Rotary Friends
Rotary Friends
by Wayne Wilcox
This week’s “Friend” is a stranger to no-one in the club; but don’t be too sure. That same lady who tells us about the library book may have some mystery in her personality.
She has been a Rotarian since 1988, one of the first women to join; in fact, the District Governor came over for the occasion. Rick Lively and Bob Austin, the two sequential Presidents stood in as her sponsors. I watched it. It was a big deal!
She was born in Pittsburg, PA and attended and received degrees, as a Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley, and at Columbia. The Master’s degree set her up for a teaching job, English literature at the college level. Being an athlete, she has also supervised the waterfront at summer camps where she taught swimming and canoeing. At age forty she and her young family climbed Mt. Whitney, and Half-Dome in Yosemite. She has scuba’d above and below the Equator.
Most difficult time? After divorce, when son Jeff had turned 21 and was in a car accident: doctors told her to ”make final arrangements.” Good news: Jeff recovered and has often been her travel companion.
Not, as is supposed, out a love of travel, but because she had a stint at Pan Am in New York in Reservations, she set up Stonewood Travel Agency in 1975, and successfully operated it for 35 years. She pretty much covered the Earth with her own travels as well; she said her favorite destination is France, speaking the lingo. Paree is magical to Lorine. Oh! Is that the first time that I’ve mentioned her name? Ms. Parks keeps a low, smooth profile.
Lorine has served the Rotary Cause in many ways. At present she chairs the Board’s Budget Committee. She was the Literacy Director for The Downey Club in the year 2000-01, during which time she obtained the Los Angeles Times Jack Smith grant for $750, plus many hundreds of books for grade schools in our district and books for the dental clinic in Mulege, Baja California (in both Spanish and English). She started the “Reading to Children” program at the Downey Library where we took turns once a week to socialize and read to the kids.
Now she is the Hub-Bub Chair and has leaned her considerable power on me to write this column. Retribution was to make her the first.
Lorine’s hobby is to write poems. Not just a few. She publishes books of the gems. She does the column in the Downey Patriot called “Poetry Matters” and publishes other authors. No grass growing under these running shoes. She also advocates for the Downey Symphony, and writes feature stories for District 5280’s on-line monthly newsletter.
What makes her laugh? The Bob and Ray radio team. Ideal day? A walk in a country garden with her mother (who’s been gone for thirty years) explaining the plants, followed by dinner at a good French restaurant with friends.
To finish exposing her: a) Favorite book – “Untermeyer’s A Treasury of Great Poems,” a 1200 page anthology her grandmother gave her at age 11, b) Bucket list – none, have done them already, c) Nobody knew till now –At age 17 she entered an American Legion Oratorical contest, and has the medal to prove it. Spoke in favor of Universal Health Insurance and that was in 1948. c) Pet peeve – Quiet speakers who won’t speak up after being informed of her poor hearing.