Multiple Sapphire Paul Harris Fellows 2006/2007

For the first time in its long history, the Rotary Club of Melbourne has made two of its most prominent and cherished members Multiple Sapphire Paul Harris Fellows - Past President David Wittner and Past President John Kendall.

A softcopy of the presentation and acceptance speeches can be downloaded by clicking here or on the Related File below. 

Otherwise, you are invited to read on....

In presenting these awards, President Chris made the following remarks:

"Would the Sergeant please bring forward David Wittner and John Kendall.

Members and guests today is a special day in the history of this Club, it is the first time the Club has awarded a Multiple Sapphire Paul Harris Fellow.

The Paul Harris Fellow is named for Paul Harris, who founded Rotary with three business associates in Chicago in 1905.  The Paul Harris Fellow was established in his honour in 1957 to express appreciation for a contribution of USD1000.00 to the humanitarian and educational programs of The Rotary Foundation.  Foundation programs provide educational opportunities, food, potable water, health care, immunization and shelter for millions of persons.

Currently, The Rotary Foundation’s total fund is approx. USD 1.68 billion, implemented and managed by Rotarians and Rotary Clubs around the globe.

It is the tradition of this Club that the naming of a Paul Harris Fellow is based upon the contribution of individual members and deserving members of the community who practice the Rotary motto -  “Service Above Self”.

The amount of USD1000.00 is paid by the Club to The Rotary Foundation.

In the case of David and John they have twice each previously received a Paul Harris Fellow, making them Sapphire Paul Harris Fellow, today we honour them with their third Paul Harris Fellow - a Multiple Sapphire Paul Harris Fellow - the first time in the Club’s history.

It is normal practice that I read a citation that outlines the contribution to Rotary service they have made.  However, both David and John impressed upon me that this was not necessary – in David’s words – I quote:

“Normally, an award recipient spends his allocated time saying how thrilled he is, and protesting that it was an undeserved honour!  Well, that's not hard to do in one minute, but could be as exciting as watching grass grow ”

That being the case I challenged both of them to address the Club especially “ensuring that the members remain awake!” – another Wittner phrase.

However, I cannot let this moment pass without mentioning the following:

Both have served in all areas of the Club.

Currently both have made significant and continuing contributions to the Club, for example:

David Wittner - David joined the Club in 1964 and was President in 1979/80.  His untiring contribution to the establishment of the Rotary Club of Melbourne Community Foundation this year is the reason why we are well pleased with the result.  By growing the corpus we will be able to better help those in need.

Within the Club we have the Horizons Committee whose job it is to look at the future direction and issues of the Club.  David serves on this Committee, and has for a number of years including this year where President Elect Peter McCall has formed a special committee to review Club structure, an area where David’s wealth of knowledge and experience is invaluable.  David has said many times “ask and I shall serve.

John Kendall – John joined the Club in 1978 and was President in 1990/91.  He continues to act as the Clubs Archivist, a very important role in the oldest and largest Rotary Club in Australia – this Club is an essential element of the history of Rotary in Australia.

The recent submission to Rotary International – Council on Legislation regarding establishing Corporate Membership as a membership category to ensure that Rotary remains relevant into the 21st century.  We have been advised that the resolution put forward by the Club’s Committee with significant contribution from John will be the lead resolution on Corporate Membership to be decided this coming April.

And of course their wise council - to those like myself who are given the responsibility of leading this great Club.

I would now like to present Multiple Sapphire  Paul Harris Fellow to David Wittner and John Kendall".

In accepting their awards, David & John responded with the following speeches:

Response delivered by David Wittner

President Chris, Rotarians and guests,

This is a humbling experience. 

Having listened to the Presidents citation of an undistinguished Rotary life, I was surprised that he didn’t comment on my humility.

For clearly, I have much to be humble about!

But I am conscious of the great honour that the Board of the Club has bestowed on both John and me on this auspicious occasion.  In John’s case they got it right.  In mine, they may have lost the plot!

But perhaps longevity of membership has something to do with it.  This is my 43rd year of membership, and I have enjoyed every one of them.

It seems odd that I should be given an award for having enjoyed myself so much over the last 43 years!

But I am appreciative, and of course, very much honoured.

As President Chris has already indicated, the recipient of a Paul Harris Award normally says how undeserving he or she is to be honoured, and that should take no more than one minute.  But Chris has asked John and me to use the occasion to reflect both backward and forward in the hope that sleep might not overcome you whilst you are here, and this is a 10 minute task for each of us and all of you!

