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Next Week...
February 19
Kathleen Andersen
Catholic Education Foundation
Upcoming Programs...
February 26
Bart Forman
Engineers Without Borders
March 5
Avi Davis
Terrorism and Appeasement
March 12
Dan Price
Hollywood Palace
March 19
Nicholas Keeling
The Importance of Fitness for All Ages
Activities...
May 12
District Breakfast - LAX
All Officers and Committee Chairs should (must!) attend
Westin Hotel
5400 W. Century Blvd.
Los Angeles
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This Week...
CRAFT TALKS on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12th
PP DAVE WHITEHEAD led the Pledge, arriving just in time (to avert a fine). PP DON NELSON provided the Invocation – “We thank you for this day and for this time of fellowship together. Guide us in our daily work. May we be ever mindful of those in need of our love and service? We also thank you for the opportunity of service through Rotary. Let us be Ambassadors of Rotary, both worthy and faithful stewards. We now ask your blessing on the coming calories, may they nourish us in your service.” DON, well said, and thank you. I then came forward and gave a poor rendition of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I’m sorry that it was neither accurate nor complete, but it remains the best use of just 272 words ever written.
We had one Visiting Rotarian, Alonzo Hill, who belongs to the Santa Monica Club, and is with the FBI – he has also spoken at WVRC. There were several guests. TOM BARRON had a Special Guest, John O’Keefe, who was also present last week. SUNNY came with LENNY, and PP CHRIS BRADFORD’S guest was Janine Horowitz, who is involved with the Salvation Army Housing where our annual Christmas Shopping Spree originates. JOHN HEIDT came with his dad, Jack. And ED JACKSON, though late, brought his wife, Nina.
Those at the Head Table included JOHN HEIDT, who noted that he and his wife, Donna, had been recognized by the City of Santa Monica for their help with Landmark #74.
PP JOHN SINGLETON felt it was important that President SEAN feel some fiscal responsibility for his frequent sessions on Irish History, and further suggested that SEAN be fined five bucks for each meeting at which that subject came up. This idea was very well received by the membership, but President SEAN noted that only HE could call for a vote. This brought PP MIKE NEWMAN forward, reminding us that, historically, President SINGLETON himself had decreed that sitting Presidents could not be fined, and thus was hereby breaking his own rule. Further along this line, MIKE then recalled that it was either DAVE WHITEHEAD or RON WANGLIN who had inserted into the record the proviso that whoever suggested fining the Prexy should himself pay the fine! If this to-and-fro deserves a conclusion, it was that PP SINGLETON would pay – and that President SEAN would match it. Whatever works – the company can use the money!
MARSHA HUNT rose to point out that she spells her first name with an S (not a C)
It was birthday time, with the following members aboard. LEO TSENG chose the 3rd of February, in faraway Shanghai! DORIS GREATHEAD liked the 7th, in Chariton, Iowa. The next day, the 8th, appealed to LENNY FRIEDMAN, way back in Chicago, and RICK BROUS, but he liked New York City. ART HENRY came along today, but in Cambridge, Mass. Then KEVIN KOMATSU brought us back to California on the 13th, liking Fullerton. PDG BILL GOODWYN calls Louisville his choice, on the 23rd, and DONN CONNER closes out February on the 26th, in Tulsa. There were only three of the above suspects present today – LENNY, RICK and PDG BILL. They signed the library bookplates, and were appropriately serenaded.
We had a new Inspirer, that being MARK BLOCK. His report was in the first person, beginning as he walked in, almost awake, to the kitchen. She was standing at the stove, preparing to boil eggs for breakfast, wearing only the T-shirt that she normally slept in.
She turned and said softly, “You’ve got to make love to me this very moment.” My eyes lit up, and I thought, “I am either dreaming or this is going to be my lucky day”. Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then gave it my all – right there on the kitchen table. Afterwards she said, “Thanks” and returned to the stove, her T-shirt still around her neck. A little puzzled, I asked, “What was that all about?” She explained,
“The egg timer’s broken”.
The story of the Irish Brigade: There was no significant immigration to the United States until the Potato Famine (1845-1853) set it in motion. America was mostly made up of Protestants that were distrustful of the Irish-Catholics. After the firing on Ft. Sumner, roughly 185,000 Irish-American immigrants fought on both sides of the American Civil War. Of that number all but about 40,000 were in the Union forces. Once they joined the Union armies, the Irish units were segregated. The Irish companies in the Union Army were joined together as Irish Regiments (10 companies) and even Irish Brigades (4-5 regiments). One of the more famous of these became the Irish Brigade (originally the 69th New York Militia). It was originally a ninety-day regiment that first saw action at First Bull Run and was led by Col. Michael Corcoran. After he was captured, his adjutant, Thomas Francis Meagher, led the Brigade as its only commanding general. During its almost four years of service, the Irish Brigade lost more than 4,000 officers and men. It carried a battle flag boasting its heritage: an emerald green flag with a golden harp.
