Our second toast tonight is to absent friends. In proposing this toast, I want us to think in particular about the many hundreds of Rotarians who have been members of the Eastern Hutt Rotary Club over the past 60 years.
And to get our minds thinking about past members and friends of this Club, I think a little bit of history might be in order:
- Your club held its charter meeting at the Taita Community Hall on Taine Street in Taita – the site today of the Walter Nash Centre
- Your sponsoring Club was the Rotary Club of Hutt City
- There were 23 Charter Members, under the leadership of charter President Max Green.
- The classifications of the Charter Members very much reflected the life and times, and the industries, of Naenae in 1962. Amongst the charter members we had:
- Baker
- Joiner
- Grocer
- Concrete construction
- Sand and gravel distribution
- Adhesives manufacturing
- Tyre retreading
- 4 members had shops in the Naenae Shopping Centre, including a sporting goods shop, a household furnishing shop, a retail co-op store, and a pharmacist. There were actually 2 pharmacists in the Club, and so the second pharmacist had to have the classification of drugs manufacturer! You might not get away with that today.
- And of course no club would be complete without an accountant! – Harry King was the Charter Secretary, he held that role for the first 5 years of the Club before becoming President in 1967/68.
- JFK was US President, Keith Holyoake was the Prime Minister, local Hutt MP Walter Nash was the leader of the Opposition, and perhaps more importantly Wilson Whineray was captain of the All Blacks and John Reid skipper of the New Zealand Cricket team;
- The day before the Club was chartered, Ray Charles reached number 1 in the NZ charts with his song “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, and stayed at number one for two weeks before being knocked off by Cliff Richard with his chart-topping hit “The Young Ones”;
- New fangled contraptions called television sets were beginning to appear in sitting rooms around New Zealand – manufactured at the recently opened Philips Electronic Centre in Naenae;
- 4 charter members worked at that Phillips Electronics Centre, and that was probably why the early meetings of the Club were held in the Phillips factory cafeteria, and then the Naenae Community Hall, before the Club moved to its present home at the Avalon Pavillion in 1973.
Ladies and gentlemen I hope some of that history might have evoked memories of the many friends made and friendships sustained by belonging to this Club – many of us are lucky enough to be able to reminisce together here tonight, but there are many absent friends who can’t be here in person but whom we remember in spirit with much affection. Ladies and gentlemen please charge your glasses, and be upstanding as we propose a toast to absent friends – to Absent Friends.
Here is the collage of photos of Club Projects and Club Members over the years - shown in video format.
While we’re in the reminiscing mood, I thought I’d introduce you to three of your Charter members, and talk about two projects that started right here in your Eastern Hutt Rotary Club, and then spread from their beginnings here in the Hutt Valley to become national projects.
The first Charter member I want to introduce you to is Mac McTaggart, the Naenae milkman. In 1962 Rotarian Mac had a 14 year old schoolboy helping him with his morning milk round – none other than Billy Graham, who’s still a well known Naenae identity to this day.
Ian Johnson was a charter member and the founding Principal of Naenae College which opened in 1953. One of his first day pupils at Naenae College was Sir Bob Jones; and when Ian joined the Naenae Rotary Club as a charter member in 1962 the big deal on the local music scene were none other than former pupils, Bill & Boyd.
Another charter member and the Club’s second President was Dr Graeme Milne. In 1963, as a general practitioner in Naenae, he was in despair when he could not save the life of a young girl who died from an Asthma attack. He approached the Rotary club. This approach eventually led to the formation, of what is now known as the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of NZ - initially called Hutt Valley Asthmatic Society.
Through Rotary, he was able to seize the opportunity to help others with his vision. Dr. Milne passed away on 19th April 2019 in Golden Bay, at the age of 100.
The final two members I want to mention are Ian Wright, and Dave Wilson. In 1983 Ian Wright from the Eastern Hutt Rotary Club brought the Emergency Box programme to New Zealand – Ian’s father Alan Wright had been a District Governor in the north of England, and in 1971 their District had initiated the Emergency Box programme.
So in 1983 Ian Wright set up a Committee to investigate the introduction of a similar scheme in NZ to cover disasters in the South Pacific, and after much consideration and discussion the Emergency Box Scheme was presented and enthusiastically endorsed by then DG and now Past RI President Bill Boyd at the District 9940 Conference in 1984. The programme spread quickly to the other 5 NZ Rotary Districts, and has become a very successful Rotary programme, enabling Rotarians in New Zealand to support people and communities in the Pacific during natural disasters.
Following Ian Wright’s instigation of the programme, the late Dave Wilson took up the project with gusto, and it’s lovely that we have Dave’s wife, Margaret and son Marcus here with us tonight – and Dave went on to become not only the Eastern Hutt Rotary Club champion of Emergency Boxes, but also the District 9940 Champion, and indeed the New Zealand Champion - to such an extent that more than 8,800 Emergency Boxes – now known as ERKs or Emergency Response Kits - have been distributed to the Pacific in the past 15 years. All that doing good for our Pacific neighbours started right here, at the Eastern Hut Rotary Club.
So that’s just a few snippets of some of the people and some of the projects that have animated this Club over the years, and that your Club can be very proud of.
We’re going to move now to our official changeover, where the presidential chains of office will transfer from our current President to our new President. So can I please ask current President Anne Abbott and incoming President Kathy Bryant to come forward to perform the Presidential Changeover.
We’ve just seen in the video Jennifer Jones, who at midnight tomorrow will become the first female President of Rotary International -well that’s something that’s been happening in this Club for many years. Diane Jorgenson was the Club’s first female President back in 2003/04, and there have been 6 in total, and Kathy Bryant’s year as President will make it female Presidents 3 in a row. Well done!
We have another very peasant task to perform to round out the formalities tonight, and that’s to present a Paul Harris Fellowship. Very shortly I’ll invite PDG John Cole to come forward and share with you who’s being honoured tonight, but firstly let me remind you about the Paul Harris Fellowship.
Paul Harris died 75 years ago, in 1947. Ten years after his death, and 5 years before the birth of your Club, in 1957 the idea of Paul Harris Fellow recognition was first proposed as a means to promote voluntary giving to the Rotary Foundation, and to recognise outstanding achievement. The distinctive Paul Harris Fellow medallion, lapel pin and certificate have become highly respected by Rotarians and friends around the world. Individual Members are encouraged to make contributions to The Foundation to gain Paul Harris Fellow recognition; and many clubs provide recognition for outstanding service by contributing in the name of a Rotary member or in the name of a citizen of the community.
Since its inception 60 years ago the Eastern Hutt Rotary Club has donated $151,770 US dollars to the Rotary Foundation, and tonight the Club is going to use some of those donation dollars to recognise an outstanding contribution to our community.
Can I please ask Past District Governor John Cole to come forward to introduce Eastern Hutt Rotary Club’s latest Paul Harris Fellow.