ISSUE
NO. 40
MAY 11, 2001
OUR 80th YEAR
http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
THREE STORIES OF QUIET WINNERS
(Public Service Awards)
Every
night and day, near us but out of sight, quiet struggles go on. People on
Santa Monica’s tax-supported public payrolls devote their working hours (and
other hours too, occasionally) to making our city a happier, safer place.
Once
each year, our Rotary meeting salutes notable public servants on three of
those battlefronts.
One
of these is named by the people in Santa Monica’s public schools. It’s
usually a teacher who has gone to extraordinary lengths to help students
improve their chances in later life. The teacher (or maybe an administrator)
will be with us this Friday, to receive our tribute while we hear what he or
she has done.
Another
of the honorees will be from the fire department. Maybe it will be for heroism
in fighting a fire. Or maybe it will be for ingenuity in arranging the rescue
of someone trapped in a damaged building. There are four emergency calls to
help people in such predicaments on an average day.
And
the third public servant will be someone from the police department. Maybe the
award will be for quiet diplomacy in changing the behavior of a juvenile gang.
Or maybe for courage in a shoot-out – many of our officers (including Jim
Butts, our police chief and longtime Rotarian) have been in gun battles on the
streets.
Whoever
the three are, we’ll hear about them, and honor them, this Friday.
A
FINE SPECIAL DAY
Our
illustrious past president Bill Hunt was fined $25 for cruising the
Pacific. Knowing Bill, I’m sure there was never a dull moment for Bill and his
friend. We’re all happy for your exciting trip.
Our
thanks and respect go to Bob Klein, who continues to serve our community
so well by his endeavors at St. John’s Hospital and also the annual Jimmy
Stewart Marathon. These fine works cost Bob $25. Thank you, sir.
Elza and I (Lionel) are very happy to pay $250
honoring our son Eric and his fiancée Adriana, who will be married on May 12.
Having traveled several times with the elite happily married volleyball team
members, Eric (age 40) decided to join the fraternity. Stay tuned for exciting
future developments.
--
Lionel Ruhman
DON’T
FORGET THESE CHANGES
Friday
evening, May 18 (instead of noon Rotary lunch) dinner party in tribute to Esther
Johnson, at Con Oyler’s home, 14974 Corona del Mar, Pacific Palisades.
You’ll need reservations. Phone Con’s office, 917-1041, or Rotary office,
434-9992.
…AND
 |
Friday,
May 25 – No meeting, in honor of Memorial Day |
|
Friday,
June 1 – Dr.
Anthony Sokol speaks on plastic surgery |
|
Friday,
June 8 – The
History of Santa Monica – Sid Reyes |
|
Friday,
June 15 – Craft talks |
|
Friday,
June 22 – NO LUNCH MEETING – EVENING DETHRONING DINNER* |
|
Friday, June 29 – Speaker: Alonzo Hill. Topic to be announced |
SOME
ADVENTURES OF A NEW MEMBER
(one
of a series on new members)
Kidnappings
in Lebanon are a smooth-running business. When our new member Karim Jaude was
abducted in May 1966 he had no chance to resist. He was walking alone down an
exit corridor from the Beirut airport when four men appeared around him. Quickly
and silently they seized both arms, clapped a hand over his mouth, and deposited
him in an auto just outside.
For
four days and nights they shuttled him from one lonely camp to another,
preventing would-be rescuers from locating him. Meanwhile they questioned him
continuously, extracting details about his numerous business holdings throughout
Lebanon, and drawing up papers whereby he signed over ownership to them. (These
documents might not have stood up in court, but Karim never challenged them,
because his captors threatened that if he did so they would return and kill
him.)
When
they freed him he was insolvent. He had been a millionaire a week earlier. His
father had died when he was five, but left behind a busy manufacturing company
for which Karim had gone to work at the age of six, pushing wheelbarrows. By the
time he was old enough for college his savings, plus his family inheritance,
enabled him to embark on an elaborate higher education, studying at the Sorbonne
in Paris and other prestigious institutions in Belgium, England and Lebanon.
“I was the joke of my classmates,” he recalls now. “Always reading books,
cramming notes into my pockets. But I was hungry to learn about business and
investment.”
When
he finally felt adequately educated, he persuaded three prominent professional
men in Beirut to back him in real estate investments. After three years his
company employed, among several hundred others, four of his brothers and an
uncle.
The
kidnappers left him destitute in Lebanon, but they didn’t think to ask about
his holdings in other countries. These were substantial. Ricocheting among them
and building them up, he was soon paying 310 people in France, Spain, and Italy.
His subsequent business career included more adventures than can be recounted
here. They included a clandestine exit from Iran disguised as a woman, and a
near-death experience when a bomb exploded in his car.
An eager traveler, he has been in 76 countries, and usually reads intensively about a place before visiting it. For a while he was fairly fluent in seven languages – but now, he confesses, he can converse only in Arabic, French, and English. On one of his trips to America he met his future wife at a tennis club. They settled here in 1984. They now live in Brentwood, and occasionally visit their son and two granddaughters in Dallas. He operates a realty syndicate based in Los Angeles. Welcome to Rotary, Karim!