Keynote Speakers
Each year, we feature Rotary International leaders and other special guests as our keynote speakers. They bring us humor, challenges, and inspiration.
If you would like a DVD of the 2011 presentations, please contact PDG Don Allred via email. He will need your name, U.S. Postal address, and $10. That's it!
For our 2012 event, our four keynote speakers are:
Sakuji Tanaka
President 2012-2013, Rotary International
Sakuji Tanaka was chair of the Daika Company and president of the National Household Papers Distribution Association of Japan. He also has been vice president of the Yashio City Chamber of Commerce.
A member of the Rotary Club of Yashio since its charter in 1975, he has served RI as a director, Rotary Foundation trustee, committee member and chair, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, district governor, and training leader. Working with his district, he has helped to construct a school building in Bangladesh.
Sakuji has received the RI Service Above Self Award and the Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Kyoko, are Paul Harris Fellows, Benefactors of the Permanent Fund, Major Donors, and members of the Arch C. Klumph Society. In addition, Sakuji has established an endowed Rotary Peace Fellowship.
Sakuji and Kyoko have been married since 1963. They live in Yashio and have three children and six grandchildren.
Bob Scott
Trustee 2004-2008, The Rotary Foundation
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, Bob graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1957 with distinction in dermatology and chest diseases. His internship and two years mandatory military service were followed by six years of general practice in North Wales. Bob emigrated to Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in 1966, where he continued in general practice until 1994 and then concentrated his time as medical director of a home for the aged and other geriatric facilities until 1997.
Bob has been a member of the Rotary Club of Cobourg since 1971 and served as Club President in 1978-79. He has served Rotary International as Vice President and Director. Following his term as District Governor in 1987-88, Bob became a member and then chairman of the RI Extension Committee. In subsequent years Bob has been a member of many other International Committees and Task Forces. He has taken part in National Immunization Days in India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Egypt. In 2002-03 he was the Director of the Polio Eradication Fundraising Campaign.
Bob has received the Citation for Meritorious Service from the Rotary Foundation, the International Service Award for a Polio Free World and the Four Avenues of Service Award. Bob and his wife Ann have three daughters, one son and eight grandchildren.
David Forward
Rotarian and Author
David was born and educated in England and became a Rotarian in 1978 shortly after moving to the United States. He will be familiar to many Rotarians through Frank Talk, the fastest selling book in Rotary history as well as the author of the official history book of Rotary, A Century of Service.
David's passion is volunteerism, and has initiated and led humanitarian work trips across America and to the Dominican Republic and Beirut. He has served his church as deacon, elder, and mission committee chairman. As a Rotarian for 28 years, he served three times as club president, and has been awarded the Citation for Meritorious Service.
In 1991, David founded International Children's Aid Foundation, an all-volunteer foundation that has its own orphanage, dental and medical clinics in Romania and has taught hundreds of abandoned children early childhood education, vocational training and life skills. David hosts several groups of volunteers each year who go to Romania.
Jean Irwin
Ambassadorial Scholar Alumnus, District 6400
Jean Irwin is a retired Teacher of the Deaf who currently resides in Rancho Cordova California. She has taught in grades pre-school through 12th grade in 12 schools. Jean was an Ambassadorial Scholar in 1989 . She speaks to many Rotary groups about the long term effects of investment in the Foundation.
The Ambassadorial Scholarship Jean received allowed her to do research into reading and deafness 20 years ago which earned her a Master's Degree from Nottingham University in England. After this education, her students broke what is considered a glass ceiling for the deaf and achieved high levels of reading. She is now District 5190's Literacy Chair and wants to use what she learned about Reading to help encourage and foster more literacy involvement from clubs, especially in the development of having those in Rotary Youth Programs read to young children.
One of the most important roles Jean has had was as a grassroots coordinator for the passage of a legislative bill to make the testing of hearing mandatory before a baby leaves the hospital in Nevada. Nevada moved from 36th to 8th in the nation for children tested at birth for hearing loss in just two years after this bill passed , resulting in the early intervention that is so critical to language development.
She has spoken to over 275 conferences for both Rotarians and teachers of the deaf about what she learned as an Ambassadorial Scholar. In 2009, she received the "Service Above Self" award from Rotary International. Jean is the mother of Kent, age 21 who is a University student in Reno, and daughter Katy 26, who is an actress in New York CIty. Jean married David Hatfield in June of 2010 and part of their honeymoon was at the International Convention in Montreal, Canada. Dave is quickly getting up to speed on life as a Rotary spouse.