IMY DULAKE, BOY SCOUT COUNCIL CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

Boy Scout council coordinator Jack McRae recognized Rotarian past president, Imy Dulake for her tremendous contributions to the community she works in, the Arcadia Rotary and everyone around her. Imy was recently honored as Citizen of the Year by the Lucky Baldwin District of the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Imy, pictured above, was highlighted in a video with Jack McRae noting that Imy is extremely generous with her time and financial resources. In the video Imy recalled her childhood as being very difficult after her father died when she was 6 years old. This resulted in Imy, her mother and two sisters being left homeless in South Korea, just following the war. Subsequently Imy was sponsored to Temple City where she went to school. Imy later met and married Rick her husband of 32 years. Among many well deserved recognitions, Imy has earned the recognition of being in the top 1% of agents with Coldwell Banker internationally for many years. Imy and Rick have two children Sean an Eagle Scout and Michelle a scout Gold Award recipient. The Arcadia Rotarians gave Imy a wonderful round of applause, as we are proud of her and value her membership in the Arcadia Rotary Club.

RICHARD HUTTON, CRIMINAL ATTORNEY AT LAW

Our second speaker today was our own Criminal Defense Attorney Richard “Rich” Hutton. Rich described growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, where his father owned a machine shop making equipment for NASA. The plan was for Rich to become an engineer and while Rich loved math and science he did not have the passion for machine work and engineering. While attending UCLA Rich was asked to observe a trial. During the trial Rich was convinced that he could defend the case better than the defense attorney representing the individual on trial. His second thought was surprise that people actually got paid to argue a case. This was the beginning of his passion for criminal defense and law.

Working though college in a law firm, Rich became adept at serving court subpoena’s with creativity, noting that there could be an element of danger involved, at times requiring careful judgment. Rich studied diligently with the goal of being admitted to Law School at UCLA which surprisingly happened. Following graduation from law school, rich worked in the district attorneys office and ultimately opened his own law firm in 1997 specializing in defending Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases.

Rich described several cases involving famous individuals including work on a case that required Rich & wife Gayla to attend a dinner with Walter Mathau and company, where Gayla had all the fun smoking and drinking, while Rich was stuck taking care of business at the other end of the table with their boring wives. On a more sober note, Rich also described a case where his difficult but wise counsel to the defendant was to not testify on her own behalf, despite being totally innocent of the charges. The defendant heeded Rich’s counsel and they prevailed in the case, however, not without emotional suffering.

Rich closed by noting his gratitude to ex-Arcadia Rotarian and brother in law Allen Yak who invited him to join the Arcadia Rotary where Rich has made many wonderful friends. Rich noted that his business has not slowed, although he may be looking forward to that at some time in the future and thanked all the Arcadia Rotarians for the wonderful club we have.