Roger Grant knew of George Fasching from the car wash and Jim Helms from having an office in the same building.  Only by joining Arcadia Rotary did get to meet these Arcadia icons – one of the bonuses of being an Arcadia Rotary member.   Ernie Jensen told Roger as a new member “Go with the flow” though Roger said “there are ups and downs behind the scenes”…he did not elaborate.

Roger was born and raised in Richardson, Texas. In school he was an “all-area” slide rule contest winner and played the E flat clarinet in the band.  He failed to become the drum major, but succeeded as Band President, a title held to this day.

In college he started in Electrical Engineering but a Texas Instruments “mentor” suggested he was going in the wrong direction.  He obtained Bachelors in Finance and Accounting before working for Touche Ross, an accounting firm.

Eventually he went out on his own, currently for 31 years.  He described numerous certifications including being a CPA, a financial planner, CLU (insurance), and all the Series qualification tests required to give financial advice.

He is the father to 5, grandfather to 11.  One experience that refocused his life priorities was the birth of his granddaughter Payton who was born with a serious heart condition.

Bob Harbicht has been in Rotary 32 years, staying fully involved all this time. He said it has been an integral part of his life and he looks forward to the Friday meetings every week.

Bob is retired from a Marketing Consulting firm.  He provided a wide range of service to national level companies using “survey research”.   It started when he finished college at Cal State Northridge and a professor arranged an appointment at Carnation in market research. After a couple of years there, he worked with a marketing consulting firm for ten years before going out on his own.

Bob has three “hobbies”:

• City government – he has had numerous stints as Arcadia Councilman or Mayor and a term as Duarte’s mayor.
• Exercise – he played racquetball daily until 2 years ago, but still works out daily.
• Bicycling – he has taken 45 bicycle tours all over the world in the last 37 years. He said on a bike you see and experience at a slower pace.  He introduced his children to the sport when they were teens, and somewhere along the way his wife Patsy got hooked.  He said they currently ride twice per week, 20 miles each time.

Bob  invited Arcadia Rotarians to join him and Patsy them in the Loire Valley, France for a biking trip in the fall.