Peninsula In Passage

Rotary Club The North Suffolk Rotary is one of the most viable of the area service clubs with a current roster of 57 members. Hinton Hurff, one of the Rotary’s charter members, recalls some of the club’s earlier days - The Suffolk Rotary, chartered on May 1, 1922, served the entire Suffolk area until 1974 when the club asked Bob Williams to work toward starting a new club to serve North Suffolk. The service club for Nansemond County then was the Ruritan club and had done a great job. Bob asked if I was interested in working with him. We contacted Allen Watson, Bill Cattenhead, Richard Davis, Pret Pretlow, and Richard Turner. From this small meeting we grew to 23 members by our charter night, a great event held at George and Steve’s steak house on Route 17. The then district governor spoke. It seems he was quite dedicated to Rotary and very long winded. After a long, boring time one of our charter members, Bill Davis, interior designer, took matters into his own hands and dropped a cup and saucer from table height onto the concrete floor. Our speaker never heard it and continued his talk. Allen Watson was a great first president and served almost two years. During his administration the first Cedar Point home tour was held as a fundraiser and created a great deal of interest in the club. We had a successful golf tournament for the benefit of the Boy Scouts, maybe $5000 raised. The Christmas parties were a little different in the beginning - all male and heavy fines for the benefit of the club. One time Walter Story, president of National Screen Co. visited our Christmas party and was fined $20.00. I don’t believe he ever attended again. I was the second president and our meetings were still held at George and Steve’s. Bill Cattenhead was the third president and Richard Davis the fourth. At some point, maybe during Richard’s regime, we started having the shrimp and crab feast. One year Everett Newman was supposed to bring the shrimp and when it was time to cook them, Everett had brought the wrong frozen carton and they were frozen tomatoes. Ben Lynch went to Farm Fresh to buy shrimp and saved the day. Another year we were supposed to have an oyster roast at the community house in Crittenden-Eclipse and we had a snowstorm. Spud Jackson got the snow cleared and the oyster roast was held as scheduled. We moved the meetings to Cedar Point Country Club. Pret Pretlow, our fifth president won a name for himself by starting our Christmas parties with the Rotary-anns held at his home at Everets. One or more years Ronnie Rountree dressed as Santa. We dubbed him the ugliest Santa and he did a great job. George Wren became the sixth president and, regrettably, died after serving only one or two meetings. Leonard Willis came to the rescue and fulfilled his term and then became the seventh president. For fines we had to spin a wheel and, as I remember, everyone but the club lost. At some time a “dissident” group met at one table. In fun they formed the “North North Suffolk Rotary” and had their own president. At one time they drank out of oilcans and dressed like sheiks. The members of this infamous group were Spud Jackson, Ronnie Rountree, Frank Schwallenberg and Roy Spears. Spud Jackson was our eighth president, Bill Pinkham, the ninth, and the tenth was Richard Turner. In order to raise funds for Polio Plus, Turner and John Knox hauled a wrecked car to Lee Hernquest’s home. Lee was having a function and raised Cain to get it out of the neighborhood. Richard and John then surprised Peggy and me by putting it in front of our house. I think you were supposed to pay to get it out. Many good times and great memories.

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