Foghorn July 28, 2016 Mtg -Shop Talks - Teresa Adam and Richard White

Posted by Editor: FDBobko

The FOGHORN

ROTARY CLUB OF HALF MOON BAY

Article by Bill Johnston

Photos by FDB

Program: SHOP TALKS - Teresa Adam and Richard White

We were blessed with another shop talk doubleheader. This one featured the yin and yang of shop talks.

First up was Teresa Adams. She painted a marvelous picture of growing up Italian with a grandmother from Tuscany and another from Sicily. She shared with us a raft of sepia toned family photos. Born in San Francisco but raised, during her early years on a dairy farm in Mendocino, she credits her grandmother with planting the seed of charity. The Tuscano grandmother would feed passing hobos. Those days on the farm were also the genesis of her love of animals. She had a pet chicken. Her father worked a lumber yard as a mechanic and also worked as a fisherman. When she turned 12 years old they moved back to San Francisco and put her in a Catholic school to protect her from the bad boys. (Catholic school boys had their issues). At the age of 18 she started working in the bank she has never looked back. She has been a banker for 50 years. When she was 19 she married her first husband and begot her son at the age of 34. She shared with us pictures including one with a "fro", fishing with her dad, employment publicity photo and her glamour shot. At the age of 48 her first husband died of a brain hemorrhage. She related a conversation that she had with Jackie Spears who talked about the importance of always having a career to fall back on. She has taken that advice to heart.

In the summer of 1997 she was introduced to Charlie, her husband. She told us about being costumed as a purple people eater in an award-winning skit competition. One of her neatest experiences was serving as the officiant at the wedding for the daughter of her friend who had introduced her to Charlie. Her son is now married and has a son named Dean after Dean Martin. Teresa's daughter-in-law teaches at Palo Alto high. Her son is finishing college at the age of 42 and cares for Dean while running a business providing referees. Although Teresa tries to give her son and his family space, grandson Dean is the "love of her life."

While Teresa's presentation was all about family and relationships, Richard Wright's presentation was a fascinating story of a career. Richard was born in a farming village in England with a village school that featured 27 students in grades five through 11. His father pushed education and from ages 11 to 18 Richard was in a boarding school with 600 other boys. At age 18 he was attending school in Manchester studying biochemistry as an undergrad. He took a PhD at Oxford. Followed by a postdoc in microbial bacteria. He and Robin Jeffs got into a little riff on the adversarial nature of Oxford versus Cambridge (Robin attended) . Richard was a dark blue and Robin, a light blue. The competitiveness culminates in a boat race that has been going on forever. Robin made sure to point out that this year Cambridge won.

Richard escaped academia around 1969 when he went to work for a pharmaceutical company in Milan. He stayed there for five years residing right on Lake Como. He followed the Milan adventure with five years in England at Glaxol and then he came to the United States in 1977. He worked for Bristol Meyer and Squibb. During that time he was working on antibiotics and towards the end on antifungal drugs including AIDS drugs. He pointed out that over the past 10 years there has been amazing progress. He took early retirement to help start a biotech firm in Fremont with 10 employees. He compared the process of creating drugs in a giant corporation versus this little start up as being similar to the difference between an oil tanker and a jet ski. In the startup they were able to change course in a matter of minutes as opposed to months or longer in a big corporation. That startup grew over the course of five years from 10 employees to 250 employees and it was bought by Pfizer in 2005.

2006 Richard moved to Half Moon Bay. He now serves on the science advisory board and the board of Manchester Company which is developing antifungal drugs. They have a product currently in clinical trials. He also consults for a South San Francisco company that is working on a treatment for Alzheimer. They have isolated a bacteria in the brain which may contribute to the cause or progression of the disease. Their research has the potential to prevent or stop the progress of Alzheimer. It is early in the process and quite hush-hush and he could not tell us anything more.

Probing questions from the audience elicited the fact that Richard has four children, two girls and two boys and that his friend Robin Jeffs invited him into the Rotary family.

July 28, 2016 Meeting Recap

Article by Mary Rogren

Photos by FDB

THIS WEEK AT OUR MEETING

Greeters: Christine Quinn, Dick Charnock (Past President)

Pledge of Allegiance: Charise McHugh

Inspirational Thought: Read by Christine Quinn, who has been inspired by the recent violence and attacks in Nice, Dallas, Florida . . . . read the poem, Invictus by William Ernest Henley. “. . . I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

Guests

Shana “Rusty” Reilly-Pond brought her husband Chris Pond to today’s meeting.

NEW MEMBER INDUCTION

Paul Wrubel inducted the “newest Rotary member on the planet” – at least for the current minute ---- Rev. Michael Arase-Barham. Michael is the Vicar at Holy Family Church, and was inspired to enter the ministry while on a pilgrimage on Camino de Santiago.

Paul also presented to Susan Shapira (via her sponsor Ed Shapira) a past president’s badge. Paul remarked that even though Susan is our second newest member (having just been inducted last week), Susan has many, many years of service to Rotary “over the hill” and served as President of her former club as well as in several District positions. We are lucky to have this past President in our club, and we are looking forward to her continued service in HMB Rotary.

