June 5, 2025
President Tim Tholen welcomed all to the Club with the Camp for Kids at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Then, dispensing with the normal battery of announcements, Pat Bolin, Chair of the Memorial Committee, took the podium and commenced our annual Memorial Meeting with an invocation. A moment of silence took place in honor of recently-departed Club 13 member, Alan Warne.
Remembrances of three Club members were then eloquently presently. Jim Porter began by reverently sharing thoughts regarding past Club President, Woody Davis, who passed on December 7, 2024, at the age of 93 years. Woody was the consummate servant leader having served as President in no less than nine civic and professional organizations to which he belonged. Besides forging a highly successful career as a business and estate planning attorney in private law firms bearing his name, Woody served in the military and clerked for Charles Whitaker on the U.S. Supreme Court. Woody’s love of music, traveling, and scrapbooking, and his legendary sense of humor, never tired. Perhaps Woody’s greatest legacy was his marriage to Louise and their children, our own Past President Tom Davis, and two daughters.
Pat Bolin then shared remarks regarding Ed Knisley whose wife, Gloria, and two daughters were in attendance. Ed passed away on December 24, 2024, at the age of 90 years. In 1970, he and Gloria started a Lanier dictation equipment dealership, Electronic Office Systems, which is still in business today despite all the changes in technology over the years. Ed was an affable guy who listened more than he talked. His quiet demeanor belied his love of adventure which often took the form of water sports, including scuba diving, water skiing, sailing, and power boat racing. Ed was also a woodworker and a private pilot. Pat saw Ed as “dynamic, yet understated; accomplished, but humble.” He was comfortable among his nuclear and Rotary families, and Club members were comfortable around Ed.
Lastly, Rev. George Gordon, presented remarks regarding Bill Kort who passed away on February 27, 2025, at the age of 78 years. George did his homework on Bill, who he had only seen from across the room at Rotary meetings. George remarked that Bill “always looked like a guy you could trust,” and his investigation of Bill’s life supported that conclusion. Bill was involved in many civic organizations and was a family man, a theme among all of those memorialized today. Rabbi Michael Zedek paid Bill two of the highest compliments a person of the Jewish faith could be paid: he was a “real mensch” and an “ish tov” meaning he was a good and rare person of integrity genuinely concerned about others and the world. Bill, a stockbroker, was instrumental in developing an investment strategy for funds under the stewardship of the Kansas City Rotary Club Foundation. According to Phil Kinney, he helped stabilize the Foundation’s investment plan and gave sound investment advice. According to Marc Horner, he could explain investment strategy in simple terms which all could understand. Sally Bibb defined Bill as the “right kind of Yes Man” who would always say “yes” when called upon to assist the Foundation, the Camp, or the Club.
