A lifetime of Rotary

Published 7:31 am Friday, February 29, 2008

LYNNWOOD — Take 12 local men and add their knowledge, many talents, strengths and life experiences with a large dollop of friendship and you get a recipe for a lifetime in the Rotary Club of Lynnwood.

While there are many folks in Rotary who participate and add much to the community, these 12 senior Rotarians from the Lynnwood club together have given a total of 367 years Rotary service to the community.

They are: Russ Bradley, Clair Grube, Rudy Jones, Mal Karfstedt, Bill Morton, Milt Scott, Bill Wright and Kase Vanden-Ende all from Edmonds and John Burbank from Lynnwood, Paul Lippold from Mill Creek, Bob Bezzo from Shoreline and Jack Martin from Seattle.

Within them there are numerous major donors, two district governors and three past presidents of the group along with committee chairs and members, and they are all Paul Harris Fellow leaders.

“This very special group of Rotarians represents the true spirit of Rotary,” said Barbara Earl, president of the Rotary Club of Lynnwood. “Together they have contributed 367 years of service — they truly represent a ‘Lifetime of Rotary.’ We are honored to have them as members of the Rotary Club of Lynnwood.”

Each has a story to tell and a passion for Rotary.

Scott was an education department head at Edmonds Community College. He was in the education field for 35 years and is also a poet. Scott has published “Whispers From the Soul,” a book of poetry.

Scott has traveled to Zimbabwe and Ethiopia for Rotary. In Zimbabwe, he was part of a group of Rotarians who purchased a braille printer from Germany, then delivered the special machinery to a nun who needed it for a library for the blind she was developing.

In Ethiopia, he helped inoculate children against polio, another Rotary mission.

“The most rewarding thing about Rotary is being a member of an organization that really does wonderful things,” he said.

Scott has also had perfect attendance at the weekly Rotary meetings for 25 years.

“Its a habit you get into. It’s hard to do it but once you’ve got it, you continue,” Scott said.

Morton and his Rotarian wife JoAnn, a charter member of the Rotary Club of Mountlake Terrace, have also traveled extensively in the name of Rotary. Both educators, the two have used their skills and knowledge to help people in other nations. They have accomplished Rotarian projects in Kenya, Thailand, Brazil and South Africa. The Mortons took hearing equipment to Kenya and helped test 5,000 children for ear infections and other hearing problems. They taught English as a second language to children in Thailand and taught illiterate women in Brazil to read.

“We taught the women, because women would teach their children to read,” Bill Morton said.

In South Africa, the couple set up a literacy center. They plan to go to Peru and maybe to Ethiopia in the coming years.

Over the years of business networking and living through ups and downs of their personal lives, many of the men on this “lifetime” list are very close friends.

For example Bill Wright and John Burbank—among others have hiked all of the mountains in Washington, many together.

Wright was the first president of the Lynnwood Rotary.

At that time there were 12 members, Wright said. Adding, some of the 12 are on the “lifetime” list.

“Some fellows I knew wanted to join a club so we started one in Lynnwood,” he said. ” Nobody else wanted the (president’s) job so I got elected.”

Wright said he was so busy at work, he is a retired local dentist, he would be a “nervous wreck,” he said by 11 a.m. because he knew he had to get out of work to start the weekly Rotary meeting.

Wright has done a lot of traveling with Rotary and has attended Rotary meetings at clubs all over the world.

Burbank, a former principal in the Edmonds School District and a Stevens Pass Ski School instructor, said he is still active in Rotary because “we’re still doing great things and I couldn’t do more good if I struck out on my own.”

Burbank was president of the Lynnwood Rotary on a “good year,” he said. It was the year they opened the club’s apartment complex which is located on 196th Street SW in Lynnwood.

While Burbank hasn’t climbed many mountains lately, he does fashion special keepsake, wood notepad holders, which are presented to Rotary guest speakers as a thank you for their service.

“The more people we have in Rotary, the better we can do,” Burbank said.

Others remember the times when Rotary had the annual air show. They remember the hard work and frustration of it all and how when it all came together, how satisfying it all was as well.

The air fair was one of Bradley’s pet projects for 24 years.

Bradley, who owned a Lynnwood Optometry office in Lynnwood for 37 years, now spends three months of the year in the Palm Dessert with his wife Jo-Anne. He said he has always been a strong believer of Rotary.

“They do a lot of good things,” Bradley said. I’m in my twilight now and I still enjoy it. Many of those people on that list are my best friends.”

Bezzo was also involved with Rotary’s air show and said while it was a difficult project to handle at times, “it brought the club together.”

Bezzo, a retired architect, also has a special respect for the club’s house building project. Each year the Lynnwood Rotary sponsors a house to be built and sold. The house is a practical project built by High School students from local High Schools.

“Those students run it and do an awfully good job,” Bezzo said. “It gives the young fellows some hands-on experience, makes them skilled craftsman.”

Vanden-Ende also had a Lynnwood Business called Vanden-Ende Structural Engineering. He was responsible for designing 52 Safeway Grocery stores in Washington and Alaska. A native of the Netherlands, Vanden-Ende, said he stays in Rotary because of what they stand for.

“This country has been very good to us and we try to be good to the country,” he said referring to him and his wife Nettie. Rotary is one way he said he can be “good to the country.”

Vanden-Ende said he and Nettie came to the United States in 1961 and only six weeks after they arrived they were able to buy a brand new home in Edmonds and have been living there ever since.

Others, such as Lippold, made a big difference in other Rotary clubs as well.

Lippold, who flew a B-17 in World War II, was also a member and governor of Rotary in southern Nevada, Los Angeles County and Pasadena. In Pasadena he helped start the first Rotary float in the famous Rose Parade.

“It was a different theme each year and we would emphasize the Rotary Program,” he said, including the youth work Rotary is involved with, and the work with polio and immunizations that aid nations around the world. There continues to be a Rotary float in each annual Rose Parade.

Lippold said he’s stayed with Rotary for so long because “I feel Rotary is doing good around the world and there’s a good fellowship of people who work toward same goals.”