On Tuesday, May 20, our lunch program will be a historical account of our Rotary club, led by Neil Bryant. Our speakers will include Kit Carmiencke, Allan Bruckner, Patricia Moss, Bob Thomas, Oran Teater, Gary Davis, and Loren Irving.
Come learn more about how our club got started!
Skip to their bios.
We’ll be over at 10 Barrel East this week, in the meeting room upstairs. Address: 62950 NE 18th St, Bend, OR 97701
Signup for lunch here.
This meeting will both in-person and virtual. We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.
Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link
You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.
Biographies
Neil Bryant: Mary and I moved to Bend in 1973 and joined the law firm of Gray, Fancher, Holmes and Hurley. It was a town of 13,000. In 1976 I became a charter member of a new Rotary club. I was the president elect, so I had six months to observe and figure things out. Unfortunately the president, Preston Waller, died in March and I became the president and president elect. I served on the following boards and commissions as chair: The Bend Chamber, The Deschutes County Children and Families Commission, The Deschutes Children and Family Foundation, The Downtown Bend Urban Renewal District, The School Foundation, and The Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. I served as an Oregon State Senator from 1993-2001. I have served on the following boards: The High Desert Museum, OMSI, Pacific Lutheran University, Partners in Care (Hospice). Both of our children graduated from Bend High and graduated from the University of Washington. We have six adorable grandchildren.
Kit Carmiencke: Wife Sandi, a retired professional educator; daughter Kirsten Scott, owner of Integrated Eyecare and practicing optometrist; son Chris, a professional educator in Grants Pass. Kit and Sandi greatly enjoy each of their five grandsons. Kit is a charter member of Greater Bend Rotary and past president; co-founding board member of Bend Area Habitat for Humanity, and co-founding member with Oran and Janie Teater of our Italy sister city of Belluno; served as chair of the board of the Family Resource Center. Served on committees and boards of state and national optometry groups. Integrated Eyecare was awarded Bend Small Business of the year in 2010.
Allan Bruckner: I was born a long time ago and a long way away in Ithaca New York. I spent my first 21 years there until I decided to view more of the world. Following a spur of the moment decision I and my best friend headed for Oregon where I enrolled in the University. After getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree and a wife, I headed east for a year in Washington DC, then to Long Beach California for two and a half years and then a year in Walla Walla. Finally back to Oregon to work as an economic development economist for 5 years with Pacific Power in Portland. Deciding there was a better future in Mobile homes than electricity I worked for a manufacturer for a year and then in 1970 moved to Bend and started a mobile home dealership. After 10 good years followed by five bad years in the business, I sold it and have since engaged in buying, building, fixing up, renting etc. small office buildings in Bend. I was sponsored into the Greater Bend Rotary Club by Mark Capell’s father in 1977. I became the sixth president in 1981. I served on the Bend city council for 4 years in the early 90’s and now continue to enjoy harassing whoever is in office.
Patricia Moss: I served as CEO of Cascade Bancorp and Bank of the Cascades from 1998 through 2012. Previous to that time, I served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer beginning my career as a employee of the Bank at its inception in 1977. I currently serve on First Interstate Bank Systems, (FIBK:NYSE) and Knifer River Corporation (KHF:NYSE). I have served on 5 public boards and one private company board, ranging from banking, mutual funds, natural resources, health care, and construction as well as multiple non-profit boards. My active involvement in local organizations is evidence of strong commitment to community leadership. I have served as a board member or chairperson for Central Oregon Community College, St. Charles Medical Center, Bend Chamber of Commerce, Greater Bend Rotary, United Way, Sunriver Music Festival, Bend Quota Club, City of Bend Budget Committee, COCC Foundation and First Presbyterian Church of Bend Foundation. Statewide, I have served on the Oregon Investment Council, Oregon Growth Board, Oregon Housing Authority, Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board for Higher Education, Oregon State University Advisory Board, Oregon Ethics in Business and the International Women’s Forum. My husband, Greg, and I have been fortunate to live and raise our family in Bend, OR for more than 50 years; we are avid outdoors enthusiasts and cyclists.
Bob Thomas: I was born and raised in Bend and was active as a Lava Bear. I graduated from Stanford University with a major in history and a minor in collegiate rowing. I was a Marine officer for 3 years, leaving as a captain. I joined the family retail automobile business started by my grandfather, Walter Coombs, a Rotarian, in 1916. I worked there from 1973 until 2010, leaving as the owner-operator. During that time I was active in the community enjoying serving on the boards of Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, St Charles Hospital Foundation, Central Oregon Visitors Association, The United Way and the Deschutes Land Trust. My Rotary disaster was in my first meeting as president I failed to afford adequate time for Jeff Thomas father, a University of Washington professor, relating a fascinating lecture on WWII. My Rotary success was getting all of my directors to attend the spring training in the Valley. That training resulted in the genesis of the Wine Raffle and many, many of the board members becoming future club presidents or extremely active members. I became a member of Rotary remembering My grandfather’s service and as a result of Chuck Austin’s orientation. When asked to join, I declined and then found all the others in the training had joined. Gary Capps sponsored me as the first member that was not a charter member.
Oran Teater: I joined this club a couple of years after its charter in 1976. I was born and raised in Klamath Falls, as a fourth generation Oregonian. My great grandparents arrived in Central Oregon, Redmond in the 1890’s, fifteen years before Redmond became a city. My grandfather and his brothers operated Buckley Stage Lines between Shaniko and Redmond before there was rail service. My father’s family moved to Redmond during the depression. My uncle established the Teater ranch east of Post about that time and ran the cattle ranch until he sold it to Les Schwab in the early 1990s. Both my parents graduated from Redmond High in the mid 1930s So my Central Oregon roots go back quite a way, even though I grew up in Southern Oregon. I graduated from Southern Oregon College (now University) in 1968, then immediately drafted into the Army for two years during the Viet Nam War, but my service was in the Surgeon’s Office for the Army in Heidelberg, Germany, a simple luck of the draw. Once out of the military, I started looking for a job and was hired as the Assistant Manager of the Inn of the Seventh Mountain, (now Seventh Mountain Resort). When I arrived, there were five buildings, a restaurant / bar and a thirty-seat meeting room. Two years later there were 20 buildings, a convention center and the ice rink, so it was a very fun adventure. I left the Inn in the mid 70s to start my own business, Acme Personnel Service, (now Express Employment Professionals). I had an office both in Bend and Klamath Falls. One of my employees was Connie Worrell Druliner who just recently sold her Express after nearly forty years in the business. In 1983 I sold the personnel business to join, then Foster and Marshall, a regional securities firm in Seattle. I actually relocated to Seattle with the thought that the move would be permanent, but Bend still tugged at me, so we returned after just a couple of years in Seattle to continue my career in the securities business. I moved my practice to Raymond James in 1986 as an independent financial advisor. I sold the practice to Wade Westhoff in September of 2017, just four days before my wife Janie’s kidney transplant at Stanford University. I have been happily married to Janie for 26 years. We met in the second year of the Great Drake Park Duck Race. I served on the board and Janie was hired as the summer administrator of the race as a condition of Bank of the Cascades sponsorship of the race. We Rotarians needed a lot of organization and direction at the time and she fit the bill perfectly. She was the paid administrator for ten years. Janie spent 33 years teaching in the Bend La Pine school district, in many roles, from kindergarten through fifth grade, the self-contained talented and gifted classroom, to curriculum director for talented and gifted program in the district office and finally as a reading specialist. Our son Kyle graduated from Mountain View High School in 2000, followed by a Finance Degree from Gonzaga University in 2004 and has been with Boeing since graduation, now the CFO of Boeing Engineering. I have been a member of this Rotary club for over 45 years, serving on the board, program chair a couple of times, the Duck Race board and served as President in 1999 / 2000. Janie and I have hosted five inbound exchange students, from Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, South Africa and Japan. Each has been very rewarding. Both Janie and I are guilty of serving on too many boards and committees, we need to go to “Boards Anonymous” a twelve-step program. I began serving on a variety of boards and committees in the 1970s and 80s. In 1980, I was President of the Bend Chamber of Commerce. At that time, the chamber did not have a CEO, rather an Executive Director and board president. That same year, I was one of the founding members of Central Oregon Economic Development Assn, now known as EDCO. I was co-chair of the Bend LaPine school foundation, sat on the Cascade Middle School site Council and assisted in a variety of school bond elections. In 1996 I was elected to the Bend City Council and again in 2000 then served as Mayor in 03 and 04. During my term, fellow Rotarian Neil Bryant, then Senator Bryant had me appointed to the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, a position I held until last year. He did not indicate to me that it would be a 21 year sentence. After my term on City Council, I joined the OSU Cascades Advisory Board and remained for fifteen years, well past our term limit period and served as chair the last ten years. It was a time that we lobbied the legislature, located a campus site, planned and designed the first new university campus to be built in Oregon since World War 2. It was a great and challenging experience from its humble beginnings on the COCC Campus to our move to what some say, a controversial location on Bend’s west side. We now have a growing university serving many who are the first in their families to receive a college education. In closing, landing in Bend at 24 years old has been a blessing, a true home with a population of people that chose to live here and give back to the community, each of you among them.
Gary Davis: I was president of the club in 2001/02. I’m a third generation native of Central Oregon, having been born in Bend, with both sides of the family established here by 1916. I went to school in Tumalo, Bend, and graduated from The University of Oregon. With the exception of the years in Eugene I have lived in the Bend/Tumalo area his entire life. I’m happily married to Cheryl and has no children. My work career has involved ranching/farming, construction related work, real estate, property management, thus handyman work, and back to farming. My activities in the community have included, 4H, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Mt. Bachelor National Ski Patrol, Red Cross first aid instructor, Deschutes County Historical Society board, Bend Metro Parks District foundation board, serving as the chairman of the community outreach committee for naming, fundraising, and design of Farewell Bend Park. Along the way there have been various other boards and past presidencies with the favorites being Rotary, and several trips to Washington DC on the World War II veteran honor flights. My wife and I are active supporters of the Rotary Foundation, Deschutes County 4H programs, OSU, and other local charities.
Loren Irving: I’m from Independence, Oregon, and my wife is Sally Irving. We have daughters Lori and Jennifer and 5 grandkids. Lived in Bend since 1969. Oregon State University BS Natural Resources 1966. U S Army Officer with a tour in Vietnam 1968-69. Brooks Scanlon 1969-1974. Partner Deschutes Pine Sales 1974-2005. Owner Loren Irving Photography and Retired 2006. Co-founder of Central Oregon Family Resource Center. Oregon Community Foundation Leadership Council; Board of Advisors, OSU Cascades; Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon; Chair, Oregon Historic Trails Advisory Council; Curator/Researcher, Finding Fremont Historical Exhibit. Family Access Network Board. President Greater Bend Rotary. Hobbies: mandolin and guitar, photography, fly fishing, fly tying.
