Dilworth Honors Frank Kiker As Club's Distinguished Rotarian

Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary Club has chosen Past President Frank Kiker as its 2006 Distinguished Rotarian and recognized him for the honor at the March 17 meeting.

Ernie Rider, the club's 2005 Distinguished Rotarian, paid tribute to Frank. An excerpt of Ernie's remarks follows:
"Today is a momentous day in the life of Dilworth South End Rotary. We finally get to honor one of our truly distinguished members. Not that the other recipients were not as deserving but this is an honor long overdue. Our new distinguished Rotarian has served Rotary well as club president, Paul Harris Fellow and volunteer for every conceivable Rotary project.

His long tenure as program chair is legendary. As you know, it is not unusual for a speaker not to show up for a speaking engagement but our intrepid chairman has had the distinction of having at least two featured speakers show up at the same meeting ready to deliver their program.

Never one to doubt his abilities he is one of the few pilots who have successfully landed his plane upside down, walked away unscathed even before he was licensed to fly.

Many of you have received email from our Distinguished Rotarian regarding important issues six years after he first meant to send them. World traveler supreme -- perhaps you have received a phone call in the middle of the night made from exotic places like Paris (hey I'm up. Why aren't you?)

He may be the only Methodist minister we know who owns wine producing vineyards in France and Italy as well as a buffalo ranch in North Carolina.

Although his middle name is Wade it could just as well be "generous." He is always first in line funding our humanitarian projects. Service above self is clearly more than just words for this staunch supporter of the arts in charlotte. It's pretty rare to pick up a playbill that doesn't have his name listed as a patron. Far more importantly, he has taken and paid all expenses for numerous neices, nephews and assorted friends on some of our humanitarian trips to Bolivia, Honduras, Ecuador and Guatemala. Takoli Hall, a fine, young African American whom he took to one of our Bolivian visits was one of his projects. Taholley graduated from the University of Tennessee last year and now works for the YMCA's Thunderbird Center as one of their Spanish interpreters.

I could go on for hours talking about this distinguished gentleman but i must turn the speaker's mike over to his brother, Joe, for the final roasting. However, let me be the first to congratulate Frank Kiker as our most Distinguished Rotarian for 2006.

Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary
Honors Ernie Rider As Its "Distinguished Rotarian"

The Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary Club has honored Dr. Ernest A. Rider with the club's "Distinguished Rotarian" award for this year.  Past winners chose Rider "Distinguished Rotarian" to honor him for his service at home and abroad.
 
Rider already had been honored by Rotary International with its "Service Above Self" Award, given each year to 150 or fewer Rotarians among more than one million Rotarians worldwide.  He is one of three Dilworthians honored by Rotary International with the "Service Above Self" Award, possibly the only club with three or more so honored.  The other two Dilworth members to receive the award were the late Dr. Clyde Horstmann, a fellow dentist who introduced Rider to Rotary, and the late Jim Whittington, a funeral director who at one time was Mayor Pro-Tem of Charlotte.
 
In introducing the Distinguished Rotarian, club past president and also "Distinguished Rotarian" Barringer said, "[Rider] has given personally, and through his foundation, Global Health Service, literally tens of thousands of dollars in aid to others; he has been to more places more times than anyone in this club in the name of World Community Service [for Rotary]; he has fixed teeth countless times in Bolivia, led a program that provides salt fluoridation in that country; arranged to buy computers for school kids, rehabbed and delivered a dental trailer for the poor in Ecuador; provide replacement zinc roofs in Honduras and Jamaica; in short, he's a doer-not a talker."  
 
Rider has served on the World Community Service Committees of Rotary District 7680 and Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary.  He works with the Dilworth Rotary crew on Habitat for Humanity houses and also does pro bono dental work on children here in Charlotte.

Dilworth Rotary Honors Past President
John Barringer As Distinguished Rotarian 

Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary Club Distinguished Rotarians selected Past President John Barringer as the club’s 2004 Distinguished Rotarian.  He was honored at the Feb. 20 meeting and will be recognized at the District 7680 annual meeting.
 
