I am a sad fellow tonight.
A few hours ago I received word of the death of a man who played a significant role in granting me the honor of participating in a life-changing event.
Ted Holder is gone. I will miss him. I also will forever honor his memory and will thank him for the rest of my life for the part he played in changing my life.
Ted was a member of the Levelland, Texas, Rotary Club. In late 2008, he was serving on a West Texas Rotary District committee assigned to select a Rotary member to lead a team of young professionals to Israel. The journey would be taken under the auspices of Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange.
The GSE team would comprise four non-Rotarians. They would be “led” by a Rotary member. The group would interact for four weeks with professionals in the host Rotary district. The 2009 Rotary GSE host district for our team would be located in Israel.
But first things first.
Our Rotary district needed a team leader. I was one of three Rotary members who applied for the honor to select and then accompany this team to the Holy Land.
We gathered in Lubbock to interview with the Rotary district committee. Ted was one of the committee members.
We made our pitch, all sitting around the same table at the same time. I gave it my best shot. After a lengthy interview, we all dispersed. I drove home to Amarillo.
Later that day, I got a call from the committee chairman, who informed me I had been selected to lead the Rotary GSE team. I was stunned. I choked back tears.
It would be quite a while later that I heard from a member of the committee about what Ted had said about my presentation. You see, Ted was a police officer; he served several years as Levelland chief of police. As you might guess, he didn’t much like media types. I was a media type at the time of my interview; I was serving as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News.
One of the committee members confided to me that Ted had told the panel that he “think much of the media, but I sure liked John’s presentation. He gets my vote.” The individual who told me this seemed to suggest that Ted’s endorsement of my pitch to the committee was decisive in the committee selecting me.
Well, the rest is pretty much history. I have shared much of that marvelous experience with you already on his blog. What most of you didn’t know is much about how that experience came to pass.
Ted Holder helped changed my life by granting me the high honor of representing Rotary District 5730 on a journey for the ages. My GSE teammates, I am quite certain, agree with that.
I am happy to report that the last time I saw Ted, about a year ago at a Rotary meeting, I took a moment to thank him — yet again — for the honor he granted me.
We have a lost a good man.