District Governor International President
Larry Boyd Dong Kurn Lee
Brentwood, Tennessee Seoul, Korea
Rotary 2007-08
Make Dreams Real
January 23, 2009
Today,
we will get the inside story on the history of a long-time local business, as Trevor Hurst visits and talks about the history and plans for the future of the Ferry Morse Seed Company over at So. Fulton. The company has been in the seed business since 1959.
Trevor is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended Christian Brothers High School, after graduation he signed a scholarship to play football at UTM, playing from 1990-1994. While at UTM, Trevor was selected as the 1993 H.K. Grantham Scholarship Award winner for outstanding academic and athletic ability. He was also the team captain in 1993 as well as being named Academic All Conference. He graduated with a Degree in Business Administration - Management in 1994.
He began his work career at the Fulton Bank in Fulton and later First State Bank. While he was in the banking business he received his MBA in 1997 from UTM. Six years ago he opted to change his career and began working for Ferry Morse Seed Company. Since that time he has served as Vice-president and Chief Financial Officer for that company.
He and his wife, Mary Ann, reside in Martin and have four children. Two of which are in college and two are in competitive cheerleading. Trevor is a member of the Fulton Rotary Club.
Next week, should be very interesting, as John Peters, co-author of "On The Ground -The Secret War in Vietnam", visits and presents the background of, and his experiences with, the "Studies and Observations Group", one of the most highly classified and most highly decorated unit in the Vietnam war. During its eight years of operations, SOG members received eleven Medals of Honor and twenty-six Distinguished Service Crosses, while at times suffering casualty rates and high as 110% (some individuals were awarded as many as eight Purple Hearts.
As a reconnaissance team leader, John led top secret missions into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. Details of the SOG operations remained classified until the 1990’s, and so virtually nothing was publicly known about what the SOG did or where it was done. In 2001, SOG was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for "extraordinary heroism and great combat achievement." In 2007 Mr. Peters co-authored his book, which chronicles SOG operations deep within enemy territory by 6 to 8 - man teams of American and indigenous personnel who often found themselves tracked by dogs and outnumbered more than 100 to 1.
Last week,
Rotarians received a very interesting power-point presentation by Dr. Matthew Wohlfarth, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church and Fellow Rotarians, recent visit to the the Holy Land.
His first stop was in Aman Jordan, and he mentioned the flight over was not one of his favorite things, especially after the happenings of 911, and the plane was not one of the best planes he had ever been on. Some of his first clips were pictures of a map of Israel and the Gaza Strip, which is in the news quite often these days. He also pointed out the Golan Heights and several other points of interest on the map. "Due to the 1967-68, War in Israel and the Golan Heights, there is still a lot of tension in the area", he said. Also as generations come and go, the tensions between the countries is slowly getting better, and there is hope as time goes by that things could get better and better.
On his second day, his party was at Mt. Nebo, where Moses looked out over the "Promise Land", and from Moses’ point of view around him the ground and country was very desolate and baron, but he could see a lush and fertile land from the point he was standing, and this is where the phrase the "Promise Land" was founded, he said.
He also mentioned there could be a problem with your passport, as you traveled from country to country there, because if your passport was stamped by one country and you then visited another country in the region, you could be looked down-on by the next country, so you had the option of getting your passport stamped at some of the check-points.
On the third day he visited the place where Jesus preached the "Sermon on the Mount" and he said there was a church built there in 1938 by Musa Lini. He also visited the city of Philippi, the most northern point of which Jesus traveled.
Day 5 was in Jerusalem where Jesus was taken before Pilot, showed cobblestone walkway where Jesus probably walked, showed the place where the "Dead Sea Scrolls were stored, and visited the Jordan River, where Jesus was Baptized.
Coming Attractions
Jan. 30 - John Peters - co-author of "On the Ground - The Secret War in Vietnam"
Feb. 06 - Paul Marsidi Komodo Dragons of Indonesia
Feb. 13 - Rotary Scholarship up-dates
Feb. 20 - Dr. Stan Dungan - UTM
