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Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter
March 1st 2012
Welcome Cameron Lawrence Barlow 2/23/12
Spotlight on Ed Howard(Not The VPHS Principal)
Opening Ceremonies:
Invocation: Greg Mills
Pledge of Allegiance: Pete Moriarty
Rotary Four Way Test: Tom Grundy
Song: " My Country Tis' Of Thee"- Teri Brooks
Guests:
Glenn Weingarth- Prospective New Member
Rick Barnett- Prospective New Member
Bob Grandolfo- 2nd Meeting
Steve Lopushinsky- Orange Club
Birthdays:
Jean Broussard- spent her birthday with a family dinner at Mariano's Restaurant last Sunday
Pam Dunn- celebrated her birthday on February 26th with dinner at Baci Restaurant.
Announcements:
Our Caterers Craig and Stephanie Barlow are happy to announce the birth of their son,
Cameron Lawrence Barlow, who was born last Thursday. Craig was very happy to see
that in his absence several of our Villa Park Rotarians took up spatulas and pans
and made breakfast for the group.
Club President Bryan Nash handed out information regarding District 5320 Club Awards for
projects completed between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012 for the five areas of service.
This includes club bulletins and websites. Due date is April 10, 2012 and awards will
be presented at the District Conference June 1-3, 2012.
Teri Brooks brought in a sample of one of the mats being made from the plastic bags.
It was actually quite colorful and soft. The bags are being distributed to homeless people
as sleeping mats.
Nagy Ibrahim announced that the Club Speech Contest is next Thursday- the theme is
" Reach Within to Embrace Humanity". The following week our speaker is John Stewart,
a lawyer who will speak about family issues.
Marianne Koepnick talked about some of the problems she has encountered trying to schedule
the Song Competition. Local clubs must have completed their competitions before April
1st and we haven't received enough feedback from potential contestants to know if
we can complete the competition by then. Stan Van Den Berg says there are some
potential students from Lutheran High, but they need to know when the District Finals
will be owing to the fact they may have other performance commitments on that date.
To be continued......
Happy Bucks:
Bill Baker was extremely happy to announce that he along with co-counsel Craig Alexander
helped to settle a trust lawsuit yesterday that had been ongoing for 14 years. Following the
decision the Bakers and Alexanders celebrated at Nieuport 17 into the wee hours.
Bryan Nashthanked Marianne Koepnick for attending PETS Training in place of the vacationing
Jane McDonald.
Bill Langstaff announced that our newsletter will be published in the Sentry under the
"Common Talk" section written by Anita Bennyhoff.
Jill Kuli was happy to report that husband Dennis is doing well following his knee replacement
surgery last week. He is already up and getting around. She was also happy to report that
grandson Jake Kuli won the top prize in the Villa Park Science Fair.
Bob Meyerwho will be 90 years young this year still proudly wear his WWII uniform and
reported that he had given 5 talks to over 1000 high school students in the last 7 days.
Tom Grundy thanked Milt Stamos for giving him a copy of ESPN News with a picture of an
Oakland Athletic Player on the cover.
Marianne Koepnick is celebrating her son's 28th birthday today. She told the story of how he
just missed being born on February 29th. As a joke she sent him $7 with his birthday
card.
George Poulos was happy to report his son got a job.
Wayne Silzel had a great train adventure with the Southern California Railway Association.
After arriving in Fillmore they took an old train to Santa Rosa. On the way they ate lunch
in a dining car from 1937. Once in Santa Rosa they visited three museums: Petroleum,
Agriculture and Art. On the train ride back they dined on cheese cake and coffee.
The entire trip was $85/person and Wayne recommended it highly.
Secret Greeter- Pete Moriarty reported he was cordially greeted by all club member.
Drawing- The pot is up to $130 - Milt Stamos won just a couple of bucks.
Speaker: Ed Howard
Craft Talk- Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask
About Ed Howard (not the Principal of Villa Park HIgh)
Ed is one of our newest members and today we got an opportunity to hear about his early childhood, his passions and business successes. It was a real "This Is Your Life" Presentation with
many childhood photos, travel log photos, collection archives and amusing photos of Ed in various costumes.
We learned that Ed's father grew up in Davis California and attended Cal Berkeley, later attaining a master degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT. Ed's mom, still going strong at age 93, also attended Cal. We also learned that Ed's grandfather was one of the founders of the UC Davis School of Agriculture and that the main street leading to the campus is Howard way.
Ed is the youngest of five children(3 boys, 2 girls) and grew up in Westchester, New York. He had a happy childhood and after graduating high school his parents retired moving back to California. Ed's beloved family home was demolished in 2003 and replaced with a mini-mansion that sold for $2.6 million dollars.
Ed attend USC Film school and had some early success in the television industry, showing pictures of him with Johnny Carson and Wink Martindale. He tried his hand at becoming a talent agent with the William Morris Agency, where he would represent writers, directors and producers, but he didn't feel that this work suited him. He and a friend bought an old house in Santa Ana, fixed it up and sold it for a profit and the rest is history. After flipping 24 old homes he began building new homes in Riverside and Chino. He moved into one the homes he renovated in Orange, but later moved to Villa Park in 1989.
He married in 1990 and had two children Grant and Tonia. Ed is currently happily divorced which lets him follow his dream to travel the world. He is proud to say he's been to every state in the United States and has traveled to all seven continents including Antarctica. This year he plans to visit Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Belize; his most recent trip took him to India. HIs travels were documented with photos of Ed in many different locales throughout the world.
Another passion is collecting old cars and he has a 1957 BMW Isetta, the original smart car,
a 1948 Playboy ( 1 of only 45 remaining vehicles), a 1964 Amphicar and of course his current
Porsche. He also has a collection of Abbott and Costello Movie Posters that adorn his home,
a 32 year collection of TV Guide Magazines,numerous old political campaign buttons and a
1500 beer bottle collection which he reassured us he did not drink by himself.
Foremost among Ed's passions is his enjoyment of costume parties. His earliest costume was
Batman that he and his mom made while in grade school. We learned Ed has been hosting adult
costume parties for years appearing as a hippy, a gangsta, a geisha, a cross-dresser, a clown and
a hard rocker among others.
After this presentation one is left with the impression that Ed Howard has had a wonderful life and there's still more to come... we can hardly wait to here the rest.
Next Week:
Speech Contest- Prompt- "Reach Within To Embrace Humanity"
Assignments: To follow
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