News of The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine
April 20, 2022
This Week: Norm O'Reilly, Ph.D  "Industry Trends to Watch out For" 
Dr. Norm O’Reilly has expertise in a range of business topics, including analytics, marketing, sponsorship, social media, sport finance, social marketing, physical activity and management education. He has authored or co-authored 16 books, 14 case studies in the Harvard/Stanford series, and more than 145 peer-reviewed journal articles.
 
He is recognized as one of the leading scholars in the business of sports. In 2018, while at the Lang School of Business & Economics at the University of Guelph, he founded the International Institute for Sport Business & Leadership, a think-tank devoted to improving the sport business globally. From 2014 to 2018, he held the Richard P. and Joan S. Fox Professor of Business and was Chair of the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University’s College of Business. He has also taught at the University of Ottawa, Syracuse University, Stanford University, Laurentian University, Ryerson University, Athabasca University, Bayreuth University, and the Russian International Olympic University.
 
 
EARNS $4190!
 
 
Windjammer News Flash! Our first ever "Mud Sale" online auction was a marvelous success! With a modest goal of $2000, we finished with a solid $4190  collected. Excellent donations, healthy bidding, plus a few outright donations brought us over the top. Thank you all for donating, bidding, and buying. Thanks to event planners Bruce Jones, Amy Chipman, Ellen Niewoehner, Mike Fortunato, Dick Hall and Tom Talbott. Salute! If you were the winning bid, we are coordinating the transfer of goods.
Bits and Pieces | by Bill Blount
On Friday April 15th, 37 Portland Rotarians met, with 6 zooming, in the Da Vinci Room at the Italian Heritage Center. Reverting to the old tradition of starting the meeting at 12:15pm, President Bruce Jones called the meeting to order. Prior to the ringing of the bell diners went to the buffet, served themselves to a delicious IHC lunch and chatted.  President Bruce called upon Ben Millick to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, visiting guest/former Portland Rotarian Kathy Grammer led us in a patriotic song, and Bruce provided the invocation. 
 
PP Peter Goffin introduced himself, tongue-in-cheek as a visiting Portland Rotarian, then welcomed our visiting Rotarians and guests. Peter also gave us a reminder of how the "Cans" on the table have reflected annual inflation rates. Once upon a time it was "Pennies for Rotary", but now requires higher levels of paper money.
 
 
 
Jerry Angier came forward to conduct the raffle, and asked Past President and Honorary Member, Peggy Wescott, to draw a name from the box. Peggy drew Ben Millick’s name, but Ben did live up to the hype, unable to draw the winning card – the Queen of Hearts.  (Photo Bruce, Jerry, and Ben, prior to bombing out.) PP Roxane Cole would remind everyone that the Queen of Hearts is our “winning card” as well as a homage to Peggy, affectionately known to us all, her loyal subjects, as “Queenie.” (More on that later)

Charlie Frair announced that the Portland Rotary Club is well represented with volunteers for the Saturday, April 16th District Conference, led by our club member and current District Governor Dick Hall. Charlie is also calling on volunteers for our “Flags for Heroes” fundraiser in September. Our goal is 100 sponsored flags, each at $100, earning our club $10,000. Charlie is looking for 2-3 more people to join a team to promote, organize, and manage the project with his co-chair,Paul Tully. Right now, Amy Chipman, Chrstine Force, Maggie McGauley and John Thompson have joined in. On Monday, April 25, 7:00pm-7:45pm, there will be a Zoom Meeting to learn more about the program. Being on the zoom does not commit you to the team, it's just to help you understand what we're doing, and you can decide from there. Join in with this Zoom LINK, or email Charlie.

PP Tom Talbott announced that the on-line Mud Sale Auction would be closing that Friday evening and by the time of his announcement we have already exceeded our modest $2000 goal. Way to go Mudders! Tom thanked Dick Hall for setting up the great on-line program for the auction, and then thanked Mike Fortunato for his role as distribution manager. Mike came to the microphone to let everyone know that he and PP Larry Gross would be at the IHC on Saturday afternoon for people to pick up the items that had won.

Mike Fortunato (photo) stayed to announce that on Saturday June 11th, Portland Rotary will be holding a social “Pig Roast” at the IHC, looking for as many as 200 attendees.  Stay posted for more details as this event is coming up in less than two months!

Next week Saturday April 23 at the Landing, home of PP Bob Traill, a 2:45 PM parade will be held in his neighborhood by “Honor Flight” to celebrate his 100th birthday! At our Rotary meeting on Friday April 29th, the Portland Mayor will come to celebrate Bob’s 100 birthday with us. (Bob, if you’re reading this, remember, act surprised when you see us!)
 

Ellen Niewoehner, Environmental Committee Chair, (photo) announced that sign-up sheets are on the tables for the planting of trees at Rotary Grove at the Eastern Prom. This is in recognition of National Arbor Week, and will take place on Thursday, May 19th, 9am – Noon.  Rain date will be the following Friday. Rotarian volunteers can help plant trees provided by the City of Portland. Shovels and trees will be there, but bring your own shovel if you have one handy. Bring your gloves and energy!  20 volunteers sought, we have 10 so far.
 
