There were 36 member of the Club in attendance along with six guests. Rotarian Ron Bernardi was visiting from the Northbrook club. John Zeddies of the Winnetka Current was a guest of Tim McCabe for the second time. Cesar Garcia, a retired carpenter, was the guest of Greg Skirving. Also joining us were two of Dave Gotaas’ daughters and one of his son-in-laws - Katie Hanson, Laura Sneddon and Justin Nanfelt.
Ned Meisner celebrated his third anniversary in Rotary. Dirk Tussing mentioned that our Rotary club was listed in the 2014 President’s Report for Northeastern Illinois University for our visionary donation in conjunction with Right Start 4 Kids to create a new annual scholarship for a NEIU minority undergraduate student majoring in Human Resources Development. The money was raised a year ago when we co-hosted an 8-course Vietnamese dinner at the Community House.
Bob Baker announced that the Club’s installation dinner would be held on June 11th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. There will be a sign-up list at the June 4th meeting to allow members to bring guests ($15 per). Catered by Design will be providing the dinner; alcoholic beverages will be available for this annual “changing of the guard.”
The scheduled speaker for the week was postponed and the main part of the meeting was given over to a type of memorial or testimonial to Dave Gotaas who passed away quite unexpectedly on Saturday morning, May 23rd at only 64 years of age.
Ned Meisner was the first to speak and mentioned how he became a member of a Bible study group that Dave figured prominently in. Even as a Jew he felt welcomed and valued. Dave not only said the ‘right thing’ he also did the ‘right thing.’ Member Keith Doyle, and Dave’s pastor, testified that Dave was a devout Christian who, along with his wife Sally, raised four beautiful daughters. He told how Dave would send postcards to many people while he was on his travels all over the world; a significant number of Rotarians were recipients of these missives. He said Dave had just presided over his mother’s memorial serve in the previous month. Then Pastor Doyle said a prayer of thanks for the life of Dave Gotaas.
Tony Kambich was the next to speak and went to great lengths explaining how Dave got him involved in a microloan program in Uganda. Dave brought along his eight year old daughter Laura. He had her write postcards her friends, just as he did. In addition to helping to start the Rotary program of microloans in Uganda, the experience lead to Tony and his wife starting a Montessori school in the area of Entebbe, Uganda. There we no schools in Entebbe when David and Tony arrived. Today there a three ‘public’ schools and three Montessori schools. Tony made the analogy of Dave as a pebble thrown into a lake whose ripples impacted so many persons. David was responsible for starting the first Rotary club in Kosovo, and Tony feels that Dave’s actions played a part in Kosovo getting into the United Nations. His most recent project was to raise the funds to send 25,000 native language Bibles to Myanmar following a recent trip to that country’s small and remote Christian community. Despite David’s strong Christian beliefs he always used a soft touch.
Robert Mardirossian, Eric Birkenstein, Bob Baker, Jeanne Beckman and guest Cesar Garcia also paid tribute to this very unique Rotarian. As Cesar said, Dave’s faith was lived out everyday of his life.
David’s daughter, Laura, was the last to speak. She related the story of one of her trips with her dad to Africa and told of the impact that her father had on her life. She thanked the Rotarians for their support of her father and now of the whole family as they are dealing with the devastating loss.
David Gotaas was a giant in our club, who frequently told us of his adventures and the impact his family had on him. So much of all the good he accomplished went will little fanfare. All of us who knew Dave are better off as a result of our relationship with him. He will be sorely missed!
Gina Sich finally won the ongoing weekly raffle and announced her winnings would be donated to Dave’s Myanmar Bible project. Thanks Gina!
