In July 1967 President Karl Kettelhut stated that the past Rotary year had been a rewarding experience and thanked everyone for making his
term as president so enjoyable. He expressed his special thanks to his fellow officers, directors and the music committee with Hugh Steele as chairman and Kepler at the piano. Karl Kettelhut presented the gavel to
incoming president N. Kent Ellis who responded by thanking him for his fine year and commending him on his near perfect attendance as the presiding president. Outstanding programs and interesting events
during the year included: the word and picture report of the fourth tour of Europe of the Purdue Glee Club given by Albert P. Stewart and Howard Knauss.
The talk by R. D. Steuner, Indianapolis, regional
engineer for the Indiana Gas and Water Co., was on the method of gas storage in the Lafayette area. Gas is purchased from the Texas-Oklahoma pipeline, south of Lafayette, and stored in storage wells. One storage area is
near West Point. There are some 145,000 gas customers in Indiana with 15 per cent living in the Lafayette area. Eighty per cent of the Lafayette customers use gas for heating and the storage areas are needed for the
peak use of gas in the winter months.
President Kent Ellis presented an excellent word and picture report on the recent Rotary International Convention at Nice, France, and charged members with their individual
responsibility in Lafayette Rotary to fulfill R. I. President Luther Hodges' four suggestions of "making Rotary membership effective." They are: Get personally involved in Rotary; exercise membership by being successful
in your own business or profession; be loyal to your own community and nation and serve them wherever possible; keep informed and develop an understanding of the problems of peoples of other nations.
Don Bain, son of
Rotarian Andy Bain, made a very interesting report to the club about his experience at Boys' State and expressed his appreciation for Lafayette Rotary's sponsorship. He said the boys learned a great deal about
government and politics.
A word and film report on the "Topeka, Kansas Tornado" was used as a basis for a discussion of the very grave menace the tornado is to our area, and pointed to the necessity of paying
attention to the reports sent out from the tornado alert center. Great as the damage was in Topeka—17 lives lost, and more than 100 million dollars loss in property—it would have been much greater had it not been for
the good alert that saved many lives.
Governor Dwight Brinson of Shelbyville made his official visit to the Rotary Club of Lafayette and challenged us all to make our membership in Rotary more effective by getting
ourselves more involved in Rotary. "Rotary is built around service—service above self and he profits most who serves best."
With Paul Alexander in charge, the annual speech contest was excellent in every
respect. Robin Reser, Klondike, "The Power of Dissent" was first, Carmen Rivas, Jefferson, "A Second Chance for Carmen" was second, and Eileen McGrath, Central Catholic, "Juvenile Delinquency" was third. Miss Robin
Reser was also the winner in the district speech contest.
Dr. Don Paarlberg, distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue, told Rotary members that in recent years modern medicine has
lowered the death rate, and with the birth rate on the increase the population increase is ahead of food increase. American agriculture is furnishing a great deal of help, but it is a myth to think the USA can feed the
world even though our technological proficiency is great.
Ed Ragsdale presided over the 43rd Rotary 4-H Crop Banquet honoring the top 4-H corn and soybean winners in Tippecanoe County. 4-H is big business in Indiana
with its 90,000 members and one million alumni. 4-H young people learn by doing and thus become better citizens.
Chauncey McCoy and his Salvation Army Committee led Rotary to a splendid victory over Kiwanis by two to
one, $1,650.10 to $867.00.
The Smith family, Marvin Sr., Marvin Jr., Susie, Nancy and Bob, accompanied by William Luhman, presented a fine selection of Christmas songs.
The election of new Directors
resulted in Harold Hudlow and William Smith being chosen on the Town ticket and Paul Alexander and Thomas Bruce on the Gown ticket.
Robert and Marcella Verplank went to Mexico City to attend R.I. Convention.
Harold Taylor announced that the Long Range Planning Committee would be mailing each member a letter and that a return envelope would be
enclosed for each member to return the questionnaire filled out.
Direct distance dialing comes to Lafayette August 4 of 1968. It all sounds so simple when Chris Hansen, Manager of General Telephone Company, explained
it, but it is a major progressive step in communications.
In June, 100 per cent attendance for 1967-1968 and number of months of continuous attendance were as follows: Bain 14, Eth Baugh 167, Ellis 40,
Engler 38, Gibson 87, Y. B. Hall 110, Hostetter 162, K. Kettelhut 18, Lane 80, Messing 41, Porsch 118, Siskind 93, William Smith 50, Taylor 41, Verplank 27, Wheeler 15, Williams 165, Wilson 371, and Ev Wright 167.
On the world scene in 1967 and 1968, the six-day war" between Israel and Egypt led to the occupation of the Sinai peninsula, Gaza strip, Jordanian territory west of the Jordan River, and the Golan Heights of
southeast Syria by Israel.
Svetlana Alliluyeva, only daughter of the late Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, arrived in the United States after having broken her ties with Russia while on a trip to India.
Three United States astronauts, Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a flash fire in an Apollo spacecraft during a test at Cape Kennedy. Grissom and Chaffee were Purdue graduates.
The
world's first human heart transplant was performed by South African surgeon, Dr. Christian N. Barnard.
Deaths included John Nance Gamer 98, Francis Cardinal Spellman 78, Paul Whiteman 77, Spencer Tracy 67, Nelson
Eddy 65, and Bert Lahr 72.
