Meeting

Report

HOW I GOT WHERE I'M AT
Ed Lewis, David Norman,
Chuck Panoff, Dick Robberts
By: Hope Lanier

The final Charlotte Rotary gathering of 2003 was full of holiday cheer and ‘great’ fellowship as the membership prepares for the coming year. The meeting started with the introduction of visitors and guests by Sam Woodward. Mike Rash indicated that the health of the club was good and offered some humor by sharing a few over-the-top warning labels found on several common products. Floyd Davis offered our invocation, after the club joined Thomas Moore and the music committee in an appropriately heartfelt rendition of Auld Lang Syne.
 
President Tom introduced the year’s final program, highlighting four our club’s newest members sharing “How I Got Where I’m At.”
 
Ed Lewis began his story reminiscing about a challenging time at his “prep school” – The Connecticut School for Boys. That experience, though undeserved, helped shape his career by introducing him to the challenges of public speaking at a young age. As President of the 9th grade, he was charged with delivering the class graduation speech before a crowd of 500, including the Governor of Connecticut. After completing his secondary education, Ed joined the U.S. Marines, an experience that he values for its lessons in discipline. In 1964, he joined the “War on Poverty” initiative and fervently worked his way through the ranks to lead a seven-state training program in the Northeast. He was among 35 young leaders chosen from more than 1800 applicants to participate as a National Urban Fellow, through which he earned his Masters Degree from Occidental College. As he had not yet completed an undergraduate degree, Occidental held his Masters until he graduated with a Batchelor’s degree in Political Science from Howard University such that, upon graduation, he was awarded two degrees in less than two months time. After graduating, Mr. Lewis made his Washington political debut by joining the 1976 Presidential campaign of Henry “Scoop” Jackson. It was through his work on and around Capital Hill that Lewis began a 30-year friendship with Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson. After many years working in the Cable TV Industry, Lewis accepted Johnson’s offer to move to Charlotte and joined the Bobcats in his current role as Vice President for Franchise Relations.
 
David Norman introduced himself by requiring some activity from the club. A Charlotte native, David learned an early lesson when he hot-wired his brother’s new Austin Healy and was stopped by blue lights with neither license nor keys, having traveled only three short blocks. Thanks to a call from his father to the Judge, Norman learned a tough lesson about spending the night in jail and quickly mended his ways. He graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and earned his MBA from the University of North Carolina. One of his greatest mentors was a Greenville Attorney, Shafer Kendrick, who taught Business Law at Furman and demonstrated how professionals can share life’s experiences through college teaching.
 
From Chapel Hill, Norman entered a brief stint in banking before moving on to a successful career in management consulting. He was appointed by Governor Hunt to implement a taxpayer saving initiative, which gained a great deal of respect for public employees. His next move, into public accounting, brought him back to Charlotte in the 1980’s. In 1995, he started his own consulting firm, working with large non-profits and closely held businesses. He and wife, Barbara, have their hands full with two children at home, an 18-year old at Myers Park High and a 13-year old with special needs. Because of the influence of Kendrick, his mentor at Furman, he has been teaching adults in evening classes at Queens and now Pfeiffer for the past fifteen years. He is also active at Myers Park Baptist and in a number of civic and community initiatives and organizations.
 
Chuck Panoff was born and raised in Brooklyn when Jackie Robinson Played for the Dodgers, the Dodger’s played in Brooklyn and hot peanuts were 10 cents a bag at the ballpark. A natural at marketing, his first foray into business was selling five-cent pens for a dime (three for a quarter) door-to-door. After Prep school, he attended Syracuse University for two years before he left to join the family business. After only a few months, Chuck’s father passed away, leaving a newly purchased business for him and his mother to operate. After his mother’s death, Chuck purchased and managed the family Hospital Supply business for fifteen years, before selling it in 1984. He then ventured into Commercial Real Estate before beginning a business taking small company’s public on the NASDAQ. From there, he joined Mass Mutual in their Estate Planning group, where he increasingly noted the notations on clients’ businesses cards (MD, Esq., etc.). Panoff assigned himself an “official” BDF (Brooklyn Dodgers Fan) – a title that remains on his cards to this day. In 1997, he began work in management consulting, which he continues after having moved to Charlotte with his significant other, Cynthia, one year ago. In closing, Chuck made the club aware of the difference between Charlotte road rage and New York road rage, a notation that made us all share his thanks that we call Charlotte home.
 
Dