Learning More About Our Fellow Members

As there was no outside speaker scheduled for our January 4 meeting, Vice-President Bob Bustard pre-arranged to have brief talks given by 3 of our members.

First to speak was one of our newest members, Steve Fox. Asked to present a short autobiography, Steve talked of being Co-President of the Montvale Chamber of Commerce for several years and spoke briefly about his role as a financial advisor since 1989, currently serving as Senior Vice-President and Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley in Pearl River. Active in the community of Montvale since moving there 13 years ago, Steve lives with his wife and two teen-age children. Among his many interests are his extensive volunteer work with the Chamber and the Montvale Recreation programs as well as skiing whenever time permits.

Next to the podium was Jan Doornbosch who gave a moving and inspirational account of his efforts on behalf of Newtown, Connecticut over the past couple of weeks. Upon hearing of the tragedy that occurred in the school there on December 14, Jan felt compelled to do SOMETHING. Recognizing the possibilities his International Bulb Company provided, he contacted a selectwoman in Newtown to discuss the feasibility of creating a memorial garden for the community. On December 19 bulbs for the garden were delivered and on December 22 Jan and over 100 volunteers descended on Newtown to plant TEN THOUSAND BULBS on a hillside overlooking a sports field used regularly by the children of the town. Since then, Jan has received countless e-mails from residents there thanking him for his thoughtfulness and generosity. Jan's initiative and determination is not only a wonderful inspiration to us, but also an action that will long be appreciated by the people of Newtown as these 10,000 flowers come into bloom each spring.

Our final speaker of the day was our own "Mr. Rotary", Stuart Gold, who shared with us one of his other passions - Action Comics, and specifically today -  the history of Superman. In his talk, Stu presented us with fascinating details about the two young Cleveland high school students, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who first came up with the idea for the character and described Superman's evolution since his first appearance in 1938. Over the next several minutes, we fondly reminisced and learned much about the adventures of one of our greatest fictional heroes. Given Stu's huge collection of adventure comics, we can look forward to more stories of characters we have long enjoyed.