The Wheel Las Vegas Rotary Club newsletter, February 19, 1976

The Wheel LAS VEGAS ROTARY CLUB LUNCHEON MEETING 1 2 : 1 5 THURSDAY LANDMARK HOTEL LAS VEGAS, NEVADA Mailing Address - P. O. Box 15604, Las Vegas, Nevada 89114. Phone 876-0277 MAKE-UP DAYS AND PLACES MONDAY — Southwest — Charleston Bowl WEDNESDAY — Boulder City — Multiple Purpose Room TUESDAY — Henderson — Eldorado Club FRIDAY — North Las Vegas — Silver Nugget WEDNESDAY — Paradise — Showboat THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1976 Air Force General The Wheel "He Profits Most Who Serves Best" PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE ROTARY CLUB OF LAS VEGAS, NEVADA RAY GERMAIN, JOHN BEVILLE and JOHN F. CAHLAN Co-Editors SHERWIN GARSIDE Publisher t \ m u m « m u u u m m w m u u < Cut Your Beef It Will Be Served There is to be no speaker at today's meeting. It was decided by the board of directors that the entire time will be devoted to club internal matters and all of those who have any beefs to get off their chests will be welcome to speak. It is expected there will be some very interesting discussion on the con-tinuing problem of "scooters", many feeling that each member should be able to arrange his schedule so he can remain for the full session. It has been pointed out many times that the speakers who are invited to appear before the local club are faced with scores of disappearing backs as the owners of the same make a rush for the door while the speaker is being introduced. Some of the "scooters" also have shown disregard for social etiquet that, even when visiting a neighbor-ing club, they make the same kind of an exit. - Rl - Flu Bug Strikes The flu bug caught up with out president last week. Don Ashworth was absent from the fold and Dave Welles, president-elect of the club, was on the podium to conduct the meeting. Is Rotary Speaker Brigadier General Robinson Risner provided the Las Vegas Rotary club with a somewhat pessimistic picture of American preparedness when he was the principal speaker last week. The Rev. Joel Rivers was program chairman for the week and introduced the general. Gen. Risner started his talk with a description of some of the things that happened to him during his years of captivity and said that much of the information put out to the prisoners by the American camp leaders not only compared to the Rotary creed but actually had the same words — "Service Above Self". It was some-thing that allowed the prisoners to continue, day after day, despite their captivity. He said they too had a "Four Way Test", only theirs asked the questions: What is best for America? What is best for the service man? What is best for my fellow prisoners and What is best for myself? He tried to assess what place Amer-ica has in the sun and quoted the words of Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt all of whom warned the country and its citizens never to allow the United States to become a second class power. He called attention of the declining defense spending by the government and the corresponding build up by the Russians and, said, despite the public claims of the Russians, privately their designs have not changed one iota. In addition, they have deployed forces all over the world which is another threat. "Freedom is ours," he said, "just so long as we protect it. "Freedom is not free," he continued, "and we must be ready to live for it, not die for it." He did not recommend time in a prisoner of war camp in order to gen-erate love of country, but he did say that he had a lot of time to think while in the camp and came to learn just what real freedom meant. 4 New Members Are Inducted Four new members were inducted into the Las Vegas Rotary Club last Thursday at regular ceremonies. Marion B. Earl, gave the charge to the new members and, as usual de-livered his message in impressive style. The four new members are: Ashley Hall, who is introduced by Jim Gam-ett, pinch hitting for Ron Kiehn; Tom Miller, who was introduced by Dave Causey; Han Geskes, introduced by Robbie Cole, subbing for Jesse James and Mike Hoover who was presented by Robbie Robertson. Hall is Sen. Paul Laxalt's assistant in Las Vegas, Miller is with Catholic welfare. Geskes is with TWA and Hoover with the Boy Scouts of America. _ r| _ Rotaract Club Is Being Organized The first Rotaract club in the entire district 530 is being formed in Las Vegas and, according to a report to the board of directors last week, is receiving great support from the pro-spective members. The new group will be established at the University of Nevada Las Vegas with the blessing of the president, Donald Baepler. It will be funded entirely by the university. It is hoped to have the club organ-ized and functioning prior to the open-ing of the district conference April 8-12, so that it can be announced as another successful project of the Las Vegas club. - Rl - Secretary Jan Is On The Mend Our secretary, Jan West, as reported last week, is at home now is recuper-ating nicely. Her stand-in, Ann Head, reports that she will remain with