Lively discussion and laughter romped through both the zoomers and the in-person crowd at the Anderson room before our meeting. After Emily Olson’s zoom etiquette, Tom Strode and his trusty grand piano accompanied the Club in God Bless America.
Bev Seiford inspired us with a poem penned by treasured A2 Rotary Club member, the late Art Holst:
To the Stars:
Over a hundred years have passed
Since Orville and Wilbur Wright
Upon the sands of Kitty Hawk,
Took that monumental flight.
With our eternal searching
To make things better soon,
We’ve gone from Kitty Hawk to Lindbergh
To Armstrong and Cernan on the moon.
Now we look beyond the clouds
to travel to the stars.
Beyond the clouds, beyond the moon
and all the way to Mars.
But balance is the partner
of technology and schemes,
And dedicated people
Make reality from dreams.
So as we leave this meeting,
A final thought I have to share;
How you perceive your future
Charts the course that gets you there.
Ingrid Sheldon beguiled our members with a classic with a jazzy twist: a video of Diana Krall singing Fly Me to the Moon.
President Susan welcomed members and guests including Dave Gilbert from Chelsea and Rotaractor Trevor Versailles. Lorraine and Sarah Field, wife and daughter of Distinguished Award winner Michael Field were also welcomed. Lois Jelneck’s daughters Ann Kelly and Chris Weber were also welcomed.
President Susan thanked today’s meeting coordinators Emily Olson, Ashok Natwa and Don Duquette; reporter Mary Steffek Blaske; photographer Fred Beutler; and attendance taken by Dawn Johnson
Please contact Dan Romanchik dan@danromanchik.com to find out specifics about Saturday gatherings of club members over coffee and doughnuts at the park at 10 a.m.
Larry Henkel’s Memorial Service will be on Saturday, May 14 at 3 p.m. at Nie Funeral Home on Liberty Road. Larry was an active member of our club since 1987. Friends may visit starting at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served after the service.
Upcoming birthdays of our members were announced.
Distinguished Service Award honoring Michael Field
Lauren Heinonen and Marsha Chamberlin prefaced their remarks by noting that club members might not have known that the humble recipient of this award has every reason to be celebrated and honored for his life of service.
Hailing from Woodstock, IL, Michael Field spent a 25-year career with the Navy. After graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1966, Captain Field completed Navy pilot training, earning his Wings of Gold in 1968. He went on to complete 140 combat missions in the Vietnam war, flying the F-4 Phantom II from the decks of USS Enterprise and USS America.
Michael was selected as an Olmsted Scholar in 1971, and he earned a graduate degree in International Relations from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He then joined the first operational deployment of the F-14 Tomcat onboard USS Enterprise.
He later served staff tours in the Pentagon and at the Headquarters of the Atlanta Fleet Naval Air Force. From 1982-83 he was Commanding Officer of Fighter Squadron 41, embarked in USS Nimitz.
Michael then served as Operations Officer in USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and subsequently as Commanding Officer of the NROTC Unit at Boston University/MIT.
While on active duty, Captain Field earned the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Air Medal (as well as 7 Strike/Flight Awards). He ended his Naval career with approximately 3,000 hours of pilot time and 900 aircraft carrier landings.
After retiring, Michael earned his PhD in Political Science/International Relations at Boston University, where he served as assistant provost. Michael was president of The Wardroom Club in Boston. Established in 1899, membership consists of active duty, retired, and former Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps Officers and Merchant Marine Officers who have served their nation with honor. He also served on the board of the Association of Naval Aviation.
Since coming to Ann Arbor, Michael has been active in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, where he has served in a leadership role on the church vestry, and was co-chair of the campaign to raise money for the new classic mechanical organ for the church.
He believes his selection for this award is a case of mistaken identity, but his work for the club makes him front and center for this award.
Michael began a third career with Rotary in 2012 with Agnes Reading as his sponsor. He served on the GTO, served on the Board, and serves as co-editor of the Ann Arbor Rotarian – something he has done for the past 10 years. He is the one getting news onto our website and newsletter into your hands every Monday.
He has devoted 10 years to Community Allocations Committee where he has refined the scoring system and implemented a schedule of grant processes that makes the committee run with the same precision as the fighter jets and carrier landings that were his navy career
Supporting Michael throughout these enterprises has been and is his wife, Lorraine, whom he met when they were in high school in IL Michael and Lorraine have two children, both of whom live in town: John Field – who works for Amazon, and Sara Gronewold, a sought-after massage therapist. Michael and Lorraine enjoy being with their five grandchildren. In his spare time, Michael sings in the church choir, participates in two golf league leagues.
To a standing ovation of all present, Michael Field received the Distinguished Service Award with thanks and, “ I am flattered, and it great to be part of an aviation theme meeting today.”
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Marsha Chamberlin invited Rotarians to be greeters at the Embracing Our Differences event taking place at Gallup Park on Saturday, May 14th. 60 billboard-size pieces of art (including one by the late Ann Arbor artist Ellen Wilt). Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NWoVsKBZJh9-heWwKYvcL5fraxH3XGGVVGaensH8sso/edit#gid=0
Marsha continued with the announcement of the 2022 Community Allocations Grants. She thanked every club member for supporting these area nonprofits who “help kids succeed.” This year there were 19 applicants and 12 were funded. (Number of applicants were down we think because of Covid interrupting many of the nonprofits ability to serve their constituency.)
