2018 Zones 24 & 32 Winners
Bill Gray, Zone 24’s Donald MacRae honoree, has been the primary contact and frequently the chief fundraiser for at least 33 Rotary projects, including 14 Matching Grants and 15 Global Grants. He has forged close relationships with Rotarians in India, Uganda, Pakistan and Kenya. Bill’s understanding and relationships in these countries have assisted other Rotarians to develop their own relationships and projects. For Bill, a source of particular pride has been successfully facilitating a project that has involved Indian and Pakistani clubs working together on a Global Grant.
Rotary fellowship and service projects have taken Bill to Barbados, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, El Salvador, Rwanda, Gabon, Tanzania, Pakistan and Russia. He led a Group Study Exchange team to District 3660 (Korea) in 2001.
Bill was a country coordinator for Reach Out to Africa, and he has served as board member for both the Rotary Action Group for Microfinance and Community Development and for Rotary HIP (Honoring Indigenous Peoples). He also led the Shelter Box program in District 7040 for several years.
Bill joined the Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club in 1994 and served as Governor of District 7040 in 2011-12. He served Zone 24 East as Endowment/Major Gift Advisor from 2013-15. Bill and his wife Nancy are charter members of the Be-quest Society and members of the Arch Klumph Society. They are committed supporters of the Rotary Peace Centers. Bill was honored with the Service Above Self Award in 2014.
David T. Ives is Zone 32’s Donald MacRae selectee. David, who joined the Rhinebeck Rotary Club in 1990, was executive director of the Rotary Peace Forum back in 1987-89. In that capacity, he traveled around the world setting up conferences on peace issues and human rights. He found time to form Rotary Clubs and Interact Clubs in many of the nations he visited.
It was when he met Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and recipient of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize, that an idea was born: an association of Nobel Peace Prize winners and an annual conference at which they could share their experiences and efforts.
David helps advise and direct the resources of over two dozen Nobel Laureates each year, and he is often called upon by world leaders including Jimmy Carter, Oscar Arias, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama to assist with peace building projects around the globe. He sees this as an opportunity to take the counsel of great leaders and quiet sages to create true power -- not the power of weaponry and industry but the power of compassion and service.
David is executive director emeritus of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University, where he also serves as adjunct professor of political science, philosophy and Latin American culture. David’s resume includes a decade as executive director of the Louis August Jonas Foundation. Earlier in his career, he was a Peace Corps volunteer to Costa Rica, and through the Carter Center, he has served as election monitor in Guatemala, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
David was a 2016 Nobel Peace Prize nominee.