Rod Mahler has attended approximately 2,900 Faribault Rotary Club meetings since he joined 63 years ago, making him the club’s longest serving member. “Sixty-three years of service in a club celebrating 101 years — that is what awesome is,” Rotary District Governor Ed Marek told the Faribault Rotary Club during its meeting Wednesday. |
Rotary Club members gathered at The Inn at Shattuck-St. Mary’s at noon Wednesday to not only recognize 100 years of Faribault Rotary but also recognize Mahler as a Lifetime Achievement Award winner. “This is really memorable to me, and I’ll never forget it,” Mahler said after accepting his award from Club Historian Murray Hanson. “Rotarians, keep working hard. It’s a fantastic experience I’ve had in my life.” |
Mahler said he joined Rotary when he was 25, making him, to his knowledge, the youngest member to join the Faribault club. Now, he said, he’s one of its oldest members. Hanson compiled his research on Mahler’s history in Rotary into a slideshow, which was presented at the meeting, and highlighted many of Mahler’s achievements and acts of service to the community, which began long before he joined Rotary. |
In his youth, Mahler worked as a trapper, and as an elementary school student, a paperboy. He held the office of seventh-grade class president, participated in summer Bible camps and drama club, and he sang in the Rotary Christmas concert in the late 1940s. Mahler received the Faribault Senior High Service Award as a high school senior. After college, Mahler served a tour in the U.S. Army before returning to Faribault to help his father in the hardware business. Years later, Mahler switched to a career in real estate. Mahler and his wife, Jean, were married 59½ years until her death in 2014. Together they had three children, David, Heidi and Gayle, and nine grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Mahler’s Rotary membership began March 5, 1958, under the sponsorship of NSP sales manager Pete Beck. Apart from being out two weeks with the mumps back in 1958, Mahler had 10 years of perfect attendance within Faribault Rotary. He has participated in over 3,500 Rotary events, and his tenure overlapped with some of the club’s first members. Murray said Mahler was instrumental in shaping the club’s focus on youth, supporting the local Rotary youth camp on Cedar Lake. Mahler and his family also hosted a Rotary exchange student from Bolivia during the club’s 50th year. From 1972 to 1973, Mahler served as the Faribault Rotary Club’s 53rd president and helped choose the 51 presidents that followed. In addition to Rotary, Mahler has belonged to the Elks and the Faribault Country Club and served on the Faribault Chamber of Commerce, all before turning 36. In 1969, the Minnesota Jaycees named him one of Minnesota’s 10 Outstanding Young Men. As a personal highlight, Mahler appeared on WCCO, national TV and the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite to do energy conservation interviews in 1979. “When I joined 28 years ago, Rod was one of the first Rotarians to fleece me during fellowship, just to be sure that I felt welcome,” Hanson said. “He has always been welcoming and encouraging to new members over the years and is a true example of what it means to be a Rotarian.” The Faribault Rotary Club technically celebrated its 100th anniversary at noon May 1, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club moved the celebration to an online video platform and postponed the in-person celebration a couple of times. Incidentally, Murray said Faribault Rotary was established during the Spanish flu that lasted from 1918 to 1920. The Faribault Club was founded as Rotary International’s 596th club with 22 charter members. The club’s charter president was Frank W. McKellip, and the 100th president was Amy Amundson, who spoke at the celebration Wednesday. |
Until 1987, Rotary was exclusively a men’s organization. After Rotary International allowed women to become Rotarians, Janine Sahagian became Faribault’s first woman to join the local club. She was named president in 1999. The Faribault Rotary started various traditions in the local community such as a Christmas concert featuring the Faribault High School choir, which ran for over 80 years. Whether through music, art, or academics, Faribault Rotary has given local students over $350,000 in scholarships. A concert to benefit youth services through Rotary started as a tradition over 55 years ago. Community projects like the development of local soccer fields, buddy benches at school playgrounds, Respect Retreats and Rotary Readers are all designed to benefit Faribault youth. Internationally, Faribault Rotary has participated in efforts to improve farming processes in Sierra Leone, sent books to schools in Africa and inoculated children against polio in Pakistan and other countries. Locally, Rotarians have volunteered at blood drives, rang the bells for the Salvation Army during the Christmas season, delivered Meals on Wheels and participated in beautification projects and clothing drives. “As we look to the future, we will continue to live and promote the ideals of the ‘Four Way Test’ adopted by Rotary International in 1943,” Hanson said. “Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? So, today after 100 years, the men and women of the Faribault Rotary Club will continue to honor the legacy of ‘Service Above Self’ to our community and the world for the next 100 years and beyond.” Reporter Misty Schwab can be reached at 507-333-3135. Follow her on Twitter @APGmisty. ©Copyright 2021 APG Media of Southern Minnesota. All rights reserved. |
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