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