Category Archives: 5. Members

Motorcycle Fellowship Group Trip to Anamosa, Iowa

Posted on September 10, 2013 by | 1 comment

–submitted by John Bonsett-Veal

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(Click here for the full 30-minute video posted on YouTube.)

On August 17 and 18, the Rotary Motorcycle Fellowship Group went on a two day, three state ride.  We started at The Pancake Café in Fitchburg for breakfast and coffee.  There were twelve of us (Jeff & Angela Bartell, John Bonsett-Veal, Dave Billing, Dave Boyer, Peggy Lescrenier, Peter Cavi & Amy Conover, Tom Solheim, Uriah Carpenter, Todd Weis and Jan Bonsett-Veal) on ten motorcycles and one “chase vehicle” driven by my wife, Jan.

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We traveled over beautiful driftless region roads in southwest Wisconsin on our way to lunch at Zio Johno’s in Anamosa, Iowa, the home of the National Motorcycle Museum, which was amazing.  

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After more riding, we wound up at the Super8, in Savanna, Illinois.  That night, we all went out for a great meal to a “Motorcycle Enthusiast Bar” (Biker Bar) called Poopys.  

On Sunday, we stopped at Galena, Illinois, for a breakfast/brunch buffet at a restaurant in one of the local hotels in downtown Galena, after which we stopped at Hauge Log Church for sightseeing, a photo session, saying good-byes and thanking the organizers, Dave Billing and Dave Boyer.  Dave and Dave did a great job, and we had a wonderful time!

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Posted in 4. Fellowship Groups, 5. Members, Motorcycle fellowship group

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Rotary Hikers at Natural Bridge State Park on July 20

Posted on July 29, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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They began at the base of Wisconsin’s largest natural bridge, the anthropological site of the oldest residents of the Midwest, some 12,000 years ago. Our Rotary hikers meandered up and down the steep hills of deep forests, passing a high overlook, across a meadow–then finished in a field with sweet corn towering above their heads!  A wonderful display of nature’s beauty and great fellowship.  Following the hike, they shared a picnic lunch in Sauk City  at August Derleth Park.  Pictured in the photo from left are:  Dean Nelson, Jackson Fonder, Ted DeDee, Gail DeDee, Jeff Bartell, Leigh Richardson, Suzanne Qualia and Angela Bartell.  Our thanks to Suzanne Qualia for this photo and to Leigh Richardson for organizing this event.

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Posted in 4. Fellowship Groups, 5. Members, Hiking Fellowship, Hiking Group

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Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in our Club’s History on Member Classifications

Posted on June 10, 2013 by | 1 comment

Rotary Club of Madison-Centennial LogoAs we celebrate our 100th anniversary, our History Sub-Committee is taking a look back in our club’s rich history and is sharing highlights from the past century.  This week’s message is shared by committee member Carol Toussaint:

One thing I’ve learned from looking back to the beginnings of our Rotary Club is how the classifications have changed.  Here are few we don’t see today as documented in a book covering membership from the years 1913-28:

Adding Machines (Alfred Rowlands)
Barber Shops (John Runkel)
Bookbinder (Frederic Brandenburg)
Butter, Manufacturing (Rubert Steinhauer)
Charity Associations (Charles Wirt, Community Union)
China & Glassware (Robert Douglas)
Cigar, Tobacco (William Fisher)
Coal (Emil Frautschi)
Eggs, Distribution, Retail (Theodore Montague)
Eggs, Wholesale (William Power)
Farmer (John S. Donald, College of Agriculture, UW)
Furniture (Irving Frautschi)
Hardware, Distributing (George Britten)
Hardware, Retail (Louis Hirsig)
Hardware, Wholesale (Albert Strang)
Heavy Hardware (Theodore Wiedenbeck)
Insurance, Adjusting (Paul Rehhfeld)
Insurance Agency (Reuben Neckerman)
Fire Insurance (Arthur Schulkamp)
Fraternal Insurance (Stephen Oscar)
Physical Education (Glenn Thistelthwaite, football coach)
Public Defense Service (Joseph Barnes, U.S. Army)
Steam Railroads (James MacDonald)
Undertaking (Art Frautschi)
Underwear, Manufacturing (Lester Watrous)

The Classification Committees in these early years deserve credit for creativity in getting four members each into the Hardware and Insurance categories!

In the early years of Rotary, there could only be one active and one additional active member per classification.  Several years ago, however, our classification system was revamped to a much broader classification system, and we can now have up to 10 percent of our membership within each classification (see pages 47-53 of our membership roster for the current classification listing).

