February 13, 2012 Spokesman

The program tonight was “Getting to Know You” introducing little known facts about three of our members who presented.

David Dubois was born in Victoria, BC but raised in Richmond BC.  He told an amazing set of stories, real or imagined (from car accidents to climbing cliffs with something weird about sheep your hard of hearing scribe could not catch or understand) how he managed barely to survive four times in his young life at ages 12, 15, 18 and in his  20’s.  He was into competitive sports of soccer, hockey and track.  Now he can only curl.  He is married to his lovely wife Kristy and has an 8 year old son. After college he had the good sense to come south and was introduced to Rotary.

Alice Volpe surveyed for us the eight stages of life with each stage having an essential question such as “Is it OK to be me?”, “Is it OK to do, move and act?” , “Can I make it in a world of people and things?”.  Alice was raised a catholic and educated through college by Nuns.  This was her “mea culpa” .  She was born in Brooklyn, NY and was amazed how no one anywhere else thinks Brooklyn has trees.  At an early age she developed a love for reading books and had her own Nancy Drew lending library which no one ever returned.  She found them in an unexpected place in the home of the poorest family on the street.  She also had a  street newspaper called the 7^th Street News (they lived there).  One of her Mother’s words of wisdom were, “Some people don’t want to hear the truth”. Although Brooklyn was divine, she longed to escape its cultural clutches and went away to school in Manhattan (such a distance) where she strived to make grades to earn the right to spend her junior year abroad which turned out to be London which she loved being an Anglophile.  She studied Shakespeare, Shelly and Byron among others and came back after a year of bliss to finish college in New York.  After college, she worked in book publishing (what else for a lover of books?).  A boyfriend moved to Japan so she went there to visit him and stayed for six years working for Time Life Books.  She also worked with a TV show called “English for Tomorrow”.  It was time to come home when she could read all the Japanese commercials so she returned and came to Seattle to work for a book publishing company owned by the founder of King FM, Dorothy Bullitt.  After six months though she went on her own and developed a literary agency where she remains.  Finishing the stages of life, she married and answered the last question, “Can I make my life count?” and  we think she can. In 2002 she joined Kirkland Rotary.

Eric Olsen started by reporting some of the unusual things other Rotarians have done and proceeded to answer the question, “Why me  for this?”.  As Chief of Police, he has duties galore but when he comes home he is greeted by someone always  happy to see him, has gorgeous white teeth, has curly reddish blond hair and never complains.  Who would that be we ask, wife, girl friend?  “I  could never give up my golden retriever” he says.  Eric was born and raised by teetotaler missionary parents and he and his wife have no alcohol in the house.  His one vice is to sip a little fine scotch every now and then   and when his department gave him a gift of a bottle of scotch priced north of $300 he made an exception and brought it home, leaving it on the kitchen counter.  Later when he went to sample the precious gift, he found an empty bottle.  Shocked, he asked his wife and found that she needed it for a special recipe  of  banana bread.  It called for rum or something and that bottle old scotch was the only thing in the house. We wonder how that went over at the church social? Eric started his life at an early age.  His dad was  a missionary to the Ivory Coast of Africa where he and his sisters, minorities they, were the only white kids in school.  His half-sister, also a missionary to Vietnam, was serving at a Lepatorium when she was captured and later died.  His missionary parents aided the community in Africa where they served with  developing micro businesses, bringing water and ministering to the people’s  souls, spiritually.  From them, he gained the desire to serve, which continues.  He tried to never let school get in the way of his education.  In high school he specialized in cars that broke down or wore out.  His first police case found him caught in the first car.  (Sounded like a drag race). He played competitive soccer in high school and college. After Dad retired, Mom became a college professor and he went there to school because it was free for professor’s kids. He first met his wife in college as she “walked across the room” and he took the challenge.  It turns out she was engaged to be married to someone else but love and persistence will find a way.  He became a law enforcement officer first in Lewiston, Idaho, where he had the unique experience of finding a kid that was supposed to have been  drowned but when the kid saw Eric get out of his Police Car, the kid ran away.  “Don’t talk to strangers, right?”  In 1988 he found a job in Kirkland as a policeman and had every job from the bottom up to Chief where he has served for five years.  He has a wife and  triplet sons, Mark, Luke and Jeff, the loves of his life.  He still loves sports and has coached and been the mad parent spectator as well.  He loves golf but is well acquainted with the roughs and briers.  He also loves to do re-modeling but wife says that is enough for things that don’t quite fit.  Important parts of Eric’s life are his faith in God, his future in some type of service to others, possibly an International Justice Ministry and of course Rotary.  He feels an obligation to share his blessings and in a small way handed out token prizes for those who  first remembered incidental facts in his talk. We think the blessings are much  greater than that.

After the second try Diana Lanspa’s ticket was successfully drawn but her pick of the joker in the  deck was not.  $10 to Diana and $1989 left in the pot.  There is no meeting next week.  After hours February 23^rd at Hectors will have to suffice for Rotary fellowship and fun.  The meeting ended at 7:45 PM.

John E. Woodbery

Scribe