Welcome and Introductions: Meeting called to order by President Lora Fisher, noting that there is no better place to spend a Tuesday at lunch than with your friends at the La Jolla Rotary Club.
Invocation: David Shaw: “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked, and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.” – Mother Teresa
Pledge: Eileen Jolly
Song: Jane Reldan, in acknowledgment of the day’s weather, “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Visitors:
President Lora Fisher and Fellow Club Members Welcomed:
Kazuko Matsuda and Jack Yuichi Iwaki, neighbors and guests of Nancy Gardner.
Happy Bucks:
Bob Schroeder happily announced that his son Carl, (he of the numerous restaurants around town) has written a book in his spare time that will debut tonight. Carl Schroeder is a renowned chef and has written – to no one’s surprise — a new cookbook. Bob then announced that the SD Aztec basketball student section, called “The Show” was recently voted the Number-One rooting section in the country, along with their mascot, Monty Montezuma who was named the Number-One mascot in the country. Our club member Carlos Gutierrez spent 13-years in the role of Monty Montezuma and still does a cameo appearance at the annual football homecoming game.
George Wahab and Ron Spelman have an upcoming art show at the “L” Street Gallery located in the Omni Hotel downtown this Saturday night, 6-9 PM. This reporter thought he heard him say there would be a hosted bar there. George does know how to stimulate attendance.
Sally Fuller will be at a meeting at the LJ Woman’s Club Wednesday night, and plans to place a wager with police Chief Shelly Zimmerman on the outcome of the Ohio State/Iowa State football game. (HMMM. Illegal gambling with the police chief?)
Don Lincoln, our very weary International Chair, is finally back home and attending his first meeting in over a month. Don’s travel schedule included stops in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Sydney, and an unscheduled trip to Washington D.C. in the middle of it all. (International Chair sounds like an excellent position to have in our Rotary Club)
Don Dewhurst was a fraternity brother of Carl Schroeder. Don’s grandson completed a 50K run, finishing 5th out of 123 competitors.
On Friday, October 30th, La Jolla’s Riford Community Center honored our own Lee Vida for his tireless community involvement and dedication. Proud Rotarians, Cindy Greatrex, David Shaw, Deb Plotkin, Cindy Goodman, Sally Fuller and Lora Fisher attended to support Lee and see him receive his award. Congrats, Lee!
Claire Reiss’s granddaughter turned 12 years old on Halloween. She is the “apple” of Claire’s eye.
Mark Dibella spent four days in Mexico recently, two of them in the hotel stairwell, waiting out the Category-Five Hurricane Patricia that struck Mexico while he was there.
Announcements:
Laurnie Durisoe says it’s time again for our annual service to the USO Thanksgiving Dinner. She has two shifts available this year, 9a-12noon for setting up, and 12-3 PM for servers. Contact Laurnie to help out.
Charles Hartford announced our 24th Tijuana home build will take place on Nov. 14, involving the La Jolla HS Interact Club, Rotarians, and parents. Charles needs hygiene items – soaps, toothpaste, tissues, etc., donated to take down to Tijuana for the family of the new home. Bring your items to the next meeting and Charles will take charge.
Ellen Kardashian needs “Silent Auction” items – such as gift cards for restaurants or salons — for the Rotary Holiday party she’s chairing on December 1st at the La Valencia. Remember, we’ll be dark for lunch that day. Contact Ellen at Ellen.Kardashian@stewart.com
“What’s My Line?”
President Lora called up Russell King, Eileen Jolly, and Charles Hartford to play “What’s My Line.”
The questions were:
–who wanted to be a ballerina at age 3?
–who had a paper route at age 10?
–who was present in Berlin when the wall came down?
Claire Reese was asked to identify who did what, a very tough task. Not surprisingly, Charles was the ballet-dancing wannabe, Eileen was the paper girl, and Russell tore down the Berlin Wall and still has a piece of it on his desk.