the club until March 4 when Jan will return to take up her regular duties. Incidentally, Ann reports Pat is doing nicely himself. Kell Houssels Is Honored By Club J. Kell Houssels, a former member of the Las Vegas Rotary club, was given special recognition recently for his contributions to Rotary. Leonard Fayle, Otto Underhill and Fred Morledge visited the honorary member of the Las Vegas club and presented him with the new book "Rotary". The volume had been auto-graphed by all of the past presidents of the club who are still active. The presentation was made at Kell's suite in the Tropicana hotel. Kell has a very interesting history, having been born in Vernon, Texas. His education was interrupted by World War I when he served his country in the Army Air Corps and was stationed at Mather Field in Cali-fornia. After the war he resumed his stud-ies and was graduated from the Colo-rado School of Mines in 1922. Follow-ing his graduation he went to work for the copper company which then was operating the Ely mines. It was while he was in Ely that he got his first taste of gambling and fol-lowed it from that time on. His first Las Vegas venture was in the old Smoke House, later to become known as the Las Vegas Club. Since that time Kell has been in-volved in the Overland Hotel, El Cortez, Showboat and the Tropicana hotel, all of which were highly suc-cessful under his direction. He is now in retirement. - Rl - Four New Members Being Proposed There are four proposed new mem-bers whose names are being circulated and the membership should be re-ceiving their names in the immediate future. Any opposition to the names should be made to the board of directors immediately or they will go through the proper process for approval. Rotary Picnic Is Being Organized The all southern Nevada Rotary club picnic, which will be one of the official Bicentennial events of the cur-rent year, will be held on May 1, that's a Saturday. The gala affair is to be held in Sun-set Park, on Sunset Road, and will be geared to the old fashioned type which was so prevalent during the days before the automobile washed it out. It is planned to have all sorts of games, a patriotic speech or perhaps a short band concert with one of the local high schools participating. A request has been made to the county for a permit to sell beer at the affair, just to get into the old time spirit of such affairs, and there will be pop and other soft drinks avail-able as well as hot dogs and all the trimmings. All of the Rotary clubs in southern Nevada will join in this festive occa-sion and it appears there will be a good old fashioned wing ding staged. There even may be a May pole. U r i L ] Know Your Rotarians Han Richard Geskes Han was born in the Netherlands in 1935. His Rotary Ann, Ann Joan was born in Germany. They are the parents of two children, David, 14 and Cynthia 13 years old. The family came to Las Vegas in 1975 and Han's classification is Air Transportation/ International Service. Han's active hobby is Camera—complete with his own dark room. He also has an inter-est in Soccer, Tennis and Skiing. He is the recipient of a Boy Scout Recog-nition Award and is active in the H.S.M.A. Han graduated from St. Louis University with a B.A. Han im-migrated from Holland in 1957 while his wife Ann immigrated from Ger-many in 1959. It is our pleasure to welcome them to the fellowship of Rotary in Las Vegas. District Confab Plans Expanding Further plans for the district con-ference to be held at Newport April 8 to 12 were reported to the board of directors by Jim Corey, chairman of the arrangements committee. Jim asked approval for the imme-diate reservation of 25 rooms at the Newporter Inn for the delegates so that proper accommodations can be secured. He emphasized that those members who are certain they will attend should see Kishner who is in charge of the reservation end. It is probable there will be two buses chartered for the trip, one to leave Wednesday evening and this one will take those who desire to take part in the various special events. The other bus will leave Thursday morn-ing and will arrive in Newport in plenty of time for the opening ban-quet on Thursday evening. Joy For Gametts There was great joy in the Gamett family recently. Jim and his Rotary Ann Becky, became the parents of a healthy baby girl who weighed in at hospital side at some seven pounds. Grandpa Mark and his Rotary Ann, Evelyn, also shared in the basking. This is Jim's third child. - Rl - 'Cartagena' For more than 400 years, Cartagena, on the coast of Colombia, has lived a history rich both in treasures and in human events. This splendor is explored in the March issue of The Rotarian in an ar-ticle on the city's Spanish fortress, so-cial and cultural center, world port, exotic market place, its colonial tradi-tion and tropical beauty. The article is all part of the official magazine's job — to bring the Rotary world to your door. - Rl - "It's just a suggestion, ladies and gentlemen," said the chairman of the board. "But let's not forget who's mak-ing it."