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President Smith called the meeting to order at 12:26. The invocation was given by Barb Lezotte, followed by the singing of God Bless America accompanied by John Dale Smith.
Dave Trumpie walked the microphone around the room for the introduction of guests. The Remembrance report was given by Ken Beachler who let us know that Bill Pacelli, a former Rotarian and Past President passed away this week at the age of 88. Bill began every meeting with the news of the day and ended with the WITL temperature.
President Smith presented a red new member badge to Tom Stewart, who is sponsored by Pat Munshaw.
Karen Dietrich gave her new member presentation and told us that she knows her dad would be proud of her today. He was a long time Rotarian and raised her according to the four way test – a fact she is just now grasping. In a first for a new member presentation, Karen told us 3 stories and asked us to vote on which one was entirely true. All three stories received votes, which turned out to be not too surprising since only a small detail was changed in each of the stories not entirely true. Through the stories we learned that Karen has been a travel agent, a realtor, and operated a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. She is looking forward to being a Rotarian and following in her father’s footsteps.
International project proposals are due by November 10th. See Jenn Dubey or Umakan for more information. Note that this date is an extension, but no further extensions are expected!
Pat Hanes presented another decade in Lansing Rotary’s history. This time our visit was to the 1970s. Much of the information regarding this decade came from Ed Crouse and Jack Bates and a very busy decade it was. In the world, headlines concerned the Kent State shooting, the massacre at the Munich Olympics, the Roe versus Wade decision legalizing abortion, the Watergate break ins and subsequent resignation of Richard Nixon, the Jonestown massacre, and the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. That was a review that brought back more than a few memories for me.
Locally, we learned that Lansing had a population of about 131,000. The roller coaster was still operating at Lake Lansing. Cooley Law School was formed in 1972 and Jim’s Tiffany opened in the early part of the decade. 1975 saw the Lansing flood and MSU won the NCAA championship in 1979 with Earvin Johnson and Greg Kelser. Gerald Graves was Lansing’s mayor for the entire decade.
During the 70s, our Rotograms were rather unimpressive, but Loftus Day did have a full formal program. Lunch meetings were held at Alex’s and the Jack Tar. The club celebrated its 60th anniversary and recognized a number of long time members, many of whom are still represented by their descendants. Our Foundation was begun in 1974. In 1976, the Club recognized those members who were 3rd generation Rotarians. The Cleveland Rotary club recognized R. E. Olds in 1978 and several Lansing Rotarians were in attendance for the event. The presentation concluded with a run down of the decade’s Presidents. Several are still members today and we enjoyed seeing their photos from 40 years ago.
Tim Muffett introduced our special music, which was a preview of Saturday night’s concert featuring the Concerto Grosso for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra. To perform the piece, a special saxophone quartet has been assembled featuring Jim Forger – who began the classical saxophone program at MSU – and three of his former students. The quartet played a little bit of each movement – Lively, Song without Words, A Slow Waltz, A Conversation (my personal favorite). They finished up with another tune that came without pauses where the orchestra should have been playing.
President Smith turned the meeting over to Rachelle Neal, who introduced our speaker, Valerie Marvin, President, Historical Society of Greater Lansing. Valerie, who is not related to our own Dave Marvin, grew up in Owosso. Her mother taught history and vacations were to always to historical sites, sparking an early love for history. She studied Russian and Eastern European history in college. She is also the Michigan Capital Historian and lives in an historical home in downtown Lansing.
Valerie began by stating that we are defined by the moment in time in which we were born. That makes it hard to imagine life in another time. To gain an understanding, we look at written and oral histories, as well as photographs. With that, she began a whirlwind description of Lansing 100 years ago.
Lansing was being electrified in 1915; the Capital dome was lit with lightbulbs. This was a huge change as it expanded the work day. Lansing was a small town prior to 1900, but the population started to double after the turn of the century due to immigration and industrialization. By 1910, the population was 31,200. You can’t separate Lansing history from state government. From 1913 – 1916, Woodbridge Ferris served 2 terms as governor. The big issue was the Calumet copper strike. The mine was set to shift from 2 man to 1 man drills. Gottlieb Reutter was the mayor from 1912 – 1918. This was notable because Reutter was born in Germany and this was during World War I. Reutter also started Lansing Ice and Fuel Company. R. E. Olds moved to Lansing from Ohio as a young man. He would, of course, later found Oldsmobile and REO Motor Company. He was very generous with both his time and money. Olds Tower was his stamp on downtown Lansing, as it was the first building taller than the Capital and remains as the tallest building in Lansing.
A network of auto related business began to flourish. This industry would attract a lot of people to Lansing. The increase in population led to a host of other professions coming as well to provide additional services.
REO wanted to provide more than a job and built the REO club house. This was a place where employees and their families could go for entertainment and social functions. Since services were not plentiful in the city due to rapid growth, REO provided them. There was also an REO night school where employee to attend a variety of classes intended to create a better workforce. There was a focus on growing the company from within. Many multiple generation families worked there.
As the population grew, there was also a need for housing. Many of neighborhoods, still identifiable today, were established during this time. Some of the large homes in the downtown area were divided into apartments.
Many new larger buildings started to appear, including St Mary’s Catholic Church in1913. Churches also served as cultural centers. There was only one high school – Lansing High School. There were equal numbers of men and women. Students probably came from rural communities and boarded in Lansing. Diversity was also beginning as an early photo of high school students shows an African American student in the ranks. The Michigan School for the Blind, a boarding school for blind students, attracted young people from all over the state and was a major employer. The State Industrial School for Boys, which later became the Boys Training School, was also begun.
To the East of Lansing, Michigan Agricultural College was attracting many students to its 2 and 4 year courses.
Movie screens started to appear. The community was addressing questions about alcohol. Ingham County was dry before the state, and the state was dry before the country.
The Michigan Historical Society offers about a half dozen tours during the summer in both Lansing and East Lansing. You can find information about these tours, not yet set for 2016, on the website. The Society also publishes a regular newsletter and offers indoor programming in the winter.
President Smith announced that In lieu of a speaker’s gift we would be making a donation to our clean water project in Valerie’s name.
Next week, we will meet at the Lansing Center when Chuck Hadden, President/CEO of the Michigan Manufacturers Association will be our speaker. His topic will be Manufacturing in Michigan.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:25 p.m.
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Charles “Chuck” Hadden was named president and chief executive officer of MMA on September 15, 2008. He brings to the job over 15 years of experience with the nearly 3,000 member association, having previously served as the public policy officer and lead lobbyist representing manufacturers before the legislature and state agencies on a broad range of issues, including taxation, product liability, employment and insurance. During his tenure, Chuck was instrumental in obtaining passage of significant legislation that will benefit the manufacturing sector for years to come, including restructuring of Michigan’s tax and energy policies.