This year for Lafayette Rotary began with Ed Hargitt and his partner, Dennis Dunn, hosting the club in their recently remodeled building
at the corner of 2nd and South St. District Governor Oscar Lowery was there to pass the Governor's gavel to Harold Taylor and Larry Lane passed the reins of the Lafayette club to Eric Holm. Eric, always an innovator,
as one of his first actions as the new president, passed out blank "This Is Your Life" sheets for the club members to complete. With the information thus gathered, Eric recognized numerous members and passed on many
previously unknown facts about them. Tom Miya was the first of many Rotarians thus recognized.
Eric was also a pusher to encourage more Lafayette Rotarians to become Paul Harris Fellows. At one meeting, he
auctioned off an Alpace Rug made by the Inca Indians, Machu Picchu, Peru. It was sold to Ken Botkin for $75 to which Holm added $25 and the $100 was sent to R.I. Foundation to honor Lafayette Rotary's secretary, Curt
Hostetter as a Sustaining Paul Harris Fellow.
This year was an unusually active year so far as foreign Rotary Fellows and Exchange students were concerned. Visiting the club at various times were Rotary
Fellows, Ricardo Anorae Faccio of Brazil, Catherine Grosbetty of France, Toshiro Abe of Japan and Alberto Guillermo of El Salvador. High School Exchange student, Susan Christoffer of Germany presented a club banner from
the Delmenhorst Rotary Club of Germany. Her father is a Rotarian there. Fusaka Ishi of Japan, leaving for home, thanked Rotary for her interesting year and gave gifts to Larry Lane, Eric Holm, and Ed McGuire, her hosts
while in this community. Rotary Fellows arrived from Africa, Brazil (Helio Macedo), and India (Chandron Paul). An Australian group was here for 5 days at the time of our intercity Ladies-night Dinner and were guests.
Twenty two Exchange students were recognized at the District Conference held in Lafayette, April 1-3, 1976.
This was the year when it was decided that something had to be done about our Rotary Park. Vandals were
repeatedly causing considerable damage to the building. Five options were presented to the club by the Rotary Park committee and the majority vote favored selling, if possible. Wesley Shook was to handle an auction sale
at the Shook Real Estate Agency on May 15, with a minimum price to be $25,000. If the auction was not successful, Shook was to list the property.
"Porquoi pas", a musical presented by Heritage 75-76 and directed by
Rotarian Al Stewart, was a great success.
There was the annual Purdue Kick-off luncheon that served as a regular Rotary meeting. Chris Schenkel was the toastmaster. He was formerly with W.B.A.A. At the Rotary Stag,
Bob Hogue and Joe Sicer again prepared their excellent barbecued chicken. Harold Michael was the principle speaker at the new member dinner. Ken Botkin headed up a successful Salvation Army bell ringing and the
Jefferson High School Acappella choir entertained us with their always-fine songs just before Christmas.
A Rotary Valentine dinner-dance was held at Henrici's with Harold Hudlow in charge and the 99 in attendance had
a wonderful time.
This was the year when Lafayette was host to the District Conference April 1 to 3. The Inter-city Rotary-Glee Club dinner was held in connection with the conference. Both were huge successes.
We
sent Susan Phillips and Claudi Lynch to represent us at Girls' State and Thomas Lannert to Boys' State. Willima Fischang, Purdue Vice President, was the speaker at the annual Rotary Scholarship- Citizenship Award
program and he stressed the importance of higher education during the past 200 years and its continued importance in the future.
District Governor, Harold Taylor, speaking in his capacity as Dist. Gov., told what
Rotary has meant to him - that it is so great because it is worldwide. He showed slides of the R.I. Assembly of 344 District Governors and reviewed events of the past three R.I. conventions - Canada, Minneapolis, and
Australia.
There was a tour of the Cary Boy Scout Camp when Rotarians were guests there. The site has 116 acres. We saw the program in action.
Among other noteworthy programs were Charles
Halleck, Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia who addressed the club and said "Crime is the No. 1 problem in the minds of many people. Citizen support is needed to solve crimes." Herb Thomas with
Kaiser Engineering of Oakland, Calif., and now the project director of a preliminary engineering study for the Lafayette Railway Relocation Project, reviewed the develop of Kaiser Industries and stated that he felt the
river front route was the proper one for the relocation in Lafayette.
Rotarian Sam Washburn of Fowler, one of twelve American farmers to receive the 1974 Ford Farm Efficiency Award, predicted that the family farm is
here to stay and that agriculture has today the greatest opportunity in its history. Burt Levison gave an excellent report on the history and basic principles of the Jewish faith. Hank Trimmer, recently returned from
two years in Bangkok told of his experiences there and James Laughlin of the Public Service Indiana stressed the need for more nuclear plants to meet the energy needs. "Anti-nuclear people have delayed the operation and
the good about nuclear plants is seldom publicized." Dr. Thomas Hull, Purdue Industrial Eng. professor, who was in Iran for a year, stated that country is one of contrasts - modem and ancient. Many of the people are
professional and prosperous, he stated, but many others are poverty stricken and illiterate. Stores are either modem or ancient. Pollution and traffic are terrific.
On the occasion of Rotary's 71st
anniversary, Harold Michael gave an outstanding report on the history of Rotary International making especial reference to its founder, Paul Harris; the first secretary, Charles Perry; to Arthur Sheldon who suggested
the motto, "He profits most who serves the best"; Frank Collins who suggested the motto, "Service Above Self'; and to Herbert Taylor who created the Four Way Test. A copy of Harold's talk was printed and made available
to all clubs in our district.
The fall of 1975 saw the first teacher's strike in Lafayette's history. The strike lasted for seven school days and the final contract called for binding arbitration of
contract grievances. A special grand jury probed into possible corruption in Tippecanoe County and the resulting court actions led to 19 sentencings.
In the nation, Patty Hearst was captured by the F.B.I. Defense
attorneys claimed she was brainwashed but she was indicted for robbery, found guilty and sentenced to prison. New York City had a most serious financial crisis - $12 billion in debt, almost certain to default. Pres.
Ford rejected appeals for a federal loan demanding that city officials not escape responsibility for their past follies. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.
World wide, Indira Gandhi of India declared a national emergency,
ordered her opponents arrest and imposed press censorship after the court found her guilty of corrupt campaign practices and voided her election to parliament. Israel and Egypt moved closed to peace with the signing of
a new agreement on the Sinai with the U.S. agreeing to maintain surveillance of the Sinai buffer zone.
Perfect Rotary attendance for the 1975-76 year (number indicates months of continuous attendance) went to Bachman
261, Botkin 18, John Bradshaw 20, Carmichael 18, Drozda 23, Foxworthy 42, Gibson 184, Hall 207, Hitch 69, Hoggatt 68, Holm 54, Hostetter 259, Hudlow 85, Kettelhut 115, Lane 176, Messing 138, Harold Michael 149, W. R.
Miller 39, Plager 34, Deac Reisner 36, Sicer 12, WM. Smith 147, Taylor 138, Verplank 124, Webber 19, J. Williams 262, Wright 264, Yoran 52.
