The Rotary Club of
Centerville, OH
 
Chartered 1972
Rotary Club of Centerville - April 6, 2023
Centerville Rotary Meeting Highlights
Our Rotary theme for this month is Maternal and Child Health.
 
President Arnie Biondo welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Ray Merz provided the prayer. This being the first meeting of the month, Lee Hieronymus, Dick Hoback, Brad Thorp & Jeff Senney led singing of God Bless America.
 
Quote for the day: ”Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."  Albert Einstein
 
Guests welcomed this week included:
 
Carol Kennard’s granddaughters, Brilynn and Kaycee who are on spring break.
 
Brad Huffman’s son, Braden, who is also on spring break.
 
Arnie Biondo’s son, Matthew, who was a previous exchange student to Germany.
 
And also Nick and Kristin Hutton, who have been approved for membership and will be inducted later this month.
 
 
PDG Harvey Smith inducted Sherre Wright as the newest member of the Centerville Rotary Club. Brad Huffman is her sponsor, and Boyd Preston is her mentor.
 
Sherre is from the US Virgin Islands and grew up in New York City. She works for AES Ohio. Welcome Sherre!
 
Congrats to new member Ashlee Walton for completing all requirements and having the "new member" ribbon removed!
 
 
Announcements:
  • Frank Perez announced we still need Rotarians to deliver dictionaries/thesauri to Stingley Elementary School - Ashlee Walton and Chris Norman volunteered!
  • Boyd Preston reminded about the April 11 Service Project at Grant Park, McEwen entrance. We will work from 9-11 am to clean up the new memorial area, including planting and mulching. Sign up now.
  • Brad Huffman gave updates on our May 5 golf outing. It’s on Cinco de Mayo so take the day off and start with Rotarians! We are still taking sponsorships - deadline is April 15. If your sponsorship includes golfers, sign them up with Frank Perez instead of Golf Genius or you’ll be charged twice. It’s time to sigh up to volunteers to help that day. See Brad for details.
 
Happy Bucks this quarter are going to East Palestine Rotary Club. Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms.
 
Happy Bucks were generously given for:
  • Pat Beckel’s two boys qualified at gymnastics regionals and are headed to nationals in OK in 3 weeks. An hour after they left the venue, it got drilled with a tornado.
  • Ray Merz talked about an Easter cake with jelly beans, and having a trail of jelly beans from the house to car.
  • Lisa Goris May happy to be siting next to the good folks at her table.
  • Boyd Preston for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Dan Johnson for for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Brad Huffman welcomed Sherre, and noted they have 5 kids in 3 different schools, so they have 3 different spring breaks.
  • Bob Sachs was happy it’s Masters week.
  • Chuck King welcomed Sherre, and was happy he doesn’t owe any Federal income tax.
  • Lee Hieronymus has 34 coming to the house for Easter!
  • Dick Hoback for a fun 5 days in Gatlinburg and discovered there were lots of people there.
  • Jim Harris for new member, Sherre Wright, and all of the young prospective Rotarians.
  • Ron Hollenbeck for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Amy Hary for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Rand Oliver announced his grandson is out of the hospital, and was happy to discover his old boss is a Rotarian.
  • Crissy Allums for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Elda Gotos-Gay’s son’s fiancée came here from Russia, and there will be a wedding soon!
  • Robert Ford was happy to be here.
  • Jeff Senney visited his newest grandkids, one in DC and another in Cleveland.
  • Adam Manning for new member, Sherre Wright and guests
  • Matt Biondo happy to visit and younger guests than him think about Rotary youth exchange
  • Arnie Sherre and Bob Ford
  • Kelly McDonald for our guests and for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Ashlee Walton for our new members and is happy to be back after a bad case of COVID.
  • Kaycee Kennard was happy to be off crutches.
  • Carol Kennard for new member, Sherre Wright, for getting to see all 5 grandkids in the same week, and offered yard signs in support of the Washington Township RecPlex 1.5 mill levy on the ballot May 2.
  • Kim Senft-Paras for new member, Sherre Wright, and said she is looking forward to Nick and Kristin joining the club, and encouraged all to support the Rec levy.
  • Socks Bowersocks for the new members.
  • Harvey Smith for new member, Sherre Wright.
  • Chris Norman was happy to be back and almost healthy, and announced Kettering Health Foundation is hosting a seminar on financial planning.
  • Bob Fry was happy to be back in OH, as FL was not pretty this year.
  • Don Overly was happy about something!
  • Dale Berry for the new members & guests.
Our speakers today were Jerry Strange, historian and Melissa Wagner, education coordinator, with Centerville-Washington History.
 
Jerry Strange and his wife, Hylda have been active members of Centerville-Washington History for many years. Jerry was here today to share about Richard H. Grant and his impact on our community.
 
The Richard Grant estate comprised of 780 acres in Washington Township and included the Grant mansion (now Normandy United Methodist Church), and farm buildings.
 
 
Richard Grant, Sr. was important to our area as indicated by his induction into the Dayton Walk of Fame in 2014. He previously worked in sales in the New England area, but came to Dayton when hired to work as a clerk for John Patterson at NCR. (same year as Charles Kettering). He was quickly moved into sales in 1906 and then went on the road to train NCR salesmen.
 
