Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"COLOR YOUR LIFE WITH ROTARY"

Rota-Monica

 ISSUE NO. 12                           SEPTEMBER 29, 2000                           OUR 79th  YEAR

http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org

               

TALE OF AN IMPOSSIBLE COMEBACK 

                Suppose you are a skier determined to reach the finals of the winter Olympics. In 1994 you fail. In 1995 an accident leaves you in such pain that you can’t even stand upright. Pain becomes chronic, and you seem unlikely ever to walk again. 

            End of story? 

            It would be for many people. But it wasn’t for Nikki Stone, a smallish (five feet seven) skier. She exercised her way back to health. Then she reentered a newly adopted Olympic sport called “inverted aerials”, whatever that may be, in which she’d won a U.S. championship in 1993.

She went on to win some 52 national and international trophies in inverted aerials – climaxed by the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano (when she was 29). This was one of the most remarkable comebacks in sport history. 

Publications and broadcasters picked up her story. She found herself featured in Time and Newsweek, on the David Letterman show, and as a sports broadcaster on ABC and CBS. That was two years ago. Since then she’s been booked as a motivational speaker for John Hancock, Delta Airlines, and ten other organizations. 

            “Your story is one of the most emotional and motivating stories of any Olympic athlete,” said Tom Kelley, an official of the U.S. ski team. It’s the story we’ll hear for ourselves at this Friday’s meeting.

 

LOOK WHAT’S IN STORE FOR US

 

October 6 – Visit from Vince Lombardi, ostensibly

October 13 – Killer Bees, Fire Ants and Other Pests

October 20 – Josephson Institute on Ethics

October 27 – Dr. Mark Scholz on prostate cancer

 

ANOTHER FINE DAY 

                For presiding in shirtsleeves, President John Lehne assessed himself a nominal sum. He pleaded poor memory in neglecting to bring a jacket. 

                He also prodded son Steve Lehne’s memory about a raise given him (presumably by Father John, though this wasn’t specified). Steve paid $50 plus another $50 for having a birthday. 

                Other fines/honors on September 15: $25 from Mark Olson for posing as a male model; $125 from Tom Loo for surprising the president by delivering a lecture in San Francisco. 

LOU TURNER IS INDESTRUCTIBLE 

     Several weeks ago Lou Turner stumbled on a sidewalk and broke his back. Fortunately he now lives at Pacific Gardens, a retirement home on Second Street, where ample care is available. So he’s already walking again, and expects to be at Rotary by mid-October.  

LOOKING BACK 

                Do you ever wonder why the Rotary Club of Santa Monica meets in Pacific Palisades? It’s not a bad question. We did meet in Santa Monica for most of our first fifty-five years. During that time we met at the original Santa Monica Athletic Club on PCH, the Uplifters Ranch in Santa Monica Canyon, the Brentwood Country Club and the Miramar Hotel. 

But in 1977 things changed. The Miramar had recently been sold and the new owners wanted to increase profits. One day the owner’s representative, a local attorney, without prior notice informed club president Ed Rafeedie that our meal price was doubled. Ed was furious. When the rep would not relent, Ed went looking for a new home. There are not many venues that can handle a group of our size in Santa Monica. Even though many members enjoyed walking from their nearby offices to the Miramar, we moved to our present meeting place at the Riviera Country Club. 

During my years as president many members felt we should try to get back to Santa Monica. I approached the Miramar and was met by a very enthusiastic manager. He wanted our business. I told him he’d better check with the same owner’s rep. He did, then phoned me and asked if Judge Rafeedie was still a member. I assured him that the judge was an honored and respected member. Then the manager told me that the Miramar was not interested in our business. So here we are in beautiful Pacific Palisades.               

Bill Fritzsche, club historian

 

MUSIC MAN CHANGES CAREERS 

(One of a series on new members of our club)   

 

Financially speaking, these are hectic times for hospitals. They are rethinking budgets, feeling out possibilities of merging with other organizations. Santa Monica–UCLA Medical Center has been maneuvering as strenuously as any to adjust to changing times. 

                The times have put particular pressure on one of our new members, Daniel M. Graham. He is Executive Director of the Office of Development (rough translation: fund-raising) for Santa Monica–UCLA Medical Center. Before Santa Monica Hospital was purchased by UCLA in 1995, he had been the hospital’s executive in charge of encouraging “planned giving programs” since 1990. 

                “The merger took some adjustment,” he says now. “UCLA is a many-layered organization. My life with it is more complex that when I just dealt with the hospital.” 

                Dan’s life from now on will include keeping up with the construction of a $208 million building just starting at the 16th Street site of the 74-year-old institution. The design architect is Robert A. M. Stern, Dean of Yale University School of Architecture. 

                So far, much that is visible of the new establishment is parking ramps. Work on the central building will start next June, and is due to be completed in January 2005. 

                By then Dan is expected to bring in $100 million to help pay for it. He has already raised $32 million of that amount, and now devotes most of his time to cultivating other potential donors. 

                Such work isn’t what he envisioned while growing up in Minneapolis. At the age of three he conceived a passion for piano playing, and by the time he graduated from the University of Minnesota he was launched on a career as a concert pianist and recording artist. He earned advanced degrees in music from Yale and Johns Hopkins, then became a professor of music at the University of Northern Colorado. 

                But after seventeen years at UNC he grew restless. He took leave of the university, spent six months in New York City without finding anything that suited him, then visited friends in the Los Angeles area. They introduced him to people at Santa Monica Hospital, who were seeking someone to support its fund-raising efforts. In 1989 he signed on as a consultant, became “planned giving officer” in 1990, and has been taking on bigger responsibilities ever since. Part of his work is supervising a staff that puts out a magazine, “At Your Hospital” that last year won the Bronze Award in a competition among 900 entries from 16 countries around the world.