I have vivid memories of the day I was interviewed about membership of this Club.

I was interviewed by two former presidents, including the much respected Jock Reid, who put it to me quite simply when he said:

“We don’t want you as a knife and fork Rotarian!  If you become a member, we expect you to be involved in the life of the club and give it your support.”

At the age of 31, I was impressed further when on my induction day, Jock sat alongside me and Sir Albert Coates was on the other side.  Seeking the salt and pepper, I asked Sir Albert to pass it to me, and Jock was quick to remind me that if I didn’t drop the Sir and just call him Bert, he might not speak to me!  There was never a better mentor than Jock Reid.

Bert Coates was the President who ensured that meetings would always finish promptly by 2.00 p.m.  During his term, a guest speaker was prattling on and at about ten past two, and sensing that members were a bit edgy, said to the President:  “I’ve nearly finished, just need another ten minutes or so”.

Bert’s response was classic: 

“Carry on as long as you like, but we’re leaving now!”

And that’s why we finish by 2.00 p.m.!

There have been many highlights in this Club and both John Thompson and Owen Parnaby have superbly documented the history of the club at different times.

But in the last 43 years, I count the work done in this Club in helping establish Lifeline, the Baker Heart Risk Reduction Clinic, Crossroads with the Salvation Army, and Claremont Homes as amongst the higher profile projects that we did, and did well.  Currently, the Healthy Hearts Campaign is another high profile Community service worthy of Melbourne Rotary.

And International projects like the Leprosy Project and the work being undertaken in Canberra for the East Timor consulate and East Timor itself reflect well on Rotary and this Club in particular.

Inevitably, projects like these succeed by the dedication of individual members committed to a cause.

The current “Second Bite” food distribution to the needy championed by Bob Glindemann is a good example.  And Rotary enables it to happen.

The impact that individuals have on the history of this club is substantial.  Like the occasion in 1986 when Royce Abbey, then President elect of Rotary International, came to lunch one day and asked the fellows at our lunch table:  “Why don’t you blokes put in for the staging of an International Convention”?

None of us at the table were smart enough to think of reasons why we shouldn’t, and before you could blink, we were putting in for the 1995 World Convention.  Well, the rest is well enough known.  The date was brought forward to 1993 and it was a phenomenal success, regarded by many to this day, as the best ever.

Another example of how a question has significantly shaped this Club was put by District Governor Jack Nankervis in 1980.  He asked me what this Club thought about the revolutionary idea that women should be admitted as members.  I said that the only way to find out was to conduct a plebiscite on the question, and we did.

Most people would have concluded that the conservative nature of this Club would have rejected the thought.  But we didn’t.

21% opposed it: 12% abstained and a convincing 67% favoured it.

At that time, we were the only club in Australia to do so.

In 1973 the Club hosted its first Rotary Exchange student.  Rosette and I and our three children were privileged to be her first host family and it was the start of many exchanges that the Club has participated in since then.

The Rotary Foundation supports many superb programmes, and few are more respected than Student Exchange.  But our Club had been reticent about launching into the program because there was a conception that as a club, we would have difficulties finding host families, and Student Exchange was better suited to smaller suburban clubs.

The chairman of the Student Exchange Committee thought we should conduct a survey to ascertain the feasibility of proceeding.  But a wise Past President in Bill King, at the critical meeting, put it quite simply when he said:

“Never mind the survey – just do it!”  And so it happened!

There have been many events in Rotary that have been highlights for me.  Apart from the comfortable fellowship that occurs when people associate on a first name basis, Rosette and I have always enjoyed the many District Conferences and five World Conventions we have been privileged to attend.

But Rotary in other parts of the world differs significantly from the way we do things in Australia.

I recall the occasion when I was asked to speak in February 1993 to the Rotary Club of Singapore about the forthcoming convention in Melbourne.  The club has about 400 members, and on being introduced and welcomed by the Chairman, about half of those present started leaving the luncheon venue.

Turning to the chairman, I asked if I had done anything to offend those present.  I pointed out that about half were leaving.

His reply was most comforting.  He said:  “You should be congratulated.  Half are remaining”!

I am often asked if Rotary has retained its relevance, and by implication, the question implies that Rotary may have been more relevant years ago than it is today.

Historically, people looked to community service organizations to improve the lot of disadvantaged groups in society because Governments were less responsive then, than they are now.

