Rob grew up in Burnaby, BC and after high school graduation, attended the University of British Columbia obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Forestry. Three years later, while working in the industry, he was accepted as a Registered Professional Forester in the Province of BC.
Rob always worked for privately owned forest companies in the province over his 40 year career. He commenced his career as a field forester practicing in the interior of BC and moved up through the ranks to hold senior positions for a variety of companies. During the latter part of his career, he worked as an international consultant in such countries as Venezuela, Vietnam and Indonesia.
In 2008, Rob became a Charter Member of the Rotary Club of Whitehorse Midnight Sun where he initially served as the club secretary before becoming club President in 2009 — 2010. ln 2012, Rob moved from Whitehorse to Pictou with his wife Irene Szabla, where he joined the Rotary Club of Pictou. Rob has been Assistant Governor for the six clubs in northern Nova Scotia prior to being District Governor.
Since retirement, Rob has actively participated in a number of community volunteer groups in Pictou such as the Pictou Business and Marketing Society, Pictou County Cruise Ship Committee and the Cape to Cape Trails organization.
Rob has a son, Adam, who with his wife, Yoshiko and two sons, Tai and Dan reside in Sackville, NB and a daughter Jocelyn, with her husband, Paul and son, Elliot, who live in Calgary, AB. Rob is incredibly fortunate to have as family Irene’s son David, who resides in Whitehorse and her daughter, Pascale, who has been teaching in Cambodia for the past three years and has just accepted a new teaching position in Hong Kong.
Rob presented President Ryan with the Ri Theme banner for the year. Be the Inspiration.
He then talked about the what it means to be inspirational and how we as Rotarians were inspired by others as well as being the source of inspiration ourselves. As Rotarians we will touch of the lives of many we will never know.
Rob outlined his vision of Rotary Clubs during the year. He used the mnemonic SHAPE to help us remember.
S is for Strengthening our clubs through strategic planning and adding new members.
H is for Humanitarian service, the core of what Rotary is all about. The challenge is to quantify it so that the world will know what it is we do.
A is for Awareness of Aboriginal issues in our community. There are 55 communities below the 60th parallel with real water problems. While Canada's first nations people make up 5% of the population, they have 25% of the reported cases of TB. The challenge was to look into ways of engage these communities on our doorstep.
P is for Public Image and it's importance in letting others know what it is that Rotary is and what it does. We have to become adapt at the use of the tools that we have available and work together to get the message out as to the good things we do.
E is for Environmental Stewardship and it's importance in our communities. We have one earth and while there were initiatives like the tree planting last year, it is the responsibility of Rotarians to do even more to help preserve and enhance our environment. He challenged our club to do an environmental project and let him know so he could participate.
DG Rob concluded by encouraging us to be the inspiration to SHAPE up world for others as well as for ourselves.
Jim thanked Rob on behalf of the club.
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