Paul Harris Award Recipients

Suffield Rotary Club recently recognized two people for exemplary Service Above Self by designating them as Paul Harris Fellows. The award, made possible by a significant donation to the Rotary International Foundation, is presented annually by the club at a dinner in June.

This year’s recipients were Jed Dery and Ron Carlson. Jed is a ten-year member of Suffield Rotary and is an outstanding contributor to all the club’s activities. He is part of the “cooking team” for the annual Chicken Barbecue, showing up at 5:00 a.m. to light the fire. Jed is also an integral part of the golf tournament committee where planning begins months in advance of the annual August event. Jed serves the Suffield community as manager of the Nicholson and Carmon Funeral Home.

Interestingly, Jed’s father was a Rotarian in Western Massachusetts and was also recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow. Jed has demonstrated excellence in Service Above Self to Suffield Rotary Club.

Ron Carlson is a captain in the Suffield Fire Department and a 53-year member. His major assignment for many years has been public outreach and fire prevention training for the community and particularly the schools. To this end, Ron created EDITH, a kindly and funny elderly woman who teaches fire safety, including skills like STOP, DROP and ROLL and escaping from a smoke-filled room.

In recent years, Ron has become an integral part of the Friends of the Windsor Locks Canal. Ron is also an active caver and regularly takes scout groups to explore caves.

Professionally, Ron was an airport firefighter at Bradley Airport and then Assistant Chief of Security and Safety at Hamilton-Standard Division of United Technologies.

Ron has exhibited outstanding Service Above Self to the Suffield community.

Since 1975, Suffield Rotary has named 88 people as Paul Harris Fellows, including 55 club members and 33 non-members. Rotary was founded by Paul Harris in Chicago in 1905 and has grown to 1.4 million members in 46,000 local clubs in nearly 200 clubs worldwide. The Rotary Foundation provides millions of dollars in funding for a variety of humanitarian projects, most notably $750 million in the in the effort to eradicate polio.