District Governor International President
Gary Benmark John Kenny
Springfield, TN Grangemouth, Scotland
Rotary 2009-10
The Future of Rotary Is in Your Hands
January 15, 2010Today, We get a bit of history of Northwest Tenness, as Circuit Judge Claburn Peeples visits. Judge Peeples was born in Obion County, spent 12 years in So. Fulton Schools, graduating in 1964. He attended UT Martin and UT Knoxville, graduating from UT Law School in 1970. He entered the Army after graduation, working with the Judge Advocate General Core until 1974, after discharge, he taught at UT Martin for three years. In 1977 he began his career in law as a prosecutor for the district attorney’s office in Gibson, Crockett, Haywood and Henry Counties. In 1982 he was appointed district attorney general, an office he held until 2000, when he was elected circuit judge for that area.
Judge Peeples and his wife Rhonda have 6 children, 3 in their 30’s and about 6 years ago they decided they wanted another family, so he and his wife had 3 more children, which are all under the age of 6.
Calyburn will will speak today on some of the colorful history of Northwest Tennessee.
Next week, we have a change of schedule, Al Oliver and his wife, Laura were scheduled to speak of their recent trip to Australia, but instead we will hear from Retired and highly decorated, Colonel Chuck Harrison.
Col. Harrison is a Master Army Aviator, and spent most of his career leading aviation units and flying Cobra, Kiowa, Apache and Apache Longbow, and Special Operations Little Bird Gun helicopters. The last 5 years of his career have been devoted to strategic level planning for the US Special Operations Command and as the Inspector General for the Tennessee National Guard. His career has taken him to some of the great tourism locations in the world to include Iraq, the DMZ of Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Somalia, and other undisclosed, yet desirable locations. In Somalia, he was a member of Task Force Range, and flew 17 hours in close air support during the battle that was depicted in the book and movie "Blackhawk Down". He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during that battle. Some of his awards and decorations include the Silver Star, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, and several more.
Last week,
President Barnes installed Dr. Peter Katz as the newest member of Union City Rotary.
We also had the honor of having the Senior Class of the Union City Band visit, along with Band Director John Easley. They brought along a remarkable display of hardware which they have won in the last year. John has been director of bands for the past 24 years, and in that time period has brought Union City astounding respect for the band program.
John gave us a brief history of the band program, saying that the program started just before WWII, and only lasted 3 years, due to the war. He said he was only the 3rd director of the program in it’s entire history, and this by itself has a lot to do with the success of the program. Starting with John Bishop, then Marion Reithel in 1954, and in 1986 John came on as Assistant Director, and then Director. He went on to applaud the community for their support of the program, and without this support, he said the band could not be what it is today. Also he had high praise for the parents of the band members, and his staff, which he introduced.
He said "band in Union City is just a cool thing to do", unlike many other places in America. "What goes on with the band in Union City is just not the norm in other places" he said. He went into some of the accomplishments of the program in the last 5 years, which were enormous, including 5 State Championships, and it has been 18 years since a Class A or a Class AA in Tennessee has defeated the U.C. Band in competition, Bands of America Class A Champions 7 times, they have more Bands of America Awards than any other band in Tennessee, and the list went on and on.
John then introduced his Senior Members of the band, and called on two of the members to address Rotary, which they did very gracefully.
Coming Attractions
Jan. 22 - Coach Darren Bowling & UCHS Football Team
Jan. 29 - Colonel, Retired, Chuck Harrison
Feb. 05 - Al and Laura Oliver, recent trip to Australia
Feb. 12 - Kurt Baggett, United Way of Obion County
Birthdays
Jan. 15 - David Critchlow, Jr.
Jan. 18 - Eddie Hill
Jan. 19 - Julius Falkoff
Anniversaries
Jan. 16 - Ron and Robbie Green
Jan. 19 - Nick and Emily Hall
100 Years Ago - 1910
Vitamin B, teeth braces and neon signs made their debut.
Henry Ford sold 10,000 Cars in 1910.
Father’s Day was founded.
Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics won the World Series.
Famous Bank Robbers Bonny and Clyde were born.
Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) was born in 1835, while Hailey’s Comet streaked across the sky, and as he predicted, he died when the comet returned in 1910.
Basketball Tonight
Union City @ Bradford
So. Fulton @ Trenton
OCCHS hosts Crockett Co.
Tomorrow
UTM Men hosts Jacksonville St.
UTM Women hosts Jacksonville St.
