DATELINE: Tuesday, October 15, 2002. President Kirtdoll opened the meeting and asked David Markel to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Rev. Tom Clabaugh introduced his guest and middle daughter Patricia. Patricia joined with us today as part of her law class requirement to attend a civic meeting. She is a member of the Niles High School Tennis Team and the Niles Soccer team. Welcome to our meeting Patricia. Please join us again.

BRAGS: Michel Listenberger bragged on last night’s meeting of the Junior Optimists. He said that 15 youth turned out for the meeting and that they are "off and running" for the new Optimist year. Liz Capron bragged on last Tuesday’s Annual Optimist Banquet. She said the food was very good and that she had a good time. She also said the plaques the members received were really "cool". Rev. Lloyd Phillips bragged on his grandson who recently became an Eagle Scout. Lloyd says that his grandson is a straight A student and president of his class. Congratulations Young Eagle Scout! Rev. Clabaugh bragged on Amy Salem. It seems that the YMCA is running a softball league and circumstances made it necessary that Amy eject a team from the league. Tom said she handled it all very well. Bob Rhynard bragged that he had finalized the sale of his insurance business and that as of December 31^st he will officially be out of the insurance business. He has been accepted into the January Registered Nursing class at Southwestern Michigan College and is looking forward to it. John Willis bragged on a soccer coach who called to volunteer his time to lead a Kindergarten Soccer training program at the YMCA. This would give the little ones some training before they got to their first year of Optimist Soccer.

FOR ALL THE MARBLES: Dennis Middleton conducted the 50/50 raffle. Sherry Bunch won a chance at the $69 pot. L L L L L L L She did not pull the Joker. She pulled the King of § . Try your luck again next time Sherry.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Kirtdoll announced that this month’s board meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, October 22^nd at 6 pm at the Majerek’s Corporate Headquarters on Main Street across from the Hall of Cards and Books. Next month board meetings will go back to their usual Second Monday of the month schedule. She also announced that the District Meeting will be held November 8^th, 9^th and 10^th. Please contact her for registration forms if you would like to attend. Robert Todd announced that he has the 2003 Guest Schedule Book and can now take your schedules for guest speakers for next year. This year’s schedule is full.

MEMBER INDUCTION: President Kirtdoll conducted a member induction ceremony for Baba Garba. Baba was the first member to use the new induction pledge that the president obtained from the International website. We are happy to welcome Baba to the Niles Noon Optimists. Liz Capron was Baba’s sponsor and proudly pinned him with his first of many Optimist pins.

IN MEMORIAM: Robert Todd opened our program today in which we remembered Optimist Robert Markel. Bob Todd introduced Robert Markel’s son, Dave Markel. Dave then introduced other members of his family who were in attendance: Dave’s wife of 29 years Jan and his mother Lucille Markel were present along with Dave’s daughter Jessica and son Joel. Dave said that he appreciated the Optimists’ desire to do something in remembrance of his father. He said that it is good to be a part of a group that remembers. Dave thanked the Optimists for inviting him and his family. He also gave a "Bob Markel" quiz. Other Optimist members each rose to tell reminiscing stories about Robert Markel.

Bob Rhynard said that more than 15 years ago there were two people who actively tried to recruit him to be an Optimist. One was Phil Vandenberg and the other was Bob Markel. He talked about how when he began working with the Triathlon Timing program that Bob always had his own system as to how things should be done on the computer. He said that although there have been some changes, it is still done primarily the way Bob Markel intended for it to be done. He talked about how Bob Markel always helped on the Triathlon, but how eventually it got to be too much for him. He said that no matter what anyone said, Bob felt a little guilty that he could no longer do everything that he had done before.

Don Boyer said that he had lots of memories of Bob Markel. He said that he had met Bob more than 20 years ago and he remembers when Bob thought it was a good idea that the group learned to sing during the Optimist meetings. Don said that Bob first brought in easy to sing-a-long show tune like songs. Don said the group of all men at that time, really sounded bad, but Bob wouldn’t give up on the idea that they should sing a song at the meetings. Eventually there was an Optimist song that was developed which they all tried to sing at each meeting. Don said they sounded even worse than before. Eventually they did give it up, but they had tried very hard to stay in tune with the songs and just couldn’t do it.

Mike Listenberger said he got to know Bob Markel in 1985 when Mike served as president and Bob was the treasurer. Mike talked about how they had spent time at Bob Markel’s home planning and working out things having to do with the Optimist. Mike said that Bob always found a solution for any given problem and Bob was always very optimistic about things. He said Bob had an infectious laugh and that no matter what the challenge was Bob Markel was always ready to meet it.

Lloyd Phillips talked about Bob Markel’s service to the club as the organizer of the Salvation Army bell-ringing at Christmas time. Lloyd said that Bob went beyond his duties by going around at each location to make sure that the scheduled person had shown up to do their bell ringing. He said that sometimes somebody didn’t make it and Bob had to fill in and did so willingly. Lloyd also talked about how at The Church they had begun a 2-year course on studying the entire Bible that turned out to take about 3 years and how Bob had told him at one time that "the old testament is beginning to get a little old" because it was taking so long to get through it. Lloyd asked Dave Markel to recall Bob’s favorite Bible verse which was Micah 6:8, which reads: "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

John Willis said that Bob Markel was his Optimist sponsor in 1976. He said that Bob did a good sales job to convince him to join and somehow or another he was actually sponsored twice by the same person. John talked about how we had the Adopt a Highway program. He said that Bob always showed up to help pick up trash along the side of the highway. John would always wonder at how dedicated Bob was to this endeavor even though it was obvious it was a great effort for him. But he said that Bob did it and never complained.

1914: The U.S. House of Representatives approves the Clayton Antitrust Act.

1928: The Graf Zeppelin Airship makes the first commercial transatlantic flight.

1945: Pierre Laval, prime minister of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, is executed by a firing squad for treason against France.

1946: Hermann Wilhelm Göring, the second most powerful leader of Nazi Germany, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution for war crimes during World War II.

1964: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev is deposed.

One morning a petrol station attendant ran into the office the moment his boss arrived, and told him that the previous evening he had dreamt that one of the pumps had been leaking, causing a huge explosion. His boss was skeptical, but when he checked the pump in question, he indeed found a potentially disastrous leak. He switched off the pump and then sacked the attendant. Why?