Member Spotlight

Our club weekly meeting today was by Zoom only since the Senior Center was closed Monday through Wednesday for election business only so we had to resort to Zoom for our meeting.



Discussion was held about the value found in the Rotary magazine that recently arrived at member's homes. Please be sure to read a few of the articles.

The Churchill HS Interact Club along with the AM Rotary met on 2/27 at Forgotten Harvest to pack meals and sort donated food. The event was from 1:00 to 4:00 with 16 teens joining with President Claude and Bob Carris to do the work. The kids worked fast and their jobs were completed.

Several Rotarians joined Erin Dobbins (event host) at the Taylor Conservatory's Mardi Gras Fundraiser Party this past weekend. Photos show lots of costumes and even a dragon dancing. Looks like a fun time at the Mardi Gras event.

The Rotary Club of Mitchell Field (Wisconsin) came to town to purchase 25 soccer balls that their club will take on their work trip to another country.

David Stechholz started off saying he is healing well from his surgery but has to remember that he needs to slow down so he can heal. He is a 4th generation Luthern Pastor who was raised in a small NJ town. David started his career off in Oakmont, Pennsylvania in an old Church that was next to a funeral home. David, being friendly, made friends with the owner of the English Funeral Home, Dale English. That friendship between the two was the start of David Stechholz's Rotary adventure. Dale was President of the Rotary Club and asked David to come to a meeting. David joined the Rotary club. He served 3 years as secretary and the President in 1986-87. During this time women could no longer be barred from Rotary. David inducted 4 women during his term as President and only lost one member because of women being in the club.

Danville, CA was next for David where he joined their Rotary club for 3 years. The Stechholz family moved again to San Francisco were he accepted a pastoral call to serve West Portal Evangelical Lutheran Church and School. Dave served there for 15 1/2 years. He joined the San Francisco Rotary Club which happened to be the #2 club in the world and was founded in 1908. He served on the Board of Directors for his club. Then in 2006 Dave was elected bishop/ President of his church body's non-geographic diocese (English District-Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod).

The headquarters is in Farmington, MI which brought the family to live in Livonia. Dave joined the Noon Rotary but during COVID ZOOM meetings he found a better fit with the AM Livonia Rotary. Dave will be President next year of our Club.

He and his wife Janet have three children, a son and two daughters. Plus 5 grandkids. His hobbies include walking, working on model trains, writing (he's currently working on a book), singing, and working on crossword puzzles.

Bob Carris grew up in upstate New York where he attended the University of Buffalo. Bob was in ROTC and wanted to attend grad school studying hospital administration, but the Air Force also wanted him. It was decided he could complete his schooling since it was a field the Air Force needed. He graduated and then was assigned to Scott Air Force Base where he checked the credentials of incoming medical service people. It was there that he met his wife, Teri, when Bob made a signal to the secretary that he wanted to talk to Teri. The rest is history, as they say.

In 1977 the Carris's moved to Michigan where Bob oversaw an operating room. He noticed the surgeon having great difficulty putting in a stint for a heart patient. The stint would pull off so Bob showed the doctor a trick he used from auto repair by putting a little suture in the tube they could pull the tube through. Bob's procedure is still used today.

When Bob moved to Livonia he worked for Edward Jones for 5 years. It was the custom of Edward Jones that their employees go to service clubs and pass out literature. This gave Bob a broad overview of the service clubs in the area. He joined our club and served as president of the club 6 times.

Dr Stanley Ngeyi was also a member of our club with family in Cameroon. The two men formed a friendship in part with their medical backgrounds. When the Dr. Stanley's village in Cameroon was attacked by a neighboring village, buildings were destroyed. The police said there was nothing they could do but would build a police station there. If the village was attacked again it would be against the government. The village felt safe that it wasn't going to be attacked again. Dr. Stanley would travel back to his village to help rebuild. Bob traveled to Cameroon to help with the rebuilding of two schools and a maternity hospital. The villagers treated Bob so well that they named him the prince of the village. They even gave him a cow which he regifted back to the village.

Bob was able to obtain an ultrasound machine that he's trying to get back to Cameroon along with someone that can train the villagers on its use.

Susan Paluchniak