DISCURSOS - Rotary International

Who Touched You?
Richard D. King
Past RI President
Mr. President, Mr. President-elect, my colleagues in service:
We have come here today from the corners of the globe to learn more about Rotary and more
about how to be a successful district governor. Now, it may seem to you, after being here for a
few days, that one of your biggest jobs this coming year will be to eat a lot of food! Your clubs
will feed you morning, noon, and night as you visit them and their activities in your district.
When I was nearing the end of my term as governor, my wife saw me coming out of the shower
one morning and said, “Well, I can see that you’ve had every free meal they’ve offered you this
year!” My wife is a dancer. I met her in my Las Vegas revue. Her academic degrees are in finance
and business, but her great love and professional career have been performing as a dancer
and choreographer, and she has performed with many of the great names in Hollywood. She is
physically fit. She does aerobics every day — I think she weighs the same as when she was born
— I mean dancing. I saw her walk across the stage one day in her costume, and I thought to myself,
“Now there goes a girl who ought to be married to a Rotarian!” So I took her away from the
dull show business life and gave her the thrill of following me around the world listening to my
speeches!
Anyway, I was standing there, dripping wet, coming out of the shower with a towel around me
that wouldn’t reach. And by the look on her face, I could tell we were going to have a conversation
I would not enjoy. We did, and I didn’t. She said, “Why don’t you get physically fit?” Then she
went to the store and bought a little trampoline and put it in the corner of our bedroom — right
underneath the Rotary wheel over the bed. I asked her what in the world it was — it looked like a
little spaceship from Mars — and she replied, “Now Rick, you jump up and down on this
every morning, and you will get in shape.” I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather do less, but I
thought, “What the heck; I love my wife, I’ll jump!” (Because I’m not as dumb as I look!) I hated
every minute of it, but on the third day, I got so interested in what was on television, I came
down on the edge of the trampoline instead of in the middle of it and broke my leg. I was so
happy this happened after only three days, and I could throw the trampoline away.
I wore a cast on my leg, and just to show you how the clubs in my district loved and respected
their district governor, I received get-well cards from club presidents all over the district. I could
sum up their sentiment by showing you this one card from a club president. He took the time out
of his very busy year to write a personal get-well message on the inside. “Dear Governor Rick:
We want you to know that the Rotary Club of San Lorenzo, California, by a vote of 17-15, hopes
you recover!” (Which I thought was a landslide, considering that club.) Then he wrote a touching
P.S.: “We were going to send flowers, but that lost 5-27.” I know you too can look forward to
being as much loved and respected as I was.
As a matter of fact, if you have been in Rotary for a number of years, you probably cannot tell me
the name of your district governor when you joined Rotary. Most of us here today probably don’t
remember the name of the club president when we joined. But all of us remember the name of
the person who invited us to become a Rotarian — that individual who touched us and changed
our lives.
And who touched you? Who started you on the journey that brings you here today?
8 International Assembly Speeches 2013