights today. =:-O   )

The club has been awarded two district towards: the first was awarded to Lesley Allison, the membership chair. Lesley had a highly successful and effective year and the award was the district membership development award. She named and thanked the committee: Jamie Edwards, Deanne , Mike Molloy, Haley Welham, and Jim Brindle. They’re still seeking more members of this committee.

Bryce Leggett received an award for the work that he went to to achieve such a contribution to Polio Plus.

 

Bernie Hanna kindly pitched in to do a last minute Sgt. at Arms, described as “often imitated but never duplicated”. There was a concentration on some of the sartorial characteristics the club, some high and some low. Glen Warnica sported alligator cowboy boots. Dave Beckett was wearing, unusually, a jacket which he said was in honour of Eric Anderson. Even Richard Pass was wearing a jacket; it must have been annual jacket day. At the other end of the scale was Karmel Sakran’s presentation in tights.

 

 

Bernie Hanna made a donation towards provision of shirts for the golf tournament sponsors.

 

Sheila Welham was quite overcome with emotion recalling the wonderful opportunities that she has had to connect with the various exchange students but also with their families, and was particularly, and tearfully happy to introduce Tanya Villinger  mother of Sasa, our exchange student from Germany of several years ago. Tanya give us an update on Sasa who is now 26 and has a good job and is working in psychological economics, a Masters degree and is living in a flat near to her mother. Her younger sister  is 22 and is studying economics. They were both very envious of their mother coming to Canada and so proud to have been part of our club in the past. They described Sheila as their second mother. Tanya described the extraordinary changes in Sasa after a year in Canada where she became an adult whose mind was really opened by the great experience.

 

Randy introduced Eric Anderson as today's speaker giving his first, yes first classification speech after 28 years in the club! He introduced his wife and daughter and was only disappointed that only one of his two girls was able to be here. He assured us that "my talk will be very interesting, very very interesting, it really will,” a turn of phrase that was unsettlingly familiar.

 

 

He described a delightful interchange between him and Peter Thoem as they tried to arrange for this talk. Peter described himself as a harmless drudge in the speaker booking department – international .  There is material for a stand-up comedy routine with the two of them but sometime in the future.

 

Eric spends a great deal of time away in Hilton Head, usually 4 to 5 months a year where he and Anne have a villa. Anne and Erik have been married for 51 years. Sue and Patty are the delights of his life. He was so happy to have two girls knowing that his cousins were all males. Back in the masculine macho 60s he couldn't broadcast the fact that he really would prefer to have girls than boys.

He was so proud to tell us of his grandchildren, Sue and Patty both having two boys and two girls each. The youngest grandchild is 10. Beth who is well known to the club having attended all the Christmas parties is now 23 and obviously lights up his life.

 

Eric is s a retired chartered accountant having retired 20 years ago, he will be 75 very soon. Eric describes himself as a do-it-yourself person. After retirement he took a electrician's course and taught himself plumbing. These trades have been very helpful over these retirement years. He plays golf, bridge, skiing, occasional fly-fishing, and when younger and more physically able played hockey and basketball.

He's lived for 48 years in Burlington. He's enjoyed traveling with Jack Pluis and Kathy Thomas and with Wayne Harbin. He has visited all 50 states, quite an achievement, so many more than all the Americans he meets in Hilton Head.

 

For 12 years he was in audit and 25 years a tax specialist. He was born in New Brunswick and worked there at the start of his career working for McCain's and knew the family quite well. When they first started they only had eight products. He also worked with Irving Oil and likewise knew the family. It's the biggest private oil refinery in North America. He did the CNR audit.

During his various audits over 18 years he learned to play bridge, there were always 4 men on the audits, never any women in those days, and he was told in no uncertain terms he would have to learn to be the fourth for their bridge games.

 

He was involved with Dofasco for 23 years and with the Algoma purchase. He met John Allinot in Sault Ste. Marie. Was also involved with McDonald's Canada as the tax specialist and with their acquisitions throughout BC and Newfoundland.

 

Later he became more involved with executive tax planning and mergers and acquisitions and partnership taxation.

 

As a bit of light relief he asks whether the audience thought that any of the following were true or false. The readers of this bulletin can find out next week what the answer are.

TRUE or FALSE

I curled in Africa and Switzerland

I landed a plane at Pearson airport

I curled in the men's and the mixed finals of the Ontario Curling Championship

I attended McGill

I attended Dalhousie

I golfed in the Canadian Amateur

I curled for a month in Scotland

I was a top player in the St. John District High school basketball league

I biked from Burlington to Nova Scotia

I'm a life master in competitive bridge

And finally I was a semi-finalist in the New Brunswick horseshoe championships. 

 

Tune in next week for the answers

 

Growing up in New Brunswick, he met Anne in grade 8 and married her, his next-door sweetheart, though I didn't catch how long after grade 8. He told us a bit about his ancestors including his great great great grandfather who traded with Indians in New Brunswick. His grandfather was a publisher of the St. John's newspaper. He lived in the Anderson home outside St. John on a river. One of his grandparents lived to 105. He reminded us that he will be 75 soon.

 

He had two brothers one of whom was described in those days as "mentally retarded" who lived most of his life with his mother at home where he was so totally sheltered that he was almost non-functional, and so it was remarkable to see him blossoming once he left the family home to live in a senior home and is now able to read and write and living a very much fuller life. It goes to show the importance of early stimulation and he proudly told us how Beth went right through high school benefiting so much from this experience.

 

He went to live in PEI at the age of three, to Moncton at the age of seven and back to St John at 14. He regrets so much not knowing more about his father and not taking the time to ask more about his life when he was alive. To avoid repeating that he has started writing a "50 page epistle" for his family. Eric never went to university but as one did in those days, straight to articling with McDonald Carey for five years and subsequently did a correspondence course through Queens University and became a chartered accountant. Anne is an RN. They were married in 1965, Sue was born in 68 and they went to Montréal and then to Hamilton. He became a partner with Duncan Gordon and describes the process whereby he was elected to become partner, a rather formal and formidable ritual of being invited to dine with Duncan Gordon. Clarkson Gordon became Ernst and Young. He was given the choice of which city to go to and chose to come to Hamilton.

 

His been chairman of the board of the Joseph Brant Hospital and president of the golf club. He was asked why he decided to join Rotary. He wanted  to become more involved in his community. He noted that in those days joining Rotary was by invitation only and there could only be one of each profession.

 

It was clear that he was just getting into his stride when his half hour was up and that the audience was avid for more. Hopefully Eric will come back another day to give us more of the story.

Eric was thanked for his talk.

 

The members are asked to remember the upcoming golf tournament and the Lakeside a la Carte. 

 

The Meeting was adjourned.

 

Anthony Ford-Jones