 

Patty Byers came forward with a special presentation of a Paul Harris Fellow to Past President Peggy Wescott 2001-2002, aka Queenie. This is Peggy’s 9th PHF Award!  Peggy reminded us of the origin of her nickname when many of us celebrated the arrival of the Queen Mary II, viewing the festivities from her South Portland home. It was on this occasion that Peggy showed us the official wave of the Queen, which would become her trademark. There is of course a proper way to wave, like opening a jar of marmalade over your head. All together, we practiced the procedure, and soon had the correct hand twist committed to muscle memory. (Photo: Kathy Grammer, Peggy Wescott, and Patty Byers)
         
Brian Nickerson:  Disaster in the Sea of Japan, 4/15/1969  by Tom Nickerson (Distant relative!)
 
Introduced by Roxane Cole, Brian Nickerson was the scheduled speaker to discuss his military experience as a Naval Air Intelligence Officer during the Vietnam War. Brian was assigned to VQ-1 based in Astugi, Japan and was involved in air reconnaissance missions in the Sea of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.  Brian also spent time at Da Nang, Vietnam. Brian’s talk was not about his time in Vietnam; he chose this date to focus on one of the more deadly incidents of the Cold War Period.  (Photo: Brian Nickerson, Roxane Cole)
 
Unfortunately technical difficulties prevented Brian from showing his presentation, however you can get the link to the video at the end of this article. Unfazed, Brian was able to pivot and give a short talk on the North Korean downing of The Flight of Deep Sea 129. Brian was close to a number of the crew members. As Brian pointed out, it is important to share their story as this incident is often overlooked because of all the other events in 1969.
 
On 15 April 1969, a United States Navy Flight from Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1) on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by a North Korean MiG-21 aircraft over the Sea of Japan. The plane crashed 90 nautical miles off the North Korean coast and all 31 Americans (30 sailors and 1 Marine) on board were killed, which constitutes the largest single loss of U.S. aircrew during the Cold War era.  Of the 31 crew members lost, only two bodies were recovered.
 
Flight Deep Sea 129 was an unarmed aircraft on a routine flight and was not provoking North Korea in anyway. Prior to this incident, these flights were flown without fighter escort. Unfortunately, the Navy was not aware that North Korea had recently moved two MIG fighters to be within range of these reconnaissance flights.  On that fateful day, the North Koreans attacked without warning and the crew were lost.
 
The Nixon administration did not retaliate against North Korea apart from staging a naval demonstration in the Sea of Japan a few days later, which was quickly removed. The Navy resumed the reconnaissance flights with protection within a week to demonstrate that it would not be intimidated by the action while at the same time avoiding a confrontation.
 
While retaliation against North Korea was considered, the US was in the height of the Cold War, deeply involved in the Vietnam War, and was not in a position to risk another war with North Korea.
 
While we were unable to see the video at the meeting, you can Click Here for the video link to see Brian’s full presentation. Remember to turn up the volume! Following the meeting, Brian said, "First, I want to thank Dick Hall, Justin Lamontagne and Jake Bourdeau for all the kind attention and effort in getting Friday’s presentation and doing successful test runs of the video. It’s said that “Man plans; God laughs”. Nobody could be more disappointed about the glitches in the video than the four of us. Also, thanks to Bruce Jones for his patience when he knew we were running over our time." President Bruce thanked Brian for his service to our country, and for sharing a story that was both personal and difficult to tell.
    
Bundle Up.There are 34,000 Rotary clubs in the world, including the Barrow, Alaska club just above the Artic circle, and the Base Marambio club in Antarctica.  Oh, add on to last week's WDYK on the Rose Bowl Parade: Our Patty Byers was a Rose Princess in 1971!
Speaker Schedule
April 29 | Jonathan Culley Redfern, Tallest Building in Portland
May 20 | Kevin Hancock, Hancock Lumber
 
President-Elect Bruce Jones will turn over the bell to these Past Presidents to guest host the following meetings: April 29th: John Marr • May 20th: Bowen Depke  • May 27th: Ellen Niewoehner • June 17th: Roxane Cole  • June 29th: Ben Lowry
 
Club Executives
President-Elect  Bruce Jones
1st VP  Dick Hall
2nd VP  Patty Byers
Treasurer  Howie Herodes
Secretary  Michelle DiSotto
Board of Directors  Ellen Niewoehner, Mark Foster, Bob Clark, Roger Fagan, John Thompson
Sergeant-At-Arms  Dave Putnam
Club Administrator  Alice Alexander
The Windjammer
is published online by
The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine.
 

Contributing Editors
Bill Blount, Jake Bourdeau, Dick Hall,
Erik Jorgensen, Julie L’Heureux, Ben Lowry,
Tom Nickerson, Tom Talbott, Laura Young
 
4th Q Program Chair: Roxane Cole
       Managing Editor  Tom Talbott
Co-Production  Alice Alexander
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