In presenting the award, President David Hodgkins listed some of John’s achievements in Rotary and in other endeavors.  In addition to being a Past President of the club, John is a Paul Harris Fellow, served on the District Work Community Service Committee.  He has made two mission trips to Cochabamba, Bolivia to assist with dental care for orphans, one house-building trip to La Cieba, Honduras and one mission trip to Quito, Ecuador, providing computers for a school.  He joined Rotary in 1989.
 
 He is a board member of Charlotte/Sister Cities and has traveled to Krefeld, Charlotte’s Sister City in Germany.  As a member of Friendship Force, John has traveled to Russia and Cuba.  He is a member of the Friends of the Library at Queens College and hosts an annual book and author dinner.
 
For many years John owned and operated the Little Professor Bookstore in the Park Road Shopping Center (now Park Road Books), and at various times served on the boards of directors of the National Independent Booksellers Association and the Southeastern Book Sellers Association. 
 
Donna Hodgkins arranged to have John’s wife, Gloria, attend the luncheon to be a part of the surprise presentation.

Dilworth South End Rotary Chooses
Joe Morris As Its First Distinguished Rotarian 

Charlotte-Dilworth South End Rotary has chosen Past President Joe Morris its first Distinguished Rotarian.  There have been nine previous distinguished Rotarians chosen by Dilworth Rotary, but Joe is the first under the new name. 

Distinguished Rotarians are men and women who exemplify Rotary’s motto of Service Above Self.   Joe’s service began early as an Eagle Scout and Camp Counselor.  After graduation from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in history, he then served in the U.S. Navy on a destroyer, the USS Eaton, including a tour in Vietnam.  He was discharged as a Lieutenant Commander. 

A builder, he has served his industry as director and treasurer of the Home Builders Association of Charlotte and as past chairman of the Builder/Realtor Committee of the Charlotte Board of Realtors.  He has worked as a volunteer on 70 Habitat for Humanity houses and has spearheaded the past three Rotary houses built for Habitat. 

In addition to serving as the president of Dilworth Rotary in 1998-99, he also has been a major donor to the Rotary Foundation.  Joe also has spearheaded Dilworth’s overseas service missions.  In non-Rotary activities, he served two years as president of Greater Piedmont Chapter of The March of Dimes. 

Joe, a native of Rurtherfordton, and wife, Sally, a native of Charlotte, have a daughter, Alicia, who lives in Chicago, and a daughter, Jamie, who lives in Charlotte with her husband, Tom Pearman. 

Dilworth Rotary’s Past Distinguished Rotarians:
The late Jim Whittington                  Skip Gribble
The late Harvey Woodruff                 Jim Stump
Pender McElroy                              Harding Shinn           
The late Clyde Horstmann                David Hodgkins
Louise Brennan

Club Honors Past President David Hodgkins
As Dilworth Rotary’s Distinguished Rotarian

Dilworth Rotary Club has honored David Hodgkins as its 2002 Distinguished Rotarian and recognized him for the honor at the May 10 meeting.

 A neighbor of David’s was responsible for introducing him to Dilworth Rotary.  David joined Dilworth Rotary in 1974 and has maintained perfect attendance for 27 years.  David hasn’t just attended, he has been active.  He served for many years as the treasurer of the Rotary Boy Scout Expo and as president of the club in the 1994-95 year.  He served as District Lieutenant Governor for three years, his term ending in 2001.

In the process of compiling his perfect attendance record, David has become known for making up at clubs almost all over the world.  He guesses that he has visited between 50 and 100 clubs in the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe and Asia.  

David also has been a dedicated supporter of the Rotary Foundation.  He has made Paul Harris Fellows of  his mother and father, his wife Donna, and daughters, Christie and Jessica, and son, Tim.  

David was born in Worcester, Mass., and grew up in Shrewsbury, where he was graduated from high school. Donna, his wife to be, also attended there, but they weren’t high school sweethearts.  However, they were married while he was still in the University of Massachusetts where he earned a bachelor of business administration and a master of business administration.

In 1972, he moved to Charlotte to open a Piedmont Machinery Company to be closer to the customers of the metalworking machines he sold and serviced.  The original plan was to stay here a year or two and then return to the Boston area where his father also operated a machinery company, but he and Donna put down roots.