Rotary Club observes 78th anniversary in Franklin

Franklin Rotary Club held a celebration Tuesday to commemorate 78 years of service in Franklin.
The festivities were hosted by the Forest Restaurant and sponsored by St. Mary Council on Aging.
Rotary District Governor Gary Lacombe and Assistant District Governor Danny Cavell attended the event along with former and current Rotarians and their families.
Dr. Thomas Kramer was honored with the Gold Star award for his 58 years of Rotary membership and commitment. He also presented the program for the evening, which was a history of Franklin Rotary as he remembered it.
He lamented a time as recent as 1980 when women were not permitted to attend Rotary meetings, and followed up with crediting women for what he called a “recent renaissance” in the club.
He recalled charter members and their various peccadillos and accomplishments, and drew attention to the club’s derived member descriptions based on meeting attendance.
He said that some members are known as “one-timers,” as they only attend on the day of their inauguration, and never again. He added that there were other members called, “RINOS,” because they were “Rotary In Name Only;” and he also said there are faithful members who attend regularly, and that most members who join and then lapse in attendance, usually tend to return to regularity.
Of members in particular, Kramer said, “We have never had a member of the Rotary that had a greater sense of humor than David Stiel.
“The most notorious thing, in my opinion, that David ever did was at every meeting he would surreptitiously put a knife, a fork, or a spoon in my back pocket. And I would not be aware of this until I got back to my office.
“When I had accumulated a place setting for twelve, I brought all the silver back to the Forest.
“In fact, the fork with which you eat tonight may well have been in my back pocket.”
Kramer went on to look back on the myriad types of programs he has attended throughout the years and the sundry fundraisers of the club, both successful and less than successful.
He spoke of one occasion being confounded when his sense of fashion was challenged by a guest speaker after Kramer had asked him whether or not beltless slacks were in style. He said that what had confounded him had been that the challenge had come after his being voted “best-dressed” the week before.
Kramer closed by saying, “In the 200 year history of this community, there has never been an organization that has made a greater civic contribution than the Rotary. We should be proud to be Rotarians.”