HOULTON, Maine — The Annual Meeting of the Houlton Rotary Club took place at the Shiretown Inn on June 18. This meeting is one of celebration, awards and installation of officers.
The officers and board for the 2018-2019 year were sworn in my past president Marguerite Lawler. Those individuals are as follows: Nate Bodenstab, President, Tracy Rockwell, Vice President, Kyle Taylor, Sergeant-At-Arms, Matt Nightingale, Past President, Paul Callnan, Treasurer, Deb Clark, Secretary, and Board members Leigh Cummings, Becky Day, Linda Faucher, Katie Hill, Mac Randolph, Jane Torres and Nancy West.
Among the awards presented during the program was a Paul Harris Fellowship. The Paul Harris Award is named for the founder of Rotary and is given to an individual in recognition of their service to the community and/or the club. It represents a $1,000 contribution to the Rotary Foundation in their name by the club. The Paul Harris Fellow Award is the highest honor the Houlton Rotary Club presents.
One of the Paul Harris Awards presented was for a non-Rotarian. This recognition was given to Frank Dunn. The award was presented by Nancy Ketch who explained that Dunn was a lifelong Houlton resident who graduated from Houlton High School in 1951. He graduated from Colby College in 1955 with a degree in business administration and a minor in psychology. While at Colby, Dunn participated in Air Force ROTC graduating as a Lieutenant.
Dunn attended the USAF Pilot Training Program in Texas and Georgia earning 205 hours of flight time. He served three years at Misawa AFB in Japan with the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron where he was trained in photo reconnaissance and worked as the Assistant Squadron Adjutant, a Flying Safety Office and a Combat Ready Pilot accumulating 800 hours of 1st Pilot Time.
After a brief stint as a trainer at Reece AFB, Dunn returned to Houlton in September 1960 to work at the family businesses — Donald Dunn Funeral Home and Dunn Furniture Company. Over the years, Dunn worked in sales, appliance repair, accounting, print advertising and design and voiced a number of radio and TV advertisements for Dunn Furniture Company. That business recently announced it would be closing after more than 100 years in business.
At the Funeral Home, he worked as an ambulance driver until that service was discontinued in the mid-1960’s and also work as an embalmer’s assistant.
While working at and running these successful local businesses, Dunn was also committed to his community providing service to a number of causes and organizations – most of which were about making Houlton a better place to live.
Dunn served on the board of the Chamber of Commerce, was on the Houlton Budget Committee and served a term as a Houlton Town Councilor. He is a member of Masonic Lodge No. 96. He is a member of the Houlton Lodge of Elks where he rose through the seven offices and became Exalted Ruler, during which time he led the lodge to State, New England and Eastern US Championships and a Second-Place finish at the National Championship in the Elks Ritual Contest.
Dunn is a past president of Houlton Regional Development Corporation which became the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation. He is a past president of the Houlton Golf Club, was a member of the May Mountain Ski Club and the Save Loring AFB Committee. Frank married the late Harriet Johnstone and they raised two children, Julie and Donald. He has 4 grandchildren, Whitney, Parker, Colby and Molly, as well as two great-grandsons, Cameron and Quinn. Dunn’s daughter, Julie, and granddaughter, Whitney, accompanied Dunn to accept his award and Whitney placed the Paul Harris Fellow pin on him.
More coverage of the Rotary Annual Meeting, including the other award recipients, will be featured in future issues of the Houlton Pioneer Times.
