Meeting Date:   November 7, 2025

Presiding:         President Dick Swett President Dick opened the meeting at 07:30 and Ken Moulton shared some inspiration. 
 

Guests Names: Umie, Josie and Alicia, all from Bow High School’s Interact Club.

Visiting Rotarians: ADG Robbie Grady

 

 

Bill Ames: happy for the 21 days he spent in Ecuador/Galapagos, admiring tortoises.

Mike Ard: happy that his daughter is visiting and anticipating his first grand-child.

Bill Ames was aksed how many new birds he collected: LOTS, particularly hummers!

Bob Couch: good to be back in NH but still loves being in Canada.

Tamar Roberts: glad to have Bob back and thank you to Paul Mercier for filing the Club’s tax return.

Ryan Anastasi: happy that the Interactors are here.

Robbie Grady: always happy to be with the Bow Club, and happy to be safely home from a flight from Denver into heavy winds here in New England.

Linda Bliss: happy buck for visit with granddaughter and great grandkids; whine buck to remind members and guests to empty their cups before tossing them in the trash. Otherwise, the liquid makes a mess for the clean-up crew.

Durwood Sargent: happy to see Robbie, his friend from the Goffstown Rotary Club.

Dick Bean: happy for his family.

Dean Cascadden: looking forward to bringing some ruffians to trail Dave Scanlan as he gives a tour of the State House.  He was calling from Sedona, AZ, where it was sunny and soon to be 76 degrees.

Tanya: getting a lot out of Leadership NH; discussions have been productive, and they have been without animosity, despite disagreements. A friend ran for Alderman in Manchester and won!

 

Interact Students: Umie spoke about their winter clothing drive: collecting hats, gloves and coats throughout November. There is a box at the high school, but they will be putting them in additional locations. New or gently used clothing is preferred. Josie spoke about the need for cookies; on November 30, some Interactors will be serving as Santa’s elves in connection with the tree-lighting at the gazebo. Alicia said they will be making birdseed wreaths again, for sale at the Bow Craft Fair.

Josie drew the winning raffle ticket: Mia Patel is the winner!

 

Program: Joya introduced Durwood Sargent for a classification talk.

Durwood was invited to join Rotary by two members: Jon Ruggles and Jerry Kingwill.  He is a lifelong resident of NH, other than military service. 

At age 8, Durwood began putting things together, particularly milking machines. Expected to become a dairy farmer, but out of school he began working at a mental health institution, first in Laundry, then transporting patients.

He joined the Navy after a stellar performance on the entrance exam (lots of the questions were about tools, he said). He went to electronics and then voice encryption schools. His duty station was D.C. He installed encryption tools at the Pentagon and for the Marine Commandant.

He spent four years in the Navy; one of his roommates was responsible for introducing him to the wonderful girl who would become his wife.

He worked at Sylvania on semi-conductors and was then laid off with others. He went to work for the telephone company and was asked to return to Sylvania when they were hiring again. The phone company matched the offer from Sylvania, so he continued with Continental Telephone.

He joined the Hollis Fire Station as a volunteer; took EMT type training.

He became a union rep for the I.B.E.W., then Chief Steward, then Treasurer. Ultimately, he became part of management when they began to eliminate the positions of telephone operators. There were a lot of system connections and re-connections to have it all run smoothly. He was put in charge of Safety and Security for the Company, and interacted with the workers, the police and fire departments.

In the last part of his varied career, Durwood became a pastor for a church in Goffstown.

 

President Dick closed the meeting with a toast to Rotary the world over.

 

Respectfully Submitted, 
Judy Goodnow