Helmuth and Hannelora Reinhardt

 

 

 

HANNELORA and HELMUTH exemplify community service.  The committee was impressed not only by their lifetime of Service Above Self, but also by the fact that they were nominated by some of the most active Rotarians in Newark Rotary.

 

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge their nominators.    MICHELE McMANUS and SHARON SanANGELO, with the collaboration of Past District Governor NORMA MADAYAG-REILLY and Senior E.A.A. GARY REILLY, and with the concurrence of BOB BENDIX, DAVE DOEBLER, DOUG DOEBLER, KIMBERLY MEEKS, MARY JO FENYN, and JEAN BENDIX.

 

First, let’s talk about HELMUTH.

 

No, let’s talk about HANNELORA first!  We’ll get back to HELMUTH, if there’s time.

 

HANNELORA has been a Rotarian since March, 1988.  She was sponsored by Bud Danehy, the Newark-Wayne Hospital CEO, where HANNELORA worked.  This was within a year of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the exclusion of women from Rotary clubs was unconstitutional.  Not only was she the first woman active member, she was also the first woman Club President in 1995-96.  She has served as Newark Rotary Club’s Foundation Chair, as a member of the District 7120 Nominating Committee, and was the District’s Group Study Exchange Team Leader on a six-week mission to the Philippines in 1990.  She is ever-present at club fundraisers and community service projects.  She is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow.

 

Outside of Rotary, HANNELORA has served as President of the United Way of Wayne County, the Candy Apple Preschool Center, and the ARC of Wayne Foundation, as well as on the Boards of the United Way of Greater Rochester and Newark-Wayne Community Hospital.  She has been honored by the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene for outstanding volunteer service in Christian Education  programs for the mentally handicapped at Newark Developmental Center from 1971-1976, and in 1983 she was one of six honorees, chosen from 108 nominations, for the YWCA “Tribute to Women in Industry and Service” Award.

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Now, let me tell you about HELMUTH.

 

In a September, 2015 expose’ in the Finger Lakes Times, Jim Miller dubbed HELMUTH, “Mr. Reliable.”  And that he is.  50 years of perfect attendance at Rotary meetings.  20 years of service on the club’s board of directors, and we have term limits!

HELMUTH has confided with me how proud he was to become a Rotarian in March, 1969.  He was sponsored by Bob Goodman, and he served as our 75th club president in 2001-2002.  That was in the millennium after HANNELORA had served as club president!  He has chaired several club committees including the Gift of Life program to fund heart surgery for children with congenital heart defects.  As an engineer, he was fastidious about compliance with the club’s bylaws.  In fact, I remember one meeting when he read the bylaws aloud from beginning to end.  That was fun!  I can’t remember what his point was, but it was adopted.  He also chaired a Global Grant project that raised more than $10,000 for the purchase of a van for the delivery of food and medical supplies in Argentina.  He has been a regular participant in our club’s Pancake Day, Hill Cumorah concessions, blood drives, and other community service projects over the years.  He, too, is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow.

Outside of Rotary, HELMUTH has served several years on the Wayne County American Red Cross Board and as Chairman of the Redeemer Lutheran Church.  He has volunteered with the Wayne County Home Meal Service, and has served on the Town of Arcadia Tax Review Board.  If you don’t like your assessment, see HELMUTH.

 

HELMUTH has been awarded the Prudential “Friends for Life” Award for the high ethics, integrity, and service as a Prudential insurance representative. 

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What I have told you so far about HANNELORA and HELMUTH is a remarkable tale of Service Above Self, but the prelude to all this is even more remarkable.  They were born a little over 4 years apart in the same village, in what is now known as Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia.  Both of their families were of German descent, so when the NAZI occupation reached the Balkans in 1944, they were uprooted to refugee camps—HANNELORA to Austria and HELMUTH to Germany.  After World War II, they were able to avoid returning to Yugoslavia.  HANNELORA emigrated to the United States directly from Austria in 1951, spotting the Statue of Liberty from her ship on Christmas Eve.  She spent 2 years in Cincinnati before moving to Wayne County. 

 

HELMUTH took a more circuitous route.  His family was ordered by Russian troops to return to Yugoslavia, but instead opted to go to Salzburg, Austria.  From there he emigrated to Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1955.  That’s why you still hear HELMUTH utter an occasional, “Eh?” while drinking his Canadian whiskey Manhattan.  But here’s where the story gets really interesting.  HANNELORA has relatives in Windsor!  She came for a visit!  They met!  They kept in touch!  No Zoom, no texts, no Facebook, no LOL.  But yes, BFF’s.  So, in 1957, HANNELORA graduated from North Rose High School and became a US citizen.  On August 24 they married!  That, my friends, was HELMUTH’s ticket to America!  On December 1, 1957 he crossed the Peace Bridge into the United States.  They moved to Newark in 1959, and how fortunate we have been in this community to have the REINHARDT’s among us for all that time.

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Allow me to add a personal anecdote, if I may.  I first met HELMUTH around 1962.  I was about 11 at the time, and our neighbors at the time were Charley and Lori Cady, and their children Robert and Jeff.  Charley was an executive with Jackson & Perkins, and HELMUTH was employed there.  When he visited the Cady’s at home, I had the opportunity to meet him there.  I remember how kind he was to us as children, how he carried himself in such a dignified way.  That part has never changed.

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THANK YOU, KAREN, and CONGRATULATIONS, HANNELORA and HELMUTH.