Bob Stuart enthralled us at our June 2 Club meeting with his story of how 50 years in Rotary totally changed his life (image above). His story started in Springfield with a dad who could not join Rotary. He got his degree from the University of Illinois Urbana and became an attorney with a Springfield firm. Bob had belonged to a Scottish University Club and wrote their Newsletter, but had an interest in joining the Rotary Club of Springfield because all the "heavy lifters" in the community were there including individuals such as Bill Menghini. Fortuitously, he grew up with the daughter of the classification chair for the Rotary Club of Springfield (Bob Barker). His connection with the classification chair's daughter paved the way for Bob, another attorney in a club that already had attorneys, to be accepted as a member of the Club.
He rose to Club President and Program Chair when the membership was around 160. He learned to work the room and made numerous lasting contacts. He served as an Assistant Governor for District Governor Ed Peterka of the Rotary Club of Galesburg. Bob became District Governor, which resulted in about half-time work on Rotary and calling his clients at night. He spoke about Rotary as a team and as family, including his past wife Pat and their daughter Corrie. They accompanied him to Zone meetings. Pat was a Rotarian and Corrie became a Rotarian and has belonged to three different clubs.
In Rotary, Bob took advantage of learning more about donor advised funds and polio and developed an extensive international network of contacts. He was elected as a Rotary International Director, which increased his contacts and his participation in disaster relief and other humanitarian efforts around the world.
His national and international work for Rotary is impressive. For example, he has worked on polio immunization in Nigeria. He started a donor advised fund for disaster relief that helped greatly with disaster relied in New Orleans after Katrina and funded a new Community Center in Bay St. Louis. He developed and maintained international contacts, which led to more projects and more contacts. He became acquainted with Ravi Ravindran (RI President 2015-2016), who helped develop donor advised funds to rebuild 27 schools in Srilanka and with Barry Rassin's (RI President (2018-2019) work in Haiti, where donor advised funds helped rebuild schools. He worked with Jaipur Limbs in India, as well as with medical teams in Nigeria and elsewhere immunizing children against polio. Following the 2025, Earthquake in Nepal, he worked with projects to build temporary homes and build schools. Through Bob's efforts our club now has a District Global Grant to provide clean water to a Nepali town. This project is just getting started. He noted several times in his talk that it is all about the kids and the lasting connections. 
We are honored to have him as a member of our club and are eager to see what he does next.