Glenn Erb

It is with sadness that Glenn Erb has passed away.

He was a Rotarian since 1950.

Born - May 20th, 1922

Deceased - August 16th, 2012

Our Rotary thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

A ROTARY TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF RON STRATTON

For nine years Ron Stratton was, to OUR Elizabethtown Rotary Club, a lightning rod for improved quality programs, productive fund-raising, challenging activities, intelligent debate, hilarious promotions, intrepid public relations, eloquent communication and history, and above all, zealous membership recruitment.    He was a Music Man and a Rainmaker, a Wizard of Oz and Obi-Wan-Kenobi, a Gandalf and a Gandhi, a Shoeless Joe Hardy and a Peerless Price, a Svengali and a Sevareid, a Peter Pan and a Peter Parker(Spiderman!), a Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf and a Norman Vincent Peale, all wrapped into one dedicated and accomplished Rotarian! 

Ron first visited us on March 18^th 1993, retired from 44 years of broadcasting in September of that year, and joined our club on May 1^st, 1994, sponsored by Ann Reinhold.  He immediately jumped into the work of the club by guest editing the SPOKE twice in July, in the absence of Dan Eshleman, giving us a hint at his word-smithing talents. 

He was inducted on August 19^th, 1994 with Mike Murphy, Beth Richardson and David Wyche, and gave a memorable classification talk on October 21, 1994.  I say memorable, because it was one of the first times he got near the microphone, and his broadcasting personality switched on for 30-minutes of pure entertainment—it was only a harbinger of things to come!

His first make-up was at a Club in Florida in January of 1995 and he managed to eke out 8 full years of Perfect Attendance while among us!

It was the Christmas Tree sale of 1994 that grabbed his attention.  After working a shift alone, and seeing the end result of $1700 profit for the season, Ron went to the Board and offered to take over the sale for 1995.  Using his marketing and broadcasting background, he first had to sell US on the idea that the Tree Sale could bring in BIG profits, and then he turned his salesmanship on the public.  What we now do with the tree sales seems “old hat” but all we ever did before Ron was rack the trees and take in money.  These were all his innovations:

  1.       Moved from a vacant lot (now Rita’s) to the Giant parking lot

  2.       Purchased the tree baler, to wrap them in plastic netting

  3.       Acquired the first changeable lettering sign

  4.       Began the world-famous Tree Sale Countdown

  5.       Advertised through VAL-PAK coupons and in the Chronicle and Merchandiser

  6.       Improved overhead lighting, and convinced Giant to let an electric box be installed

  7.       Achieved 100% Rotarian participation in one or more phases of the sales

  8.       Instituted aggressive, competitive pricing strategies

  9.       Wrote volumes of instructions on how to sell, how to price and label trees, and how to use the equipment. 

10.       Demonstrated, at a club meeting, the proper use of the leaf and needle blower!

The 1995 Tree Sale Profit came in at $5000…. 

                                          1996…$10,000… 

                                          1997…$15,000 and 

                                          1998…$18,000!

Among Ron’s accomplishments, he edited the SPOKE for 6 years, chaired the Christmas Tree sale for 5 years, founded and moderated “Rump Rotary” (a Wednesday morning coffee break at K-Mart), created the weekly auction, collected 18 volumes of Club Archives, authored the informative and entertaining history of the club, contributed to become a Paul Harris Fellow, served with distinction on the Board, wrote several new songs and revised some old sexist lyrics, and carried the mantle of Club Rotarian of the Year.

Ron was integral to the membership growth spurt  that occurred from 1994 to 2003 by  both directly by sponsoring 10 new members  (Awad, Fetter, Garrett, Olives, Pelletier, Rhen, Zogorski, Herr, Kegerize, & Tucker) and perhaps more importantly, indirectly, through the overall improvement of attitude and commitment that he inspired in our club members in that time period. 

I know that Ron made ME a better Rotarian by his example and his relentless practice of the 4-Way Test in everything he did.  It was certainly a proud moment for me to be made a Paul Harris Fellows on the same day as Ron in September of 1999.  It was through Ron’s decision to drop from the officer line that I was recruited to fill in, and that brought me to the Presidency in 2002-2003-- Ron’s last year with the club.  The experiences of that year forced me to examine what Rotary really meant to me, and what being a GOOD Rotarian really meant.  Although circumstances took him away when he moved to Red Lion, I was fortunate to benefit from Ron’s continued advice and support during that term.

I was able to coax him to come back as a visiting Rotarian from the Red Lion Club, on May 2, 2003.  I took the liberty of proclaiming that day to be “Ron Stratton Day at Elizabethtown Rotary” and as I look back on all that he did for the club, it hardly seems special enough. 

And so, I write this blog post for those who knew Ron, and also for those who never had that privilege, in the hope that his memory will be enough to stir some of us to be a little more passionate, a little more creative, a little more evangelical, a little more forceful, a little more innovative and a little more daring for this wonderful idea called Rotary—an idea which Ron Stratton might have created, had Paul Harris not beat him to it!

Tom Labagh

Past President, 2002-2003

Bill Mummert

It is with great sadness that our club says goodbye to a wonderful man and Rotarian, Bill Mummert. 

His passion for supporting the local food banks will live on as we designate the Month of August - Local Food Bank Month for the Elizabethtown Rotary. 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Arlene and the rest of the family.