 
In 1910, Richard was photographed with the 100 point club - with the front row comprising of important Daytonians:
Col. Edward Deeds, John Patterson, Callahan, Tom Watson, and Richard Grant.
 
Jerry shared a bit of Dayton history: 1906 the Barn Gang formed;  1908 developed first reliable electrical system and self-starter and formed DELCO company; 1913 water cooled mechanical refrigerator invented called The Guardian; Develop farm electricity generator; and DELCO-light formed.
 
In 1913, Richard Grant was appointed the Assistant Sales Manager and after the 1913 flood, John Patterson appointed Grant in charge of food relief. Grant was promoted to National Sales Manager after Watson was fired. (Watson then went on to form the National Business Machine company.)
 
Grant was offered to chair DELCO-Light but when he asked Patterson to match the salary offer, his request was denied. Grant went to DELCO-Light as General Manager instead. General Motors purchased DELCO in 1916 and in 1920 Grant was named President of DELCO-Light.
 
The Grants were good friends with Edwin and Florence Reynolds.  (Reynolds and Reynolds, family owned company.) The Reynolds’ lived out in the country on Alex-Bell Rd. The Grants visited with them and fell in love with Holes Creek so decided to buy property and build a cabin.
 
 
Grant’s cabin was used for picnics, hunting, and outdoor excursions. Now the “chimneys” are all that remains of the structure, and is located in Grant Park. The cabin burned in 1966 when vandals set a fire in the kitchen sink.
 
 
In 1918 GM bought the rights to the refrigerator operation. Frigidaire was formed and moved to Dayton in 1922. In 1930 the one millionth refrigerator came off the line while under Grant’s management.
 
At that time, Chevrolet was being outsold by Ford so in 1924 Grant was moved to Chevrolet. In 1924 250,000 Chevy cars were sold, with Ford selling one million. In four years, under Grant’s management, Chevy sales quadrupled and outsold Ford. In 1929 Grant was named VP of General Motors.
 
Meanwhile, Grant had purchased several farms in Washington Township and in 1927, started building an English style manor house that would have 38 rooms and cost over one million dollars.
 
In 1935 Edwin Reynold died. Grant bought Reynolds and Reynolds and made himself President. In 1944, he retired and became a gentleman farmer. In 1955, the Grants sold 15 acres and the mansion to the United Methodist Church.
 
Developers had a idea of how they could build houses on a good portion of Grant’s farm land. But it was not developed because Bill Yeck convinced them to sell the land to the Centerville-Washington Park District.
 
 
 
Richard Grant’s former farm land now is home to 222-acre Grant Park, Normandy United Methodist Church, Normandy Elementary School, and residential housing.
 
A book on the life and legacy of Richard Grant can purchase from Centerville-Washington History.
 
 
President Biondo thanked Jerry Strange and Melissa Wagner, education coordinator for the Historical Society for being with us  today.
Next week our speaker will be Mark Pompilio with the Community Blood Center.
 

President Biondo led the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a good week.

 
GREETER SCHEDULE
Please arrange for a sub if you are unable to greet on your assigned day or contact Jackie D'Aurora.
 
April 13 = Ginger Clark and Bob Sachs
April 20 = Ger Eastabrooks and Rand Oliver
April 27 = Amy Hary and Cody Terrell
 
CLUB NEWS
 
GOLF
Sponsor forms and flyers are available to download from the centervillerotary.com website. Start asking for sponsors now!
 
The golf registration link is also available on the website or HERE
 
 
 
Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Centerville
Service Above Self
Thursdays at 12:00 PM
Golf Club at Yankee Trace
10000 Yankee Street
Centerville, OH 45458
United States of America
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Carol Kennard
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Arnie Biondo
April 11
 
Mark Febus
April 14
 
Dan Johnson
April 16
 
Dale Berry
April 20
 
Lee Hieronymus
April 30
 
Spouse Birthdays
Dan D'Aurora
April 1
 
Maria Young
April 3
 
Kayla Thorp
April 17
 
Hao Cai
April 21
 
Anniversaries
Dan Wilson
Susan Wilson
April 12
 
Join Date
Dale Berry
April 2, 2009
14 years
 
Ger Eastabrooks
April 5, 2012
11 years
 
Jim Harris
April 5, 2012
11 years
 
Brad Huffman
April 6, 2017
6 years
 
Kisha Taylor
April 6, 2017
6 years
 
Kitty Ullmer
April 10, 2008
15 years
 
Speakers
Apr 27, 2023
Civics Presentation
May 04, 2023
Golf Outing Prep
May 18, 2023
Club Assembly Day
May 25, 2023
Molly Winters/ Heather Schnier
View entire list
Meeting Greeters
Please get a sub if you're unable to greet on your assigned day or contact Jackie D'Aurora!
 
April 13 = Ginger Clark and Bob Sachs
April 20 = Ger Eastabrooks and Rand Oliver
April 27 = Amy Hary and Cody Terrell
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