Ernie Jensen was the 1990-1991 President of the Arcadia Rotary Club. Here are some of his recollections of that year.

I recall my first meeting as President of Arcadia Rotary. I had asked Ben Coarse if he would play the piano for our meetings, as he was a great pianist. He told me absolutely not (rougher language actually), because if he volunteered, he would have to miss his 11:30 club meeting, and would get stuck playing forever. But for my meeting, I arrived early to be sure everything was set up. There at the piano was Ben, plinking away at the piano. As you walked into the room, it felt alive! Playing with him was Ken Waterhouse on the base fiddle…. Wow!! What a feeling.
The second meeting, Ben & Ken were there with a saxophone player, jamming away and making the meeting feel like a real party! After that meeting, Ben came up to me and with a twinkle in his eyes, said, “We got you off to a good start, but that’s all you get”. What a great memory!
During my year as Arcadia Rotary President, we scheduled a Rotary Ski week in Steamboat Springs. I recall that Dr. Bill Dorsett was pleased to get to ski free as he was over 70. After skiing half the day I didn’t feel well, so went back to the condo to find that I had caught the chicken pox. I had to spend the week in the condo with oatmeal baths and rest. Well…so much for a great ski week. Then, after we returned, I had to miss the Rotary Day at the Santa Anita Race Track, and the winner’s circle for the Arcadia Rotary Race.
When I was President of the Arcadia Rotary Club, I received an all expenses paid trip to the Rotary International Convention in Portland, Oregon. Gail, Joel & I made a family vacation and camped along the way with our tent trailer. At the convention we had probably 20 Arcadia Rotarians, so I thought that we should get together at some time during the convention. We decided to do a picnic lunch in the park, and I asked everyone to invite some other Rotarian, hopefully from somewhere else around the world to share lunch with us. Rotarian Phyllis Tomkins invited a person who had lots and lots of ribbons on his badge. It turned out he was the President of Rotary RIBI (Rotary in the British Isles). We all shared some wonderful stories and had a great picnic lunch in the local park!