About Our Club - Club History

• CLUB ORIGINS
• PAST PRESIDENTS
• ROTARIANS OF THE YEAR and criteria
• SERVICE ABOVE SELF AWARDS and guidelines
• CHILDREN OF THE WORLD MONUMENT
• MEETING LOCATIONS

TENNESSEE'S FIRST BREAKFAST ROTARY CLUB

Our club banner depicts the hills and water of East Tennessee and highlights the  "Children of the World"  sculpture donated by the Club to the City of Oak Ridge in the mid-1990s.

ORBRC was officially chartered at a meeting at the Elk’s Club on the evening of June 27, 1980, as the state’s first breakfast Rotary club.

Ken Sommerfeld was installed as the first president. The other officers installed that evening were: Clyde Hopkins, Vice President and Director of Club Service; Tom Southard, secretary; Karl Butcher, treasurer; Chuck Spath, Director of Vocational Service; Ewin Kiser, Director of International Service; Keith Cole, Director of Community Service; Clark Meredith, Director at Large; and Keith Craft, Sergeant at Arms.

The club had 33 charter members. In addition to the officers listed above, other members were Jeff Bostock, Jim Bryson, Charles Campbell, Dale Channell, Dave Coffey, Richard Dew, Jerry Duncan, Bill Feldkamp, Jeff Friar, Tim Friar, Jim Hutson, Frank Jamison, Mickey McArthur, Dave McCoy, Jim McMahan, Jackie Pope, Roy Pruett, John Rhea, Tom Stanley, Rick Stooksbury, Robin Textor, Joe Williams, Travis Witherington, and Johnny Wray.

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The names of those who have served the club as president follow:

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ROTARIANS OF THE YEAR

In 1986, Clyde Hopkins was named the club’s first “Man of the Year.” The honor was changed to “Rotarian of the Year” in 1991 when the award went to the club’s first woman member (and in 1995, its first woman president), Wanda Craven.

Nominations come from club members and the criteria are many. The most important may be that the choice be recognized with nods of agreement at the annual meeting. This truly is an award that is earned by service and recognized by club members as significant.

The honoree:

• is an exemplary Rotarian and a good representative of ORBRC.
• has a sustained record of participation and contribution with the club.
• works for the betterment of the community.
• exhibits strong participation in ORBRC and Rotary International.
• has a good attendance record.
• is involved in and contributes to one or more of the club's four areas of service.
• willingly responds to requests for help or participation.
• contributes ideas and suggestions to benefit the club.
• brings visitors and/or candidates for membership.
• has had especially strong involvement, contribution, and/or participation in our club during the current club year.
• will be accepted by most members of the club as a good choice.

Winners over the years include:

  Click here to download a copy of the nomination form.

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SERVICE ABOVE SELF AWARD

Ruth Ann Maddux (left), 2006-2007 winner of ORBRC's Service Above Self Award, was nominated  by Leslie England.

ORBRC presents an annual award to honor an individual who exemplifies Rotary's motto, "Service Above Self." 

Wilbur "Dub" Shults established the award to honor those who have performed exceptional and sacrificial service to others or to the community over an extended period of time. The award has been presented eight times since 2000. Members of the club are not eligible for the award.

In the context of this award, "service" designates personal effort of a volunteer nature that is not a component of an individual's occupation. The award carries with it a $1,000 contribution to the effort or charity designated by the winner.

Ruth Ann Maddux, winner of the award for 2006-2007, has designated $500 each to the Altrusa Foundation and Community Mediation Services, organizations she has served many years.

"I am very honored to receive this award," said Maddux. I'm sure there are many others worthy of it. I truly believe that the best way to be a part of the community is to give back to that community.  After you retire, it keeps you going and it keeps you better informed."

Rotarian Leslie England, who nominated Maddux for the award, called Maddux her "volunteer mentor."

"In a world of 'I wills,' Ruth Ann is an 'I did,'" England said. "I met her years ago; she was always so kind and caring. I saw her at so many functions, always volunteering, always smiling, always saying hello. She became my volunteer mentor."