Recipients this year are:
826 Michigan – for summer writing workshops
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra for their KinderConcert series
Children’s Literacy Network – family literacy interactive program
Community Action Network – to upgrade kitchen at the community center
Food Gatherers – to provide food for kids in the summer that usually get food through school
Habitat for Humanity – student build program
Ozone – for onsite nursing
Peace Neighborhood Center – leadership camp
Special Days Camp – camperships
Washtenaw Area Council for Children – cyber safety
Washtenaw Camp placement – camperships
Ypsi District Library – story time at the Superior Twp library
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President Susan introduced her longtime friend of 50 years, Christine Weber, our guest speaker today on “Finding Amelia.” Christine Weber retired from her position as Senior Vice President of National Geographic Studios in December of 2021. In her last position at National Geographic she supervised a team of over 100 people who produced premier content for National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD. Weber began her career as a one-week temp receptionist in Los Angeles working on the National Geographic Specials. She moved up the ranks and did freelance television production work in California for nearly a decade. Then in 1987 she moved to National Geographic headquarters in Washington DC where she produced PBS Specials and shows for EXPLORER including Lost Kingdoms of the Maya, Coming of Age with Elephants, and Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria. Her films garnered multiple Emmy Awards including best documentary for Search for Battleship Bismarck (with Dr. Robert Ballard) and U-Boat: Terror on our Shores. After working with Tigress Productions on AFRICA — a six-part NGT/PBS co-production and multi-platform event, Weber was recruited by Tigress and their sister company, Tiger Aspect to represent them in the United States. Weber turned a one-woman office into a multi-million-dollar production company with commissions throughout cable television. In 2007 when Tiger Aspect was sold, Weber moved to Discovery Communications. As VP of Production and Development for Specials, she and her team oversaw numerous acclaimed programs and BBC co-productions including North America, LIFE, Human Planet, Frozen Planet, and Monster Squid as well as Discovery’s Shark Week programming. In 2016 Weber returned to National Geographic to finish out her career in television.
In August of 2019 Chris went on an expedition with Bob Ballard (who discovered the Titanic and the Bismarck) to find Amelia.
Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world in July 1927. It was known that it would be a difficult Pacific flight, especially after the first trip, the plane crashed on take off so it took three months to repair. During that repair time, two of her crew left her, so only one other crew member would continue with her. This delay meant her flight was now with prevailing winds against her. A special landing strip was made for her on Howland Island. She never arrived. No trace. No plane. No remains.
The Navy concluded she ran out of fuel. Others say she was taken prisoner, some even said she settled incognito in NJ. Chris provided evidence for another theory.
Chris revealed that before Earhart was to land, the Navy could hear her messaging (“we must be on you, but cannot see you”), but she not them.
Using only celestial and dead reckoning she either ran north or went south (possibly back to Howland) to the latitude/longitude “3015.” It turns out that there were lots of towers and lots of listeners all working to finding the direction of her calls. All seemed to intersect at Gardener Island, a coral atoll, a reef wide enough to land at low tide. Listeners heard, “Its Amelia Earhart, please send help.” Transmitters would respond to the three long dashes.. It turns out that Earhart’s transmitters could only works with engine on and not in the water.
Chris described 57 credible calls from Earhart. Analysis of the transmissions show that they all happened at LOW TIDE.
There were amateur ham radio operators who heard Earhart’s calls. Betty, in Florida, kept a journal of what she heard and through her detailed notes she was able to relay facts that only the Navy had known. One of those facts was Earhart using her maiden name, Putnam, in some of the transmissions, as well as a note about a shipwreck “New York City,” which was in fact the recently shipwrecked “Norwich City.” Mabel Larimore, another ham operator in Texas, was astonished to hear “this is Amelia Earhart, uninhabited island, Noonan [Earhart’s navigator] needs medical help,”
On July 9, a search plane flew of Gardener Island to see vegetation but no plane. Storms, waves and high tides could have washed the plane over the coral reef.
Fast forward many years when researchers were studying photos of the sunken ship, Norwich City. “What’s that thing setting in the front of that photo?” The photo was sent to the CIA and the State Department and they determined that the shape and size of electra landing gear was a match to Earhart’s plane.
In the 1940’s the British wanted to settle Gardener Island. They discovered clamshells to collect water, a sextant, a man and woman’s shoes and 13 bones. Those bones were sent to Fiji: could these be ther remains of Amelia Earhart? Measurements seem to indicate that they were from a 5’5″ woman. Also found at the campsite were a zipper pull and slider, plus a glass jar of freckle cream (Earhart was famous for her freckles), a glass from woman’s compact and dried rouge.
A metal patch was found with rivet holes which match Earhart plane’s replacement window that was broken when it broke on the third leg of her flight.
All this is compelling evidence on past expeditions but we still lacks hard proof. Since no plane has been found, Bob Ballard is returning to Nikumaroro Island to search with the help of private, US government and National Geographic financial support. ,
Chris Weber recommended that we read more about Amelia Earhart who was a real pioneer, a leader in the women’s movement, a developer of a line of luggage, who taught at Purdue, raised money for the advancement of women.
We can all stream the show Chris made on Disney+ and search for Amelia.
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Next week our meeting will feature via Zoom, the Huron High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Robert Ash.
Quote for the Day: “Ah, good conversation-there’s nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” From “The Age of Innocence” by Edith Wharton
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Steffek Blaske
Photography by Fred Beutler