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Posted in 5. Members, Centennial Celebration, History

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Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our Club’s History During the Unrest of the 1960s & 70s

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Rotary Club of Madison-Centennial LogoAs we celebrate our 100th anniversary, our History Sub-Committee is taking a look back in our club’s rich history and is sharing highlights from the past century.  The following message is shared by committee member Jerry Thain:

A strong flavor of the very hostile reactions of many mainstream politicians and much of the general public to the demonstrations by University of Wisconsin students opposed to the escalation of the Viet Nam War and the drafting of young men to serve in it can be found in the records of program speakers to the Rotary Club of Madison during that time. The Club newsletter of October 19, 1968, reported on Governor Warren Knowles’ address on “UW-Madison Disrupters” in which strong action against those who engaged in such tactics was urged but such students were also described as a tiny minority of the student body.

The October 17, 1970, newsletter about gubernatorial candidate Pat Lucey’s talk to the Club indicated how political leaders of the day viewed the University. Lucey’s talk indicated that the state faced many problems including University unrest. He advocated that the Governor should have the power to invoke curfews and to “make it illegal even to be on the street.” He also urged changing the University’s budget to reduce funds for research and increase those for teaching.

Two weeks later, the Club newsletter of October 31, 1970, told of Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jerris Leonard saying that the “demagogues and the charlatans” engaged in “violent dissent or even the lawful dissent” should be exposed but that much of the responsibility for their conduct “must rest on the doorstep of our institutions of higher learning themselves.”

Relations between “town and gown” were at their nadir during this period at a number of major universities. In time, considerable healing of this breach occurred. This could be seen here in the action of our Club directors electing incoming University President John Weaver to membership in December 1970, even before his arrival on campus and especially in the election as Club President in 1972-73 of Michael Petrovich, Professor of Russian and Slavic History at the University. Club programs noting the improvement in relations is a topic worthy of separate consideration.

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December 12, 1968: Students erect a cemetery on Bascom Hill as a memorial to the casualties the class of 1968 suffered in Vietnam.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 5. Members, History

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Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our Club’s History During the Vietnam War

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Rotary Club of Madison-Centennial LogoAs we celebrate our 100th anniversary, our History Sub-Committee is taking a look back in our club’s rich history and is sharing highlights from the past century.  This week’s message is shared by committee member Jerry Thain:

For people of a certain age, any reference to the decade of the 1960s will certainly invoke memories of the nation’s divided reactions to the Viet Nam War and the turbulence that swept over many colleges and universities   Opposition hersheyto the war and to the draft of young men that provided large numbers of the men who fought in it, was quite strong on the UW-Madison campus. When our Club, in May, 1968, had Lt. General Lewis B. Hershey (left), Director of the Selective Service System, as its program speaker, the anti-war demonstrations reached the entrance to the meeting that day.

Although there had been efforts to keep the identity of the speaker secret prior to his appearance, it was learned beforehand and the Rotarians who attended the meeting were greeted by chanting demonstrators, many throwing eggs, as they approached the door to the Lorraine Hotel that day. Police kept the line of demonstrators moving and outside the hotel proper.  “A large turnout” of members attended the meeting and apparently reacted favorably to Hershey’s talk, which, of course, defended the draft and criticized those who opposed the war, especially students.

Future demonstrations and protests escalated during the rest of the decade, reaching watershed marks with the fatal shooting of students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University and the subsequent bombing of Sterling Hall on the Madison campus.  Eventually the draft ended, the war ended and UW-Madison and other campuses became calmer places.  However, none who lived through that period will ever forget it.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 5. Members, Centennial Celebration, History

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Celebrating 100 Years: General’s Hat Ceremony

Posted on February 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Rotary Club of Madison-Centennial LogoAs we celebrate our 100th anniversary, our History Sub-Committee is taking a look back in our club’s rich history and is sharing highlights from the past century. This week’s message is shared by committee member Rich Leffler:

One of the practices of this Club, no longer used, was the “General’s Hat Ceremony.” According to John Jenkins, “History of the Rotary Club of Madison,” “the special chapeau was awarded to one or two members each week to honor them for their ‘community service in action,’ at once providing a more congenial Club environment, pleasing the members so honored, and encouraging other members to appreciate and act in terms of Rotarian ideals” (p. 145).

Conrad ElvehjemOn February 5, 1958, the General’s Hat was awarded to Conrad (Connie) A. Elvehjem, (left) who had just been appointed by the Regents to be President of the University of Wisconsin, to succeed E. B. Fred on July 1, 1958. Elvehjem received his Ph.D. from the UW in 1927. He was a long-time member of the faculty and an internationally known biochemist whose research in nutrition resulted in hundreds of scientific papers. He was Dean of the Graduate School from 1946 until he was appointed President. He served as President until his sudden death in 1962 at age 61.

The Rotary News of February 8, 1958, reported on the General’s Hat Ceremony and printed Elvehjem’s thanks the following week, when he presented the award to Rotarian Louie Hirsig.

Elvehjem’s membership in Rotary was symbolic of the close association the Club has had with the University. Many Club members, from very early on, were members of the faculty, and the Club’s podium was useful to the faculty and administration as a means of communicating university events and research to the greater Madison community. Elvehjem referred to this relationship as a “symbiosis.”

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Posted in 5. Members, Centennial Celebration, History

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