“Who Am I ” – Ellen Kardashian
Ellen Kardashian gave her “Who Am I”. She is a native Californian, who, as a teenage mother, moved to Santa Clarita Valley to raise her daughter. While living there, she began working in real estate, eventually becoming the owner of a real estate company. Fourteen-years later, she moved to Beverly Hills and entered the title insurance business. She met and married Robert Kardashian four-years later, and after his passing became President and CFO of Movie Tunes Inc., selling the company 1½ years later. Ellen now resides in Carlsbad and works in La Jolla. She relocated here so she could be closer to her daughter, an engineer in the fire department, and her two granddaughters. She likes to travel, enjoys music, opera, dance, concerts, live sports, and golf, plus her two Pomeranians, and La Jolla Rotary. Her top vacation choice is Lake Como in Italy. Ellen closed with her favorite saying, “ Treat others as you would like to be treated”, certainly words to live by.
Speaker: Shawn Briley, Manager of La Jolla Library
Bill Boehm introduced the speaker, Shawn Briley, Manager of the La Jolla Library. He noted that San Diego is a leader in the biotech field, ranking with top cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and Cambridge. Capitalizing on that, the Library has embarked on a new program to provide community access to biotechnology. The goal is to make science a part of everyday life. They have created a Level-One science laboratory, which is equivalent to a high-school science lab, including 3D printing capability. The lab is staffed with volunteers, some from local biotech firms such as Wet Lab, The Salk Institute, and Scripps, and post-docs from UCSD. One surprising benefit has been that teenagers have become reenergized to go to the library. The library also stocks all the latest best sellers and has access to other local libraries’ books, which they will order for you, free of charge.
Save the Date!
Helmut Hatzinger’s grand children
Mark your calendars for the Rotary Christmas Party on Tuesday, December 1st from 5-10pm at the La Valencia. The club will be dark for lunch. For more information contact Ellen Kardashian at Ellen.Kardashian@stewart.com
REMINDER: Your Help is Needed!
We need Rotarians to sign up for decorating and setting up the Thanksgiving dinner location at the USO on Nov. 26th between 9 am and noon to make the area festive for the enlisted military men and women and their families. Please help us. Volunteer by calling Laurnie at (619) 861-1417. The location of the USO is at 303 A Street, Downtown San Diego (corner of Third and A downtown) The street parking is not metered during the holiday. Laurnie Durisoe Pantai UBS Management (619) 861-1417
Wanted: Club photographers for Surf Beat!
If you have a smartphone and have an opportunity to get a great shot at a meeting, please do so and forward photos to surfbeat@rotarycluboflajolla.com
Where in The World?
Where In The World is this Rotarian and who is he or she? Be the first to indentify your fellow Rotarian and the location to win. Please send your answer to mahalosu@gmail.com.
Last weeks winner was a slam dunk for Bill Burch who quickly identified Marc Lanci harvesting olives from his plantation in Italy. Way to go Bill!
If you have an interesting travel photo of yourself in a recognizable destination you would like to submit for the game please send it to: mahalosu@gmail.com. Photos do not have to be recent, older pictures are welcome! All submissions will be considered, international and domestic! May the best globetrotter win!
Please keep the photographs coming, recent or not, in far distance places or not . . . La Jolla Rotarians go to interesting places and do interesting things, and it is fun (and sometimes challenging) for us to keep up with each other’s doings.
From The Pages of:
November 2015 Edition
Saying Thanks:
When I was 20 years old, I flew to Israel for a semester abroad. The moment we landed, all the passengers onboard burst into applause. I’d never seen such a thing. The man next to me, an elderly Hasid, sensed my bewilderment.
“This is to say thanks,” he murmured.
“For what?”
“For the miracle of safe passage to the promised land.” He looked at me for a long moment. “It is a miracle, don’t you think?”
I don’t remember much about that semester. But this exchange has haunted me for nearly three decades. I’m still taken aback by the towering ignorance of my response.
After all, an entire book of the Bible is dedicated to the story of how the Jews struggled to reach Israel. It took them 40 years of wandering in the desert and 10 angrily dispatched commandments. Those who reached the modern state of Israel often did so only after escaping, or surviving, years of persecution, including the horrors of the Holocaust.
Read More in the October 2025 Issue of the Rotarian on Online Here.
Club Meetings Unless otherwise noted, all club meetings are Tuesday, 12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m. at La Valencia Hotel, 1132 Prospect St., La Jolla (Map) Check out the Upcoming Guest Speakers on the Club Calendar!
November 10th – Marc Tayer – The Inside Story of Television
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Rotary Club of La Jolla is one of sixty clubs in the San Diego area’s Rotary District 5340 and one of the 34,000 clubs that make up our parent organization,
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