On June 15, 2020, Rotary Club of Great Falls lost one of its-longest serving members, this community lost one of its most giving citizens, and the Oakland family lost its lovable patriarch. With a pandemic in its earliest stages, we were not able to gather to remember Bob Oakland, to salute his impact on so many lives, and to say goodbye.
Now we can. The Oakland family wants Rotarians to know that a celebration of the life of Robert Harris Oakland will take place next Saturday, June 12, at 11 a.m. in the Davidson Family Auditorium of Great Falls High School. Let's be there to show our appreciation of this gentle giant.
Next Week at Rotary
Next week we'll hear from our newly minted Chief of Police Jeff Newton, a Bigfork boy, a Bobcat athlete, and a long-time Great Falls resident. Join us at noon at the country club or on Zoom!
Last Week at Rotary
Owen Robinson began his presentation at last week’s meeting with an interesting observation: If you want to make a photographer mad, ask him what kind of camera he uses. That’s like asking a good writer what pen she prefers. It isn’t the instrument. It’s the person who wields it.
Then Owen treated us to nearly 180 photos that illustrate his point. Any of us can take a picture of a whale. But a good photographer knows that the beautiful shape of the whale’s tail, the symmetry of lines of water dripping from it and the grays and whites of whale and spray playing against all the shades of those colors in “the deep blue sea” is what makes a great photo.
Sometimes it’s the unique opportunity of seeing something most people haven’t seen that draws interest in a photograph – a leopard shark, Antarctica, elephant seals, the Great Wall of China, the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall. Even then, though, it’s the way the photographer sees it, captures it, designs it, and/or frames it that makes a photograph not just interesting, but a work of art.
Owen has made it his passion to seize those opportunities – and to capture them. Rotarians were treated to photos from pretty much every continent. We saw his favorite team in action playing his favorite sport. We saw flowers and birds and vistas of all descriptions. We saw the Blue Angels all but kissing in a Montana sky. It was not so much the object, though, as the way it was rendered that helped us see the object anew: the orange bill and legs of salmon-billed stork contrasting with the deep black and pure white coloring of its plumage … the face of an engaging woman fully in our focus while her admiring husband was a soft blur beyond her … the intricate, almost geometric patterns of a flower up close.
We look at a great photo and think, if I just had the right equipment, if I could just get to New Zealand, if I were just there when the Blue Angels did that, I could have taken that photo too. But look at this photo of the Tenth Street Bridge. We all see it every day. We’ve all driven by when it’s lit this way. But to capture the beauty of those arches made into ovals by the water’s reflection? To capture it so that the blues change top to bottom and the focus becomes more distinct left to right?
Photography is an art. And like all artistic efforts, yes, it takes time, opportunity, and a certain amount of luck. But mostly it takes a unique way of seeing the world … and practice and patience and a trash can full of rejects till – voila! – somebody else can see it too. Thanks, Owen, for treating us to the beautiful way you see the world.
Giving It Your All
We scheduled it for two weeks ago. And canceled it due to inclement weather.
We re-scheduled it for one week ago. And once again Mother Nature had other plans.
Finally, last Wednesday, Carey Gray and a small, but intrepid crew joined some engineers from TD&H Engineering for a bit of community service. Specifically, they picked up trash on River Road between the 15th Street Bridge and the turnoff to the Interpretive Center.
For many years now, "our" highway to clean up has been the Old Havre Highway, but with construction in progress on that patch of road, we've been looking for a new spot. John Juras invited fellow Rotarians to join his colleagues at TD&H as they clean up the highway right outside their windows.
The weather could not have been more beautiful on Wednesday ... perhaps too much so. It was downright HOT at 5:30 p.m. that evening. Looks like our crew decided to take a breather and enjoy the view somewhere out by Eagle Falls Golf Course.
Thanks, Carey, for heading up the effort and thanks to the crew for the hard work on a hot day!
Milestones
An interesting bit of milestone trivia this month. Our longest-serving member in June is Bill Knick, with 34 years of continuous membership under his belt. Our newest member celebrating his Rotary anniversary in June is Bill's son Marshall Knick, who completes 3 years on June 29. Looks like Rotary Club of Great Falls has a special allure for the Knicks in June. Would that be called a Knick knack?
Weekly Warmth: Memorial Day
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers ....
