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ROTARY CLUB OF
Thomasville

LEADERSHIP

This Week's Program

Reflections on 9/11 at the World Trade Center Hear a first-hand account of rescue and recovery efforts in NY after 9/11 and how they changed US policy toward emergency management and preparedness for terrorism and other hazards.

William Lokey has a 50-year career of travel, adventure, supporting science in polar areas, climbing mountains, and helping communities prepare for, respond to and recover from disaster. He received a degree in Art (Sculpture) in 1969 from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. During his summers in college, he worked for the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), supporting student training and research programs.  From 1969 until 1975 he worked as a contractor for the US Antarctic Program. He did four tours on the Ice spending over 40 months, including a summer season at Byrd Station and wintering over three times, twice at McMurdo Station and once at Palmer Station. He managed logistic support for science research in the field and at the stations and provided survival and search and rescue training to scientists and US Navy support personnel.

After Antarctica, he had a 40-year career in emergency management, working at the local, state, and federal levels and as a private sector consultant. He has managed and supported preparedness, response and recovery efforts for earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, volcanic eruptions, wildland fires and terrorist attacks. He began his emergency management career in 1977 with the Washington State Department of Emergency Management where his responsibilities included the development of the State Disaster Plan. In 1982 he was appointed Assistant Director for Operations, responsible for the State’s State disaster response, search and rescue, hazardous materials planning, communications, and the recovery from the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens.

In 1986 he became the Director of Emergency Management for Pierce County, Washington, responsible for disaster preparedness, the Fire Prevention Bureau, radio communications, and the E9-1-1 and Emergency Medical Services Administration. He was the sponsoring chief of the Washington Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Force (WA-TF-1), one of the 27 task forces in the National US&R Response System and responded to the Northridge Earthquake, Hurricane Opal and the Oklahoma City Bombing. In 1999 he became the Assistant Chief of Special Operations of the Fire and Rescue Branch/California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

In 1999 he joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO). He served as FCO for 24 declared disasters around the United States and its territories, including Hurricane Katrina. With FEMA he worked two weeks after 9/11 at Ground Zero in New York. He left FEMA in 2007 to be an emergency management consultant working with public and private sector clients. He has shared his emergency management expertise throughout the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ecuador, Singapore, and Japan.

During his entire life he has sought adventure in the outdoors and has climbed mountains and led scientific expeditions to peaks in Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Africa, and the USA, including 40 ascents of Mt. Rainier and a late winter ascent of Denali in 1980. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Pierce College (Steilacoom, WA) Homeland Security and Emergency Management Program and presents earth science, history, and adventure programs with the Pierce College Community and Continuing Education Program. He also gives lectures to schools, service clubs, conferences and on Cruise Ships.

In the beginning were two cotton buyers.....

Brothers Crawford and Rhydon Mays were given credit by our first club president J.B. Jemison for “agitating” the organization of the club. The Mays were cotton buyers in the Thomasville office of Georgia Cotton Company, which was headquartered in Albany. When Crawford transferred to the head office, he joined Albany’s Rotary Club. Shortly after, he and Rhydon began enthusiastically recommending the formation of a club in Thomasville.

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ABC's of Rotary

Until 1989 the Constitution and Bylaws of Rotary International stated that Rotary club membership was for males only. In 1978 the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, invited three women to become members. The RI board withdrew the charter of that club for violation of the RI Constitution. The club brought suit against RI claiming a violation of a state civil rights law that prevents discrimination of any form in business establishments or public accommodations. The appeals court and the California Supreme Court supported the Duarte position that Rotary could not remove the club's charter merely for inducting women into the club. The United States Supreme Court upheld the California court indicating that Rotary clubs do have a "business purpose" and are in some ways public-type organizations. This action in 1987 allowed women to become Rotarians in any jurisdiction having similar "public accommodation" statutes. The RI constitutional change was made at the 1989 Council on Legislation, with a vote to eliminate the "male only" provision for all of Rotary. Since that time, women have become members and leaders of clubs and districts throughout the world.