The Rotary Club of Excelsior met live on Tuesday, June 1st at Red Sauce Rebellion. Due to technical difficulties the meeting was not able to broadcast virtually. The Program was guest speaker David Yorks on the JFK Assassination and discrepancies between the Warren Report and the House Select Committee Report. Prior to the Club Meeting the Board met but due a lack of a quorum no votes were taken. However discussion and updates included:
- Kate’s last meeting as president will be June 15th and will feature family and the High and Low Points of 2021
- John Hotvet will host a Club Party at his home on Tuesday, July 20th at 4:00 PM and members will receive an Invitation and asked to RSVP.
- Several Grant requests were held over to the next Board meeting and included requests from the Morning Club’s International Project for $4,000; Chanhassen Club requesting funds for Tanadoona Project; and Community for the Commons asking community groups to underwrite renovation of the Baseball Fields, the dock areas, the board walk along the shore for about $25,000 each.
- Lou reported that our Foundation has a total of some $170,000.
- Randy reported that he has only received IR Foundation donations from 6 members and President Kate will make an appeal at the meeting.
- Karen set Tuesday, June 15th at 8:00 at McDonalds as our Spring Road Clean-up and members will be sent an email to sign-up. Teams can also do an area on their own any time that week.
- Steve reported that we finally received the $30,000 in our Foundation to pay for Padee’s tuition in England and Lou commented that because of the exchange rate we actually received $30,524.00!
- Steve updated the Board on the Rotary Golf Classic that we need additional golfers; Karen will be collecting all Raffle monies, stubs and unsold tickets at the meeting today; Sponsorships are now at $19, 850 and with John Hotvet’s Hole Sponsorship we will be at $20,100.00 and surpass last year’s totals; and everyone is invited to the After Party at Enki Brewery in Victoria after the golf event about 5 PM at the outside area on the south side.
- Jim Cada and Dick Glover reported that only 3 of the 7 recipients were at the MHS Award Ceremony due to rain. We awarded four $1,500 and three $1,000 scholarships this year and hope to have an award meeting this summer for the students and their families.
Our Program was a stimulating presentation by David Yorks on the John F Kennedy Assassination and the discrepancies between 
the Warren Commission Report and the House Select Committee’s Report. David explained how the Warren Commission was appointed by LBJ and who were all male lawyers and bipartisan but a lot of politics were involved in the selection and none of them really wanted to be on the commission and didn’t have the time to devote to a thorough review. There were all kinds of problems such as they never were able to have all the members at one meeting, the timeline set by LBJ was way too short (10 months), it was grossly underfunded and important sources like the FBI, Dallas PD, and other individuals and agencies withheld crucial information for political reasons. Crucial information was never uncovered about Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby and brain and tissue slides from the JFK autopsy by untrained Naval Officers were taken by the family and not available for forensic examination.
the Warren Commission Report and the House Select Committee’s Report. David explained how the Warren Commission was appointed by LBJ and who were all male lawyers and bipartisan but a lot of politics were involved in the selection and none of them really wanted to be on the commission and didn’t have the time to devote to a thorough review. There were all kinds of problems such as they never were able to have all the members at one meeting, the timeline set by LBJ was way too short (10 months), it was grossly underfunded and important sources like the FBI, Dallas PD, and other individuals and agencies withheld crucial information for political reasons. Crucial information was never uncovered about Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby and brain and tissue slides from the JFK autopsy by untrained Naval Officers were taken by the family and not available for forensic examination. The House Select Committee twelve year later had 31 months of discovery time and had new scientific methods to examine information. They also had three films (rather than one by the Warren Commission) from different angles and one that had sound to analyze the four shots not the three as earlier thought. Their conclusions were diametrically opposed to the Warren Commissions conclusions:
Findings | Warren Commission | House Select Committee |
Conspiracy | No Conspiracy | Definite Conspiracy |
Shots | 3 | 4 |
JFK Autopsy | Fine | Not a legal autopsy |
Bobby Kennedy chose Naval doctors that had never done an autopsy | Unqualified | |
Jack Ruby | A lone nut case | Possible Mob Hit |
Yorks’ conclusions also covered the 1,444, 044 pages of the Select Committee’s findings about the time discrepancies of Oswald’s escape and how the timing of his whereabouts just do not fit him acting alone and refutes the Warren Commission findings that “he walked at a brisk rate” after the assassination. Mr. York did not give his own personal thoughts about the assassination but concluded by saying, “The Warren Commission did not get it right!” As always we had a lively Q&A!