John Zahn and Liz Smith are celebrating birthdays. Liz was unable to fend off a raucous serenade.

 

Liam English and Eric Denu are celebrating wedding anniversaries.

 

Spence Putnam has been a member since August, 2012.

 

 

President Paul Horn explained that Rebecca Hanley has family obligations that will make it impossible for her to take over the presidency next year. Liz Marino has agreed to step up to the role of president-elect and accept the presidency next year in place of Rebecca. Rebecca will take the role of vice president. This announcement constitutes a warning to be voted on at the next meeting of the club, August 14.

 

The meeting on August 14 will be a la carte.

 

The final meeting of the month (the 28^th) will be an informal meeting, providing an opportunity for committees to meet. More detail on this next week.

 

Bill Cunningham is looking for 2 captains for Rotary teams to enter the CSAC bocce tournament. We are sponsors of the event and will pay for two teams, as well, and we need to defend our service club trophy. Bill can provide a court for a couple of practice sessions.

 

Mike Kellogg handed out brochures for the Rotary Auction and encouraged members to reach out to organizations and businesses who have donated items in the past. Online bidding begins on September 25, and he needs items well in advance in order to photograph them.

 

 

 

Jason S—late (as usual)

David, Paul, Alex, Larry, and Ben had their picture in the Addy Indy for cleaning up a cemetery under David’s leadership

 

 

Mike—for the visit from Germany by Roman and Tina Ott

Tim—Thanks from Scott for the get well card, which worked—he got well

Nancy—Class reunion for Middlebury High School, 50% attendance

David—a high school friend from Tennessee visited and they went to the Cliff House Restaurant

Eric—was in Pittsburgh for a polio event at which $1.3 million was raised. The current RI president was in attendance

—Also, an anniversary trip to Maine with Janice

Neil—an adaptive pedal from RAD has enabled him to resume using his bicycle

Elise—back from a month’s visit to the Netherlands

Spence—glad to see the relief from hot muggy weather

 

 

Historian David Shameshkin began his presentation on Joseph by thanking Rotary for its generosity to the Sheldon Museum. David has written 4 books and is working on a biography of Battelle.

 

Battelle loved horses and hated automobiles. He had vast inherited wealth and came from a tradition of philanthropy. He married into Middlebury’s Seymour family and was an uncle of Jessica Swift. He bought the Breadloaf property in Ripton around 1865 and turned it into a renowned Inn. He left the inn and thousands of acres of surrounding land (mostly forest) to Middlebury College. The College sold large parts of this land to the US Forest Service, and it became an important part of what is now the Green Mountain National Forest. Battelle was very concerned that loggers would strip the land of all of its timber. He also purchased Camels Hump, which he donated to the State of Vermont in 1910. He owned Chipman Hill (donated to the town) and a parcel of land which he donated to the College for a women’s campus.

 

He loved Morgan horses and established the Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge in 1877, which he later gave to the State of Vermont (UVM). He compiled the Morgan Horse registry and is credited with saving the breed from extinction.

 

He was a town father and benefactor. He subsidized the Battelle Bridge so that it could be constructed of stone instead of “ugly” steel. He built the Battelle Block at the corner of Main Street and Merchants Row out of fireproof materials in the wake of a devastating downtown fire in the 1890s.

 

Writing a biography of Joseph Battelle is difficult because his niece, Jessica Swift, who thought Joseph was crazy, burned all of his personal papers that she could find.

 

 

No winner today.