ISSUE NO. 20
DECEMBER 1, 2000
OUR 79th YEAR
http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
For more than twenty years now, a procession of ambitious young actors
and singers has climbed from Santa Monica College into footholds (and
sometimes star roles later) on Broadway, London, or touring road companies.
Why has this kept happening? Because theatrical people have learned to
give heed to anyone trained by the two professors who have run SMC’s
workshop all this time: Janice “Janie” Jones (music) and Frank Turner
(drama).
Each December these coaches stage one show at SMC, a
revue of classic Broadway songs and sketches from such timeless musicals as
“Kiss Me Kate” and “Anything Goes”. After nine hours weekly of
rehearsal during the fall, the forty students in the workshop perform once for
the public on a Friday evening for which tickets are always sold out quickly.
The group also gives one free show for SMC students. And in addition a
half-hour of highlights, by seven chosen performers, is sometimes scheduled
for one or two Santa Monica service clubs.
This is the half-hour we’ll enjoy Friday. The SMC
group scintillated for us in 1997, so Judy Neveau and Paul Gaulke pressed for
an encore this year. Their plea was heard sympathetically because Janie’s
father, James W. Jones, was a member of the Rotary Club of Rialto, California,
and led Rotary groups on many trips abroad. But the first audience as usual
will be Santa Monica Kiwanis, because Janie and her late husband were longtime
Kiwanians.
REMINDER
NOTE: This Friday’s
meeting is our last chance to contribute to the club’s accumulation of warm
clothing for those who need it. Bring whatever you can Friday, and set it
against the wall of our dining room.
December
1 – Santa Monica College show tunes
December
8 – “From Fact to Fiction,” by Al Martinez, L.A. Times
(also club elections and Red Kettle Day)
December
15 – Christmas Party: families invited
December
22 – DARK
(Christmas)
December
29 – DARK
(New Year’s)
Our club membership, always ready to help maintain proper decorum, instantly
enlightened President John when he was on the verge of omitting the invocation
at the start of our November 10th meeting. How could a gentleman who spent
several years in a seminary make such a slip? John fined himself $100 for it.
Mark Olson, Edison’s fine general manager for this area, apologized for the
serious explosion and power outage in Santa Monica on October 25th. A chain
reaction of transformers and other equipment was the cause, affecting our city
for several days. It took considerable rebuilding and recircuiting to restore
power. There were no serious injuries. Mark’s explanation and apology were
accepted, but nevertheless he was fined $225. Anyhow, we salute Mark for the
past reliability Edison has provided.
---
Lionel Ruhman
November 17th honorees and contributors included Shirley Dowling $100 for ups
and downs in Greece … Aiko Brum $175 in fond farewell, since she’s moving
to Hawaii with her husband … Judy Neveau $200 for her new home, which she
designed and decorated … Ken Mirch $100, apparently because Ken Sr.
perturbed President John fifty years ago. This moved your reporter to
deathless doggerel: “We’re all sad that you were bad when in your youth
you met a lad; because he had fun is no cause to fine his son.”
Phil “Whitey” Whiting was called forward by the president but not fined.
This WW2 hero was shot down twice in the Pacific. Another WW2 hero,
Ex-President George H. Bush, corresponds with Phil. We all owe a debt of
gratitude to you and many other unsung heroes.
Lastly, your unbiased Rota-Monica reporter was fined for some incomprehensible
reason. The reporter had written a few lines seeking to shield and protect the
male gender while offering lady members a great opportunity to share their
wealth. We should remember Rotary’s test, “Is it fair to all concerned?”
Seriously, the reporter feels that paying the $150 fine was well worthwhile to
be a member of this great club.
---
Lionel Ruhman
FYI: Effective 10/12, the L.A. International Airport Rotary Club meetings will be held at the “Courtyard by Marriott at LAX”, 6161 West Century Blvd., L.A. 90045. Time and day remain the same: Thursdays at 12:10 p.m.
(One
of a series on new members of our club)
Supposedly
bank loan officers are recognizable by their glass eyes, ready to stare down an
applicant for a loan. But the supposition hasn’t seemed to hold true for bank
executives in our club. The latest case in point is Joyce Khoury, one of our
newest members.
Joyce
is a construction loan officer for Chase Manhattan Mortgage in Century City –
yet her gaze seems friendly and relaxed. Rotarians find her as chatty as, say a
social agency official or a hotel receptionist. One may suspect that
loan-seekers in her office are likely to feel more like guests than borrowers.
Indeed, she was too trusting in her first months in banking, when she was a
teller in a Massachusetts bank. Hustled into the job with almost no training
because the bank was short of tellers, she found transactions deceptively easy,
and soon took pride in keeping the line at her window shorter than at other
windows. This led her to cash a substantial check for a stranger without paying
sufficient heed to his identification. The check eventually proved worthless.
However, Joyce proved to possess a sharp memory for faces. When the same
stranger appeared again at the bank weeks later, she recognized him, and quickly
pressed a button that summoned an officer to arrest him. The man eventually paid
what he owed, and Joyce found herself in high esteem at the bank.
She had never planned to go into banking. Her parents were working people, and
she was the first in her family to enter college. She enrolled at the University
of Massachusetts because it was near home. There was just one drawback. At that
time the university was converting from a technical institute and the only
accredited degrees it would offer were in physics and biology. She chose the
latter, not expecting it to lead to much after graduation, and it didn’t.
While in college she married another student, who was eventually to become a
university professor of finance. They raised three children before the marriage
ended. Taking her husband’s tip that banks were looking for people, she found
it easy to enter the field.
In recent years she has held a series of progressively higher positions as a
loan officer for five financial institutions. As she climbed, she learned about
the construction business, and when she joined Chase last February she became a
specialist in loans to big builders. She spends time cultivating prospective
borrowers, and evidently knows how to find creditworthy ones.
Before moving to Santa Monica she was a member of the Rotary Club of Riverside for two years. She joined our club last spring, and soon took a step unusual for newcomers: she accepted chairmanship of a committee. She thereby committed to making detailed arrangements soon for a club meeting that will honor several public-service employees for unusual service. Meanwhile, we’re happy to have her with us.