Even though Maddux retired 17 years ago from her career as executive director of the Campfire Boys and Girls and before then, as a secretary with Rust Engineering and Union Carbide, she continues to work nearly every day, but now, without receiving a paycheck.

"I had volunteered with the Campfire Boys and Girls before I started working there, but I think it was really Leadership Oak Ridge that made me realize how very important it is to give back to your community," said Maddux, a 1990 graduate of Leadership Oak Ridge.

Maddux has been a member of Altrusa International, Inc., of Oak Ridge since 1976, serving as president during 1991-1992 and volunteering many hours to the annual Rotary & Altrusa Literacy Lunch. She serves as an Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce diplomat, an Anderson County Chamber of Commerce ambassador, the decorating chair of the United Way of Anderson County's fundraising committee, an eight-year board member of the Community Mediation Services, a volunteer with the March of Dimes and an eight-year board member of the Tennessee Mountain Writers, Inc.

She and her husband C. J. have been married for 51 years and reside on a 50-acre farm in Anderson County where at one time they raised Charolais cattle.

They have three children: Jana Elliott, employed at McArthur Animal Clinic; Claire Chitwood, employed by UT-Battelle; and K.J. Maddux, employed by BWXT Y-12. They have four granddaughters: one, a student at Tennessee Technological University; one attending Roane State; one, a student at Anderson County High  School; and the youngest will be attending Norris Middle School.

Previous winners of the award include:

(ORBRC member Bridget Correll contributed to this article with a press release prepared for local media. Articles appeared in The Oak Ridger, The Oak Ridge Observer, and The Courier News in Clinton.)

To download a copy of the guidelines for the Club's Service Above Self awards,   click here.

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One of the projects that most visibly connects ORBRC to the community is the "Children of the World" sculpture on the corner of Oak Ridge Turnpike and South Tulane Avenue.

Eric Anthony Nuchols (1961-2007) was the sculptor who created “Children of the World,” a gift to the City of Oak Ridge from Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club.

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According to his obituary in The Oak Ridger on July 30, 2007, “Mr. Nuchols worked for many years with Pathway Bellows, which became Senior Flextronics Pathway. He was part of a specialty welding team, which took him to many different countries around the world.

“He was a local artist who received tremendous recognition throughout East Tennessee for his works of art using the medium of stainless steel and heat and spent months heating, cooling, pounding and rolling a sheet of stainless steel into a dramatic art work of religious art.”

He was a 1980 graduate of Oak Ridge High School and served with the U.S. Army, 82nd Airborne Division, spending time in the U.S. and in Italy.

The sculpture was conceived and created in the mid-1990s when Wanda Craven was president of ORBRC. Wanda, who served the club with distinction in each of the four avenues of service, had a special interest in children and the children of the world, involving the club in service to an orphanage in Russia, among other projects.

Wanda also started our Christmas Angels project (which serves Willow Brook Elementary School students and their siblings who might otherwise face a bleak holiday) and the Mystery Dinners (which place trusting Rotarians on a bus and delivers them to a surprise location for a wonderful evening out), and remains an honorary member of our club.

Click here for an article published in The Oak Ridger about Hugh and Lucy Parker, the first winners of ORBRC's Service Above Self award.

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MEETING LOCATIONS

ORBRC originally met at the Ridge Inn, a motel on Illinois Avenue. As membership grew, it moved to the Holiday Inn, then to the Nancy Stanley Room at the YWCA, then to the Community Room at Oak Ridge Mall (1998). On November 2, 2005, the club moved to the Wildcat Den in the historic Midtown Community Center on the corner of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Robertsville Road.

We began meeting at The Event Center at The Flatwater Grill, the conference center formerly known as Inspiration Point, at 100 Peninsula Drive, just off Melton Lake Drive on Oak Ridge’s east end, on March 7, 2007.

The club has a long and storied history of early gathering. Coffee and fellowship start the day, with some members arriving as early as 6:30 to visit with one another and help set up the meeting space. The breakfast buffet line opens shortly after 7.

Meetings begin promptly at 7:30 with a song, a prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance. After club business and a program, the meeting adjourns at 8:15 a.m.

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