PP STEVE SCHERER not only sponsored, but briefly introduced our two speakers JOHN HEIDT was our first Craft Talker. His dad was an Air Force officer, and John was born at the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton. After the War, the family moved to Burbank, and then Palm Springs, where his grandfather, Horace Heidt, the bandleader, owned the Lone Palm Hotel. They moved on to North Hollywood, where John attended First Lutheran Church Elementary, and Encino Elementary. From there he went on to Harvard Military School, for the 7th through 12th grades. This was also a busy time athletically, since he learned to play Flag Football, with SC alum Ron Miller as coach. He was also interested in rafting, and from that got into surfing, which was in San Clemente, where Granddad had a place. The local ski shop intrigued him, since they had a continuous roll of carpet on which you could learn to ski. His dad finally took him to Mt. Waterman, where they rode up the lift together – and John simply skied down! All this helped him to found the Ski and Surf Club at Harvard. He even worked out with the U.S. National team, training in Oregon.
In 1954 John enrolled at USC, planning for dentistry. But two days in the lab convinced him otherwise, so he switched to economics. He was also #3 on the draft status list, so maintaining his GPA was important to retain his deferment. But UCLA had a better Econ program, so he left after his first year, giving up KA Fraternity since they didn’t have a chapter at UCLA. This led him to form the Pre MBA Society, and they brought in some good speakers. Having joined LA Country Club as a Junior Member, he met Wes Paulson, one of the principals at Caldwell Banker, in their barbershop. This didn’t hurt his continued applications for employment – turns out they were checking on his determination to come aboard. Finally, after a two-year process, they made an exception and hired him, even though he didn’t have an MBA or had worked for IBM or Xerox.
For the next ten years he was with Caldwell Banker, from June 1978 to June 1988. At that point, he took over the development company of Chapman-Evans, renaming it Heidt-Torres. They are developers and managers, specializing in shopping centers, retail and office properties, including the sale and development of Century City, the creation of Westwood Brewery from what had been a Chart House restaurant, plus various sales in Marina del Rey and Westchester.
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Craft Talkers Marsha Hunt and John Heidt
with PP Steve and Prez Sean. |
John is married to Donna, and they have three children. Gregory is the oldest, having graduated from Cornell recently, where he was a regular on the lightweight 8-man crew team. The team advanced to the Henley Royal Regatta in England the last three years, and this was a good excuse for the Heidt’s to attend. Greg is now with Marcus & Millichap. Their daughter Rachel has just graduated from USC, and is a commission artist. Julie is a freshman at SMU, perhaps majoring in business.
MARSHA HUNT was up next. She was born in San Diego, but moved around California from Merced to Encino, and finally, for most of her schooling to McMinnville, Oregon. Her dad was an attorney, and before the kids came along, her mother was a fashion model. Marsha has an older brother who is an engineer, and a younger sister, who is also a Producer. After finishing high school in McMinnville, a small town of about 4,000, she started at Oregon State, majoring in journalism. Midway, she came down to LA in the summer, met some artists and writers, and ended up working with them as a cartoonist. Early on, Marsha was involved with the Groundlings, a comedy group. She met her husband, Tom LaChapelle, while both were looking for cars! They couldn’t have been more dissimilar – he was from the east, she the west – but eighteen months later they were married. That was 1981, and after daughter Lindsay came along, the three of them did a lot of traveling – they all liked to ski, both here and in Europe.
Marsha was producing a lot of cartoons when her main client became Fox Sports. Tom was with ADP (Automatic Data Productions), and her production company was making promos and covering interviews. She and her sister sometimes work for each other! Tom died suddenly in 2003, and Marsha started attending the Prince of Peace Church in Woodland Hills. She met Julie Santon, a set designer, who was spending a lot of time in Uganda. The next time Julie went, Marsha tagged along – and she loved it! The two of them were much involved with Great Lakes Regional College in Uganda – and their first graduating class of almost 200 students was in 2007. You can earn degrees in Education, Agriculture, Ecotourism, and Business and they are starting a School of Nursing. (Tuition is $550 annually, provided by sponsors) Their next project was founding elementary schools, and they now have five – here again, tuition of $300 comes from sponsors. The new high school is for 13 to 19 year olds. And of course, one of the main reasons for her now-four visits to Uganda is to be able to report to sponsors on how things are going.
Marsha’s daughter, Lindsay, has boy/girl twins who are almost a year old. Her husband works at UCLA as a fund manager for Autism research – and they all live together! The definition of film production, by the way, is that it covers all aspects of the project – location, camera and crew, special effects, sets as needed, and etc. She has been involved with as many as five projects at one time, so this does indeed make her a busy woman. She wants to be in Rotary because she has seen the good we do – and she wants to help!
It’s always true – Craft Talks are our best programs!
Closing Words of Wisdom
He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless dead, and
Remember all power corrupts. But, absolute power is pretty neat, though.
February 19