Happy and Not So HappyNews

Dianne Bobko shared that she recently hosted “Dinner with an Astronaut” – one of the top selling items that was auctioned off at “Magic on the Coastside”. Dianne remarked that the winner couldn’t have been a more perfect fit for the event! The winner, Sue Ganz-Schmitt and author of children’s book, Planet Kindergarten, bid on the event on the “Bidding for Good” website. Sue and her family live in Southern California, and visited Half Moon Bay for the event --- along with members of her San Francisco based publishing team. Sue is an “aficionado” of the space program, and was thrilled to share a wonderful evening with an astronaut who played such an important role in the history of the space program. When Bo found out that Sue’s husband gave Sue an astronaut jumpsuit, Bo gave Sue some patches to add to her suit! Sue has developed a companion kit for teachers for her book, and she conducts lectures for teachers around the U.S. Given this wonderful event and sharing with the Bobko’s, Sue has much to add to her material! Of course, it sounds like Dianne was a wonderful hostess, and went to great lengths to represent the Coastside – including serving the freshest ingredients from our local farmer’s markets (and including the local chocolates.)

Irwin Cohen shared that he had a recent visit with a former Rotary exchange student, Peter, from Denmark who Irwin hosted 28 years ago Irwin and Peter shared wonderful memories kayaking on the American River and Tomales Bay this past week.

Charise McHugh just spent the last three weeks in Lake Tahoe. Charise hosted (26) of her family members (kids, grandchildren, etc) for five of the days, but had a relaxing time (otherwise.) She’s happy to be back to Half Moon Bay (maybe some wonder?)

Dave Dickson will miss the next two meetings as he will be in Moscow attending his daughter’s wedding! Congratulations Dave!

Announcements

Kevin O’Brien referenced this month’s Rotarian magazine, and remarked that there’s a reason to love Rotary --- This year we are celebrating 100 years of the Rotary Foundation! Kevin noted that members should make sure that Kevin knows when you have donated to the Rotary Foundation so that it counts toward your $200 annual obligation to Rotary. (Last year, our average giving was $536 per member – which is one of the higher numbers in our District, although we are not the highest income.) Half of the club has already signed up for Rotary Direct to make donations – See Kevin for signing up. Kevin has raffle tickets on sale that will count toward your annual obligation. ($200 for 10 tickets. First prize is $3,000.)

Dianne Bobko shared that she and Dwight Wilson, our Treasurer, have been working with Club Runner and have agreed to add a new feature that will provide enhanced capabilities for processing credit card transactions on our website. Members will be able to pay dues online by credit card. We will also be able to accept credit card payments for events (such as the spaghetti dinner) and also accept donations online. The new features should streamline processes for our bookkeeper.

Teresa Adam and Stacy Trevenon provided an overview of the activities for Relay for Life. Teresa and Stacy will be setting up areas for children to enjoy the event. Teresa will be face painting, and Stacy will be reading to kids.

At the time of our Thursday meeting, Rotary was at 76% of target --- $1500 shy of the $5,000 goal. Shana asked members to dig deep but to also come out for the event. She needs people walking at all times in the 24 hours as “cancer never sleeps!” The opening is at 10 AM on Saturday, 7/30, and Teresa Adams is a key note speaker. Shana noted that Stacy arranged for publicity on KHMB. Shana did an interview, and Stacy also arranged for a press release.

Bill Johnston introduced the Half Moon Bay Rotary 2016 Health Challenge that will start on August 4, 2016 and end on October 27, 2016. The event is a weight loss challenge that will be led by past president Dave Andrews. There will be special pools – e.g. to “guess” Dave’s weight. Each guess will cost $5 – and the winner of each pool will split the proceeds with the Half Moon Bay Rotary Club Foundation.

In addition, we will have “Dave’s Challenge”. Each Rotarian is invited to contribute an amount per pound for every pound that Dave loses.

Finally, there is a Club Challenge. Each member is invited to participate and lose weight. If you elect to participate, you are invited to pledge a contribution to the club foundation for every pound that you lose.

Bill emphasized that he would love the publicity: “Half Moon Bay Rotary loses a ton!”

The MARBLE DRAW - no winner this week

and

Pres. Liz has announced some new changes for the marble drawing: There are now two blue marbles besides the white and green ones. If you pick a blue marble, you get $10, if you get a red marble, you pay $5

COMING EVENTS AND SPEAKERS

Aug 4 Jeff Levine, former US Ambassador to Estonia 2013-2015 - His Foreign Service Career/international relations.

Aug 11 New Teacher Luncheon

Aug 18 Club Olympics at Nebbia Winery

Aug 25 Shop Talks - Dave Cresson & Paul Wrubel

Aug 27 Shakespeare Company @ Carter Park – 4th Saturday of the month, 10am - noon, assisting HMB Shakespeare members with clean-up & weeding in Carter Park (adjacent to Stone Pine Center, downtown Half Moon Bay). Bring hat, gloves, Rotary shirt, gardening gear; and enjoy one of the Coastside's beauty spots (and great 'behind the scenes' theatre stories).

PHOTO GALLERY