Two “newer” Rotarians  presented their craft talks to a large crowd of Rotarians, students and guests on April 15.

                Gary Hackney, presented his talk with a “power point” presentation.  We found that Gary is a Civil Engineer with a P.E designation, i.e. Professional Engineer.  Gary lives in Pasadena with his wife, Natalie.  Gary’s parents met in England in World War II, when his dad was a B-17 pilot.  They married in England and she joined him in the U.S. after a trip on the Queen Mary.  Gary was born in Houston, Texas.   He is the sole remaining member of the family in the U.S.  His remaining relatives all reside in England.

        Gary’s family moved to Ontario, Ca after he was born in Texas and he attended Ontario schools, including Chaffey College.  He then attended Cal Poly Pomona where he earned his C.E. degree in 1974.

        He began work his work career with renowned civil engineer, Tom Stetson in West Covina.  In addition to working on environmental water resource matters, Gary became a traveler and golf afficiando.  He visited England frequently to visit family.  His scholarly activities took him to UC Davis, where he earned him Masters in engineering in 1981.  Somehow, future football coach, Mike Belotti,  became part of his history and as Eric Barter knows became the head football coach at the U of Oregon.

        Well, Gary had to give up golf but substituted that sport with tennis.  Again, he increased his academic credentials by attending a session at Cambridge in England and then toured Europe extensively.   He then went to work for Carollo Engineering as a water engineer and then the Inland Empire Utilities Agency.  It was then he met his future wife, Natalie who was working at Wells, Fargo.  After a long distance relationship, they married at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia and ultimately moved into a Craftsman home in Pasadena, with their dog “Larry”.  He is now retired, has never met Coach Belotti, although he is a “Duck” fan and plans on attending another Duck football game with friends, the McCallums(how this works we don’t know)  He has given up tennis, but Gary and Natalie continue to travel extensively.

        Aaron Rose highlighted his craft talk with pictures of China, and wonderous sights he visited there.  Aaron was born in Los Angeles and then at age 13, his father decided to move to China to study.  Aaron was not enthused about the move, leaving friends and attending school in China.  However, he and his family visited many interesting places in China and shared pictures of these sites with Arcadia Rotary.

        As it worked out, he got to come back to the US and attended high school in Santa Rosa, JC and then UC Santa Cruz.

        He returned to China attended Beijing University, which is near the Forbidden City in Beijing.  He described the traffic and rapid transit system in the capital of China.  After school, he worked for DHL and then went to Rutgers, where he received his MBA in 2007.

        He returned to the United States with his wife of six years.  They have a son, Jason, who is 15 months and the apple of Dad’s eye.  He currently works for Premier Academy Tutoring, where he utilizes his fluency in Chinese.  As a part time, occupation he and his partner sell solar panels.           

        Great Craft Talks, Gary and Aaron!

(Tony Parrille)