The Waunakee Rotary Club now has two members who grew up in Loyal, Wisconsin. Tom Bertz, who recently joined the club, recalled growing up across the street from longtime Rotarian Bill Erickson. Tom gave his classification talk at the Sept. 9 meeting and shared with fellow Rotarians that while his father was the mayor of Loyal, Bill’s dad, the movie theater owner, had the really important job.

Tom described Loyal as a small farming city of about 1,000. After high school, Tom enrolled in St. Thomas Collage at St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was shocked at the large metropolis. After earning a degree in prelaw, Tom attended Marquette University, serving as assistant editor of the Marquette Law Review. He earned his juris doctor in 1962 and afterwards clerked for Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Timothy Brown.

“It was one of the greatest joys you could possibly have, to be a law clerk for the chief justice,” Tom said.

His experience at Marquette brought other joys as well. Fran, whom he would later marry, was the law school dean’s executive secretary and also a model. After they were married, Tom joined a law firm in Madison in the 1970s. It was a time of upheaval and riots, and after deciding it was just too dangerous, the couple moved to Stevens Point where Tom was a partner in the firm Anderson, O’Brien, Bertz, Skrenes & Golla since 1974 and retired decades later.

After Tom’s wife died of a massive heart attack in 2012, their son, a CPA with MG&E, asked him to move to Waunakee.

Tom had been an active Rotarian in Stevens Point where he was a Paul Harris Fellow. He also was elected to the Wisconsin Judicial Council and served as chair from 2010-18. Tom has also remained active professionally and with UW-Stevens Point.

 

Guests: Cassey Zickert, guest of Karli Pagluighi; Eric Christoffersen, guest of Dan Evans; Alex Welk, guest of Jim Kattner.

 

Visiting Rotarians: None

 

-Wauktoberfest is Sept. 17-19 and the WaunaFest Run at Wauktoberfest is Sept. 18. Volunteers are needed, especially Sunday.  

-You can sign up for the Betty Lou Cruise Sept. 26.

-Food for Kidz is Oct. 10 with a scaled down event.

-Get ready for the Rotary Lights.

 

Birthdays: Sept. 19, Neil Kruschek; Sept. 21, David Kennedy.

 

Anniversaries: Sept. 17, Ken and Mary Pesik; Sept. 20, Neil and Sharon Kruschek; Sept. 22, Rex and Brenda Endres.

 

Greeters: Sept. 16, Ryan Knight and Neil Kruschek; Sept. 23, Nancy Kuehn-Thomas and Drew Lawrence; Sept. 30 Kim Lengfeld and Joel Lewis; Oct. 7, Dave May and Kevin McDaniel; Oct. 14, Mark McFarland and Nick Mischler.