Wishing our Rotarian Community Hero a

 Happy 100th!

 Reverend Bill Simpson, will soon be 100 years old. He was a Pastor of Bethany United Church of Christ of Lynn for 40 years.  After officially retiring from active ministering, he was a volunteer pastor at the First Church Congregational in Swampscott. He was an ordained minister for over 60 years.  He has been married for 41years to Margaret, better known as Peg. He was born in Maryland in the mid 1920’s and raised on a farm.  He has a son Timothy as well as three grandchildren. In 1995, the Rotary Club of Lynn honored one of their own members, the Reverend William Simpson, for his contributions to the community and for his support for Rotary causes over many years. 

Reverend Simpson was also an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1952-53, and joined the Lynn Rotary Club in 1983. In his nearly 40 years of membership, Reverend Simpson was known as a true Rotarian who lived the principal of “Service Above Self”.  He was the Program Committee Chairman, and participated in many Rotary activities over the years.  He has been a strong supporter of Camp Rotary, a member of its Board, and helped each year in helping to identify local youths as camp participants in need of scholarship help. He was a youth counsellor in public schools in Lynn and Lynnfield for several years. 

Reverend Bill consistently volunteered to serve at My Brother’s Table well into his 90’s. He worked shoulder to shoulder with members 30 and 40 years younger than him. Bill was a regular volunteer at the monthly Catholic Charities food distribution. Unfortunately, Covid put a temporary stop to both of those activities. During the period when My Brother’s Table could not have volunteers inside, Bill and Peg made hundreds of PB&J’s at home for delivery to the “Table” numerous times. 

In the summer of 2021 he provided personal funds to a woman so she could have an old RV towed from NH to Lynn for a place to call home for several months.

In September 2022, he reached out to a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society to assist a woman with an urgent food need and in need of emergency funds for a dental procedure. 

Those are only a couple examples of people reaching out to the “Reverend” for assistance.  They knew that he was a person one could reach out to for help.

A blessing to our Lynn Community and rotary club.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your Club President for this second year.

We decided to bring back the Lynn Rotary newsletter to highlight all the good work done every month by our Lynn Rotarians.

As of October 1, we have 61 active members and 8 honorary members. Other clubs want to know our secret sauce. We tell them folks join Lynn Rotary because “we do stuff.” While we surely love to get together over a meal at Old Tyme on the third Thursdays or at The Tiger’s Den in Lynn Tech on any Friday during the school year, truth be told, we’d rather fill a need than fill our belly. Every month our members show up at Greater Lynn Senior Services, Salvation Army and My Brother’s Table to help distribute groceries and meals. At other times we’re making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for MTB in the church basement at St. Pius V.

For more than 100 years Lynn Rotary has organized the Lynn All City Thanksgiving Luncheon for the high school football teams, cheerleaders and band. In January we distribute dictionaries to the 3rd graders in all the Lynn public schools. Three times a year we celebrate students who have overcome great challenges at our 8th Grade Recognition Luncheons. In May we co-sponsor the Special Games at Manning Field.

The list goes on! Who do you know who would love to be part of this? Who do you know who understands “Service Above Self?” Bring them to one of our events or a service project. And thank you for all you do for Lynn Rotary and in turn for Lynn.