SAN MARINO NEWS
By Mitch Lehman

It was a big day for longtime San Marino residents Betty Brown and Dr. Allan Yung when they were honored by the Rotary Club of San Marino as the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth Honorary Paul Harris Fellows in Friends Hall at the Huntington Library on Thursday, March 19 – and it only got bigger.
Later that evening at a special called meeting of the San Marino City Council, Brown officially stepped down after serving that body for twelve years, after which Yung raised his right hand and took the oath of office for his first term.
“There is a tear in my eye,” Brown said as she accepted her award from Rotarian Bob Eichel, who nominated her for the prestigious honor. “It is such a pleasure to see so many of my friends and family here today.”
Brown told the audience she had done some research on Paul Harris – the founder of Rotary – and is “in awe of his accomplishments.”
“Rotary and the city council share the same principles,” she said, referencing the club’s four-way test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Brown quoted Abraham Lincoln to punctuate a truth she had discovered after three terms on the council: “You can’t please all of the people all of the time,” she quipped.
Referencing Yung and the two other successful candidates who would be sworn in later that evening – Dr. Richard Sun and Dick Ward – Brown said it would be a pleasure on her last day on the council “to give anyone the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of the three fine men who will join the council tonight,” laughter enveloping the final words of her address.
Lauded by sponsor Rich Haserot for his “selfless volunteerism” and embodiment of the Rotary motto of “service above self,” young began his address to the surprise of none by praising someone else: his beloved wife Nancy.
“It has been said that behind every man is a great woman, and I have Nancy,” he said. “Thank you for putting up with me for all these years.”
Yung called it “an honor and privilege to be honored by such a distinguished group.”
Then it was on to San Marino High school graduate Anne-Marie Campbell-Keyes, the 1983-84 Rotary Ambassador Scholar, who kept the audience in stitches with remembrances of her days spent in Aix–en–Provence and the intricacies of French culture, including the interpretation of different gestures and the significance of the number of kisses with which you greet friends and family (two on each cheek in that region of the country).
Attendees were then dismissed to the traditional tour of the grounds on a beautiful spring afternoon that was really just the beginning of the day’s journey for Brown and Yung.
Past Paul Harris Fellows in the audience included Rary Simmons, Pat Connell, Barbara Maxwell, Winnie Reitnouer, Judith Carter, Warren Weber, Gene Dryden and this reporter.
San Marino Rotary’s Honorary Paul Harris Fellow awards recognize those special men and women who give their time and talents to make our community better, but who are not themselves members of Rotary.
The international organization's motto and mission is to give ‘Service Above Self.’ The club in San Marino selects and honors annually one or two people with this Fellowship, saluting their service while contributing in their name to educational exchanges and to improving health, hunger, and humanity around the globe.
Over 1.3 million Rotarians worldwide donate many hours and millions of dollars each year to programs near the clubs and in needy countries. San Marino’s Rotarians are leaders in giving more than one million dollars to The Rotary Foundation, the charitable arm of the international organization.
The San Marino club has selected and funded recent college graduates for Ambassadorial Fellowships to study abroad, and has supported local and distant projects including the remarkable PolioPlus program to eliminate the polio virus from the world, nearing complete success after twenty years’ effort.
Gregory Thompson, chair of the Foundation Committee for San Marino Rotary, explained how the Paul Harris Fellow award includes a contribution in the name or Dr. Yung and Mrs. Brown to further many international projects.