Larry Nash reflects on 57 years in Rotary

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield resident Larry Nash has been a member of the town’s Rotary Club for more than half a century.

Nash announced this year that he would be retiring from the club after 57 years. Fairfield Rotary honored Nash’s service during its Dec. 10 meeting by awarding him an engraved stone bearing his name, the name of the club and Rotary’s motto, “Service above self.” The club also announced this week that this year’s Christmas Eve Parade will be dedicated to Nash.

“I feel like I don’t deserve it at all,” Nash humbly said when he learned the parade is being dedicated to him.

During those 57 years, Nash has left his mark both locally and globally. He said one of the things he’s most proud of from his tenure in Rotary is setting up the Bill Stever Rotary Scholarship in 1970, on the club’s 50th anniversary. As the club’s president, he wanted the club to undertake a special project for the anniversary, and got the board to create the scholarship without Stever knowing about it until the night of the scholarship awards ceremony.

The club raised $1,000 for the occasion, so they knew they would have enough to give three $300 scholarships. In the ensuing 51 years, the scholarship has grown and grown and now the club gives four $2,000 each year.

Colombia

In 2003, the local Rotary district hosted a group from Cartagena, Colombia, as part of a Rotary group study exchange program where four people from one country visit another to learn about their way of life. The leader of the group was a man named Amaury Benedetti, and he stayed with Larry and Janet Nash, while the other three people stayed with other Rotarians in the area.

“While here, we developed a friendship,” Nash said. “That’s what Rotarians do. If you meet somebody from another town or state or country, and they’re Rotarians, you have something in common. That’s how friendships start.”

During his stay, Benedetti mentioned that his club was undertaking a project in Colombia, but they needed funds. After the group left, Nash talked to fellow Fairfield Rotarian Doug Flournoy, who wrote a grant to give to the Cartagena Rotary Club for a drug rehabilitation center. Once the grant was approved, a group of Fairfield Rotarians including Larry and Janet Nash, Flournoy and Dave Reiff flew to Colombia to inspect the project.

“While there, Amaury said, ‘You and Janet stay with me in my home,’ repaying the favor,” Nash said.

The Fairfield Rotarians visited the drug rehabilitation center and another Cartagena Rotary project, a children’s hospital. Nash said the group could see that the hospital needed a lot of work, so upon their return to the U.S., Flournoy wrote a second grant, this one to fund equipment for heart surgeries at the hospital.

“We said, we need to go back down and see how it’s going,” Nash said, adding that he, Janet and Flournoy flew to Colombia a second time, again staying with Benedetti.

Nash said the Cartagena Rotarians treated the group from Fairfield “like royalty.” The first trip was done over Thanksgiving, and although the holiday is not celebrated in Colombia, the Cartagena Rotary club had a turkey flown in from Miami so the Fairfield Rotarians could enjoy a typical Thanksgiving meal.

“We enjoyed their hospitality very much,” Nash said.

Mexico

For several years, the Iowa City Rotary Club has taken groups of people to help at various clinics in the city of Xicotepec Mexico. The clinics include dental, medical, pharmaceutical, construction work and water sanitation. Nash’s son Todd is a Rotarian in Coralville, and he had signed up to go with his son Wade, then a high school student.

“There were two Nashes going, and I said, ‘There needs to be three generations of Nashes on that trip,’ so I joined,” Nash said.

The students stayed at a convent, while the U.S. Rotarians stayed with Rotarians in Xicotepec who opened their homes to the visitors. Nash, who had by then retired from his dental practice after 40 years in the field including 36 years of practicing in Fairfield, was part of the dental team that gave fluoride treatments to children, 480 in all. Fluoride makes teeth more resistant to decay.

“The parents were extremely appreciative,” Nash said. “I only had one child who wouldn’t open his mouth for me.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com