At the meeting on Friday, January 12th, Helmuth gave a wonderful recounting of Joe Valeriote.
At the meeting on Friday, January 12th, Helmuth gave a wonderful recounting of Joe Valeriote. His reflection to the club reads:
My dear fellow Rotarians and honoured guests,
I don't want to repeat the official obituary that was widely circulated about Joe Valeriote. I'm sure that you've all read it by now. Rather, I would like to share with you some of my personal observations about our dearly departed longtime Rotarian, Joe.
Joe was a brilliant man who had so much of the history of Guelph locked up in that marvellous memory of his. Especially the history of the neighbourhood that he grew up in, affectionately called "The Ward". We could honour him for that alone.
My memory of Joe includes us kibitzing about his footwear habits. As Brian mentioned last week and had followed Joe's lead, it was, NO SOCKS. Today's weather would not have deterred Joe in that habit. In fact, while visiting in the receiving line at the funeral home on Monday, I shared that discussion with his daughter, Gayle who confided with me that Joe was in the casket at the front of the room and if we could open it, we would see that he had no socks or shoes on.
For anyone who missed Joe's rewind of several years ago, Joe had with him the "condom" that he designed and produced that was used on NASA's Gemini space program. It saved the antenna of the capsule from being destroyed by sea water when it splashed down in the ocean. This was an epic accomplishment that helped NASA eventually land on the moon.
We at the Senators who meet weekly at a not so secret location, have a motto that "what is discussed at a Senator's meeting, stays at a Senator's meeting", but I will divulge one small discussion item. Joe often initiated discussion on "He who shall not be named" in American politics, and his disdain for the man, and not understanding the level of support he has among the US populace.
Joe embraced new technologies. As you all know, he drove a Tesla, which was a leading electric vehicle when he first bought it. Yet, he often expounded on the fact that it was not the propulsion mode of the future. He believed that we would soon be driving hydrogen powered vehicles. According to Joe, that was the fuel of the future. Joe wore an Apple Watch that was fully synched with his IPhone. He embraced the Wallet app on his IPhone to pay for lunch and other things. One of his pet peeves was the sounds system at the ICC. He was so very happy when Rick and Marty came up with the solution of a stand alone speaker. He could finally hear everything that was spoken from the podium at our weekly lunches.
His list of Rotary accomplishments included being Club President, Founding chair of Prima Festa (forerunner of LobsterFest), our club's leader in two Polio Eradication Campaign Fundraisers, and one of the founding members of The Rotary Club of Guelph Charitable Foundation.
Joe WAS the ultimate example of Service Above Self that we can only hope to achieve. Joe we will truly miss you!