Class Acts - Steve and Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Colin Prestesater contributed $2, one for wife, Kelsey, upon finishing law school at GU and another because they closed on their first house purchase last week.

 

            Bill Simer was happy for the club’s contribution to Ukraine relief (see below).

 

             Ron Noble was still happy about mention of his Rotary years and for wife, Melody.

 

 

            A nice response to Putin’s ‘Victory Day’,

 

             Treasurer Bill Simer said that May 9 was the day the club sent $1,000 to the International Red Cross to help for Ukraine relief. The club sent $500 and an anonymous donor matched that via the District 5080 Charitable Fund.

             Simer noted that May 9^th is Victory Day in Russia, a date commemorated with the defeat of the Nazi campaign. 

             Several weeks ago, Club 21’s International Committee sent $2,000 to the Red Cross for Ukrainian relief adding to the $4,000 sent earlier from that club. 

        

            One more open spot needed:

 

            President Lenore Romney said only one position – president-elect/vice president – still remains to be proposed for the club’s 2022-23 Rotary list of directors and board members.

            The quad-chair presidency nominees would be filled by Steve Bergman, Michelle Fossum, Melinda Keberle and Steve Boharski.

 

            Lenore Romney would be Past-president and Treasurer.  New Secretary would be Nancy Hanson.

 

            Director candidates would be Bill Simer, Chuck Rehberg, Ron Noble (at-large), and Colin Prestesater.

 

            Romney said with this bulletin notice the official list has now been published and voting on the new board members will be done May 16.

 

           

            As with other club members who have discussed their life paths, the May 9 luncheon --  which featured Steve Bergman and Dave Hayward --  again showed by our members who have traveled to many other cities but now have stayed in Spokane.

 

            Their classification talks again had the common denominator: Spokane is a comfortable place in which to live.

 

            For club past-president Steve Bergman, his family was from Louisiana and Bellingham, Wash., was home and marine occupations were at his roots.

 

            “My dad worked on boats and marine engines and he could fix anything on the boats, Steve said.

 

            Since childhood Steve has sailed around the San Juan Islands, to Vancouver, B.C., and elsewhere.

 

            He said he made the best of a split family.  “I would get two Christmases,” Steve said.  “And when one parent took me to Disneyland, the other took me to Disneyland and Universal Studios.”

 

            Steve admitted scholarship was not a top priority in his youth.  “I was a solid “C” student, not ready for college” he said.

 

            Steve said he loved his union job with Georgia Pacific’s timber company, but was “devastated” when layoff notices came in just a few months.

 

            Asking “now what?” he enlisted in the Air Force as a “utilities specialist.”  “I was a plumber,” Steve said.

 

            He said his mom was just 17 when he was born and, likewise, his wife was a high school senior when their daughter was born.  Life in California included forgettable small towns and one outing with the boys in which rangers kicked the group out of the Sequoia Forest.

 

            Steve said a recruiter, talking about re-enlistment, said, “if you leave, you’ll never be anyone.” Steve, wanting to see his daughter, who had moved to Washington State, said “that was my motivation to leave.”

 

            A friend told him about the GI Bill, so Steve worked through SFCC, EWU and then GU Law.  A good starting job with Bill Powell’s law firm helped him establish with a family law practice at the Cooney firm.

 

            He found a girl on-line and said “I was seriously nervous,” when he found that her brothers are 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-4.”  But the marriage worked, Spokane was a comfortable place to grow, and he can work on his prized Bayliner boats when he gets over to Bellingham. And life is good.

 

            Dave Hayward’s family moved from Trout Lake, Mich., in the Upper Peninsula, to Rhinelander, Wis., a north woods hamlet of 8,000.

 

            He proudly noted that his dad, a tackle at Miami, was the first person to kick a field goal in the Orange Bowl.  Dave played football in high school and has long been a WSU Cougar, with crimson and gray helmet, and shelves full of knick-knacks and gear in his basement.

 

            Dave said his dad, a sales rep in forest products, moved the family to Cleveland, San Francisco, Altadena and San Marino, Calif., and then Longview, Wash.  “He was a corporate gypsy, but tied to one company,” Dave said.

            Dave went to WSU and joined the ROTC advanced program.  Since his military service could be delayed six months, he worked in merchandizing in Osco Drug’s Idaho Falls store.  Dreaming of a European trip, Dave said “in six weeks, I saw nine countries, using a $5-a-day” book.

 

            “When I got back to Portland, I had 5 cents in my pocket.  I borrowed 10 cents to call my dad to pick me up.”

 

            The ROTC spot sent him to quartermaster school at Ft. Lee in New Jersey and Ft. Lewis, near Tacoma, then to the 25^th Infantry in Vietnam.

 

            Dave said he also declined “the re-up talk,” but in 1970 found the recession and few jobs.

 

            Osco had kept Dave on a leave, and he worked in Helena, Mont., but that firm’s training program ended and he needed a new direction.  His dad had golfed with banker friends who mentioned a SeaFirst training program.

 

            One question, he said: “How mobile are you?”  His response: “six times in 14 years – Seattle, Kelso, Vancouver, Tacoma, Issaquah and Bellevue Center.”

 

            When SeaFirst had difficulties, the Bank of America bought them and filled spots with Californians, Dave said.  Fortunately, a friend mentioned a need for lending officers at Washington Trust, and Dave had his niche.

 

            Dave, a Spokane-North Rotarian since 1986, has been a fixture at Washington Trust since his retirement, which includes an annual snow-bird trip to the Mexican coast.

 

            Dave shared a common refrain of “the bankers’ Golden Rule:  We have the gold, so we make the rules.”

 

Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink