Acting President / PDG Larry welcomed the group by calling the meeting to order at ~12:10pm. Our patriotic song was our National Anthem with our tech team of Roger and Bill at the ready. David Dix played Zip-a-dee-doo-da this afternoon. The crowd participation was, shall we say, enthusiastic. Acting President / PDG Larry did lead us in the pledge of allegiance.
The Invocation for today’s meeting was offered by past president Ralph, with Dominique handling photos and Brian as the newsletter author.
There were no visiting rotarians.
Student of The Month
Off for the summer.
Visitors / Guests
· Tom Hatch brought two Fulbright scholars to lunch: Umer Ahmad Mehtab from Pakistan and Oguzhen Yilmar from Turkey. Both are here for three weeks as they prepare for graduate school in the United States.
Announcements
· Tom Hatch announced the topic of the next Tap-Talk at North Water Brewing at seven o’clock this evening: Celebrating Twenty Years with Main Street Kent, presented by its current executive director, Heather Milarchik.
· Dominique announced that this Friday the 24th, another 20th year celebration is planned for Main Street Kent at Bell Tower Brewing and Hometown Bank Plaza. Party starts at 5:00pm at Bell Tower which moves over to Hometown Bank Plaza for a concert and other activities. All of this activity is followed on Saturday for more celebration by way of a fundraising event at seven o’clock at the KSU museum.
· Todd announced that there is an event being held at the Kent American Legion, Post 496 called Veterans and Businesses Connect. The program brings together veterans, their families and businesses about barriers to owning or operating businesses. The program is this Thursday the 23rd at 7:00pm.
· Acting President and PDG, Larry made several announcements: 1) reminding all Rotarians about the upcoming Guardians game on August 19th, organized by District 6630, and serving as a fundraising event to support RI’s primary goal of eradicating polio across the world; 2) stressing the importance of completing the online training for “Youth Safety” required of Rotarians across the world. (If you are having difficulty logging in to the site, Larry, Amanda or Todd can be of assistance); and 3) Leadership 6630 Training event is coming up soon. An email should have been sent to all new Rotarians regarding this opportunity to learn about Rotary, and more specifically, about our District and club. All interested Rotarians are welcome and should see Larry or David about registering. The application deadline is July 31st.
· Past president, Bill Childers is reminding all Rotarians about the upcoming food distribution event on August 5th at the same parking lot as before on the campus of KSU. Any assistance by rotarians is welcome.
Happy Bucks
· Paul Organ donated $3 to announce a new granddaughter.
· Umer Ahmad Mehtab from Pakistan, here as a Fullbright scholar, was just happy to be a guest today.
· Anita donated seven dollars for each home run hit by a Cleveland Guardian in last evening’s game.
· Nelson Burns expressed how happy he was that international scholars were here in the United States.
· Past President Amanda donated three dollars for the women’s golf program at the high school; and for golf in general; and last but not least, her family.
· Tom Hall celebrated a state little league championship won by his grandson’s team in Minnesota.
· Randy Smith celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with Susan.
· Sue Whiting announced the business success her son is enjoying with a baseball training facility that is expanding.
· New Rotarian, Geoff Forstner, expressed gratitude for being in Rotary.
· Acting President / PDG, Larry announced his upcoming trip to Maine with his family to visit their daughter, whom they have not seen in about eight months
Program
History of the Fageol Twin Coach Company
presented by Tom Hatch
Our speaker today, Tom Hatch, has spent much of his career as an editor and a publisher of educational materials, designed to teach reading, math, science, and social studies to elementary and middle school students. In 2011, he became the director of the Kent Historical Society (a local museum), and was instrumental in moving the museum to its current East Main Street location, designing exhibits, and publishing books about local history. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Kent Historical Society.
Today, Tom is here to talk about the history and evolution of the Fageol Twin Coach Company (FTCC) and the economic impact it had on Kent.
The FTCC was started by brothers, Frank Raymond Fageol (FR), and William Bertram Fageol (WB). They came here in 1927 to start the FTCC. However, our story today starts in 1906, at the time of the San Francisco earthquake, about 120 years ago…
WB and his brother FR, became the owners of an early Rambler car dealership in Oakland, CA. WB was the engineering genius, and FR had the marketing and sales expertise. FR was married and WB was engaged to Ida Williams – a San Francisco girl, whose father owned a successful gold mine in Northern California when the earthquake hit. Ida was twenty-two and not yet married to WB. She gave an oral history at the Kent Historical Society (KHS) just shortly before her death in the 1980s. The following is a quote from what she said about experiencing the San Francisco earthquake:
“…It was a very severe shock. We went downstairs like anybody would, rushing out. The pavement was cracked, and the fires caused the worst damage. The water main on Market Street broke, and they had nothing to fight these fires that were here, there, everywhere. The business offices downtown were all destroyed by the fires. There was nothing to stop it. My husband hauled dynamite for 48 hours without a bit of sleep, to blow up the buildings, to lay it flat and stop the fires. That's all they could do.”
“The cars they had were the first rambler four cylinder cars that had just come from the factory the day before. So my husband was driving one all through that rubble. They would dynamite one building here and the next building in Chinatown there. The opium plants were all there and they would run out like rats. It was stupid that opium business. I really wish it was still running because I want to know more about the opium…”
After the earthquake, FR and his wife lived in a tent in the Oakland Hills new Rambler dealership. Eventually, things were rebuilt, and the brothers expanded their operation to include purpose-built tractors and trucks that they built under their own name. One design was a spiked-wheeled tractor for the nut and tree orchards in San Joaquin Valley. The spiked rear wheels were designed to break up the soil in advance of the plow. FTCC also built a flatbed truck, a gasoline truck, a heavy-hauler, and a garbage truck, among others. Nothing like this had ever been created before, but that was characteristic of the Fageol brothers and their innovative approach.
The Fageols also made automobiles - fancy ones - with Hall-Scott engines. (Hall Scott was a San Francisco-based engine manufacturer.)
It was when World War I approached, that FTCC began thinking about buses. Their first bus was a safety coach, built from the ground up on a car chassis, making it low to the ground and relatively comfortable for passengers. The safety coach was manufactured in a factory in San Leandro, California. But the brothers weren't satisfied with their San Francisco area location because the markets available to them were north to Seattle and south to LA. They needed to be in the Midwest (Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Pittsburgh), considered the center of automotive manufacturing, to gain easier access to markets in the eastern half of the country.
Moreover, they had been using the engines for other companies like Hall Scott and wanted to manufacture their own, suited to their needs. They found such a location in 1919 right here in Kent, Ohio. It was perfect – a big empty warehouse. The Erie railroad ran through the town filled with many people who needed jobs. Hence, The Fageol Motor Company of Ohio was born in 1919. But the post-war Depression ruined their plans, so they packed up back to California to face banks and creditors.
Kent kept calling them, however, and eight years later in 1927, they returned to open a new company – the Fageol Twin Coach Company (aka FTCC). Twin coach because their earlier designs contained two engines against the backdrop of an engine failure.
Over the next several decades, the company expanded into the automotive markets (under the leadership of future Fageol generations), including the design and manufacture of racing cars. Their persistent pursuit of excellence, and engineering genius for innovation and design, created employment and prosperity for hundreds of local residents for decades.
Fellow rotarian and past president Tom Myers, who shares a familial connection to the Fageols by way of his father, delivered the club’s response.
Respectfully submitted,
Brian K Bialik