By Nancy Bittner
The Club’s program on November 19, 2020 featured our two newest members.
Wilson (Doc) Reed – Doc was born in Vicksburg, MS into a family of farmers & grew up in the small town of Redwood which became the home of International Paper Company after buying up many of the small farms in the area. Doc lived his early life during the Jim Crow era of the South that was regulated by 22 laws regarding race relationships. Because of this strife nearly 6 million Americans fled the south & migrated to the north & midwest. He attended racially segregated schools. Doc’s mother died at age 36 from cancer & his family pretty much fell apart. In 1969 he boarded a bus & traveled 2600 miles, arriving in Seattle to live with his father’s family. He attended the UW & earned four degrees. He taught at Seattle U. for 17 years before retiring. He is currently writing a book on poverty to Ph.D., lives in Shoreline, & is a single Dad to a 21 year old son.
Steve Gerritson – Steve was born in a small town on the coast of Maine. His parents moved a lot as his Dad was a salesman, selling chemicals to dry cleaning businesses.
He went to high school in Boston, MA & went on to college, completing only one year before his father died. He played minor league baseball for two seasons before joining the U.S. Air Force. He graduated U. MA & received a masters from Princeton. He worked for the Foreign Service in Africa & also worked for the MA state legislature. Steve moved to Seattle in 1994 when his then wife was accepted to do post-doctoral work at the UW. He was employed by PAC-RIM Enterprise Center that sold products to the government. In 2004 he was part of Clean Tech Alliance & was part of the committee that hired Tom Ranken as its Executive Director. Steve retired in 2015 & was looking around for some environmental cause to become involved in. He found that most opportunities wanted him to “oppose something.” Tom Ranken convinced him that he should try something positive like Rotary. In his spare time, Steve has written & published two mystery novels & is working on his third book.