So what relevance does a community service organization like Rotary have today?

Reading President Chris’s quarterly reports, or attending a District Conference, or an International Convention provides a very clear answer.  The scope of activities conducted in the name of Rotary is breathtaking!

If I am allowed the luxury of offering advice to newer members of Rotary, it is to make the effort to attend a District Conference.  You will not only enjoy the experience, you will be amazed to see how Rotary works in Australia.

And a World Convention gives an even broader perspective of Rotary at work, world-wide.

To the doubters, I ask the question:  If Rotary, through its Foundation, did not finance projects like ridding the world of Polio, who else would have – or could have?  If you accept that Student Exchange, Ambassadorial Scholarships and Group Study exchanges are worthwhile because of the immense goodwill they generate, who else but Rotary could make them happen?

By its actions, Rotary answers the question.  It is as relevant today as it has ever been.

And for most of us, it is why we joined Rotary and remain a member of this club. 

There have been some special occasions I have been lucky enough to have been involved in including the black tie dinner at the National Gallery for our 70th birthday during John Kendall’s year as President and our 75th at the World Trade Centre when we staged a re-enactment of the Clubs first meeting.   

And two others, more recently, with our 80th when Geoffrey Blainey gave us a retrospective overview of Melbourne when we started in 1921, and Rotary’s 100th Anniversary and the presentation of the Centenary Bell to Australian Rotary.

Some people believe that Rotary has problems that need to be addressed through radical restructuring, or surgery, or both!  They see

• Problems involving membership;
• Problems in identifying worthy community service projects;
• Problems related to the practical difficulty of dealing with the disadvantaged in our midst, and
• Problems in finding Rotarians with sufficient time and the inclination to become actively involved.

Well, I am not one of them!

In my view, there’s not much wrong with Rotary at all!

We knew when we became members of Rotary that it was a community service organization with four avenues of service.

Rotary functions when individuals involve themselves in the work of the individual clubs.  This is easily done through the various committees that perform valuable service.  And there are plenty for each of us to choose from.

Past President Owen Parnaby, in delivering the Angus Mitchell Oration in 2001, concluded his address with these words:

“Rotary has always been well positioned to adapt to change and to facilitate change because it carries no baggage.

Rotary clubs are not beholden to any ideology, they own no property, they have no bureaucracy, no entrenched leadership or hierarchy, and they owe nothing to vested interests.

Rotary is simply a friendship group of professional and business persons who are community minded and ready to marshal their skills and influence to meet a community need”.

In the new millennium, let us keep it that way.

And so say all of us!

David Wittner

14^th February 2007

Response delivered by John Kendall

President Chris, Rotarians, Friends of Rotary.

I remain surprised and honoured by this recognition which I would not have approved if I had been on the Board, but I do take pride at being linked with David who richly deserves the honour.

President Chris suggested we might tell you why we have lasted in Rotary, what Rotary means to each of us and does our experience provide a message for you, our fellow members?

I find it difficult to be introspective and to articulate inner motives but, as the Club Archivist, I have no problem in being retrospective and reflective of my time in Rotary and in drawing some conclusions.

This seemed an appropriate approach when I noted from the roster that of our.270 members, 150 have been in the Club for less than 10 years and perhaps have little background for their Rotary life and possibly have NOT read fully either of our two excellent histories!

Certainly as a Club we spend little time now in looking at our organization-very much less time than was the custom in our earlier years when every fourth meeting was devoted to some aspect of our organisation.

Rotary is a SERVICE organization.  The first four members, who were virtual strangers, met for a few times and having got to know each other said: " We are doing alright, is there something we can do for others?" 102 years later Rotarians still say: " Is there something we can do for others — who needs our help?"

The genesis of Rotary in Australia came from the visit of Walter Drummond, a Melbourne architect, to Chicago in 1914 and his chance meeting with Paul Harris.  After he returned home he became a catalyst for Rotary in this country.  He received a letter, dated 27 October 1914, from Chesley Perry the long serving Secretary of Rotary which began:-

"Paul Harris, the founder of the first Rotary Club, once said: 'either Rotary takes with a man or it doesn't. How about it—has the virus gotten into your system?"

My best time in Rotary was as President — in the 70th anniversary year of Rotary — David was President for the 60th anniversary — and whilst David had our first citizen, a real Governor-General, I had an ersatz, aged. Past President Jerimiah P Johnstone Junior of the Rotary Club of Chicago— who turned out to be Campbell McComas.

My Vice-President, Jack Hardy, still hasn't forgiven me for not telling him whom he was escorting to our meeting!  I had the privilege of awarding the Club' first Sapphire Paul Harris which was to PP John Jennings and also of naming him the Club's living treasure in recognition of his seven years as Treasurer after his Presidential term.

In February 1991 I learned of a young lady in a Fijian village who had only weeks to live.  Within three weeks and the work of Keith Brierly, then Chairman of International Service, we used two airlines, the Rotary Club of Sigatoka, two expatriate Australians in Fiji and their parents here.  Rotary District 9920 in New Zealand, seven doctors, Cabrini Hospital, Tattersalls and carried out the surgery needed to save her life.  I recall visiting her in Cabrini after the surgery and seeing her sleeping on the floor — she could not cope with the mattressed bed!

A great memory of being President is that you know everyone in the Club, in my year the whole 312!  Rotary has involved me in drug education through the Life Education movement, in ameliorating the loneliness of the housebound through the delivery of library services, in forming new Probus Clubs as a service to the elderly and ultimately it continues to give me an appreciation of my own good fortune!

I have been privileged to have been involved at both a District and an international level and so have experienced Rotary outside our Club — I can assure you we hold our own against all comers!  May I share with you the time I stood in the queue in the basement cafeteria of Rotary International in Evanston and the man ahead of me pushing his tray was Clifford L Dochtermann the World President!

But before all this I remember that at my first meeting the song for the day — abolished by President John Edmonds in 1987 - was "My Grand-Father's Clock" and I observed Major General K D Green, Secretary of the Premier's Department, the State's most senior public servant keeping time to the music by tapping on his cup with the teaspoon!  I have to tell you that this second level public servant had his opinion of authority changed forever!

My concept of Rotary cannot be summarized better than in the constitutional documents of R I that define the OBJECTIVE:-

"An organization to encourage and foster the ideal of SERVICE as a basis for worthy enterprise and in particular to encourage and foster

1        the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for SERVICE;

2        high ethical standards in business and professions;

3        the application of the ideal of SERVICE in each Rotarians personal, business and community life;

4        the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of SERVICE.

I have stressed the emphasis on SERVICE.

You possibly know that Rotary International sets aside some months of the year — 9 in fact — to look at particular aspects or themes of Rotary and that February is "World Understanding" month.

We were reminded of one way to achieve this by our just returned exchange student, Morgan Jones, when he told how the German people will be part of his life for ever because of his time in Germany.

One of our Rotary's greatest achievements was in 1942 when Rotary in England convened a meeting of 24 governments — many were governments in exile — to plan a worldwide educational and cultural exchange of peoples to counter aggression in the future as an alternative to war.UNESCO — the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation traces its beginning to this meeting.

In 1945 a world conference in San Francisco agreed to and signed the United Nations Charter whose primary purpose was to establish a system of law whereby

"no monumental folly would ever threaten mankind again"

Thirty-eight Rotarians were members of the 46 delegations some as leader.Rotary International was represented by a team of 11 and Rotary is still the only non government organization to have observer status at the UN.  Carlos P Romulo led the delegation from the Philipines.  In 1942 Carlos, a former Vice-President ofRI, was a Lt Colonel and Aide-de Comp to General Douglas McArthur. McArthur was an Honorary Member of the Club and Carlos spoke to the Club and used it for make-ups!

Is Rotary still relevant to me, to this Club, to the world?  Yes it is!  Why?

Because we are still needed!

It remains relevant because it has changed itself as it needed to, and continues to change itself as it needs to in order to meet the needs of the changed societies it operates in.  It is NOT the same organization as it was in Paul Harris' time NOR in Angus Mitchell's time.  Its purpose is the same-SERVICE ABOVE SELF - but it has constantly amended its procedures to meet contemporary demands.

The essence of continued success for Rotary is that Rotarians put the Objects of Rotary into practice in their Club life, their business and community life and in their relations with people of other countries.  In his Angus Mitchell Oration in 1976 Rotarian Herman Sanger asked that we use the objective of Rotary as our compass in life.

So, I return to my beginning.  Have you taken to Rotary yet?  Have you caught the virus?

I thank Val for being my support in all matters Rotary.

I congratulate David on his well deserved honour.

I thank you President and my fellow Rotarians for this honour and for your friendship over my time in Rotary.

John Kendall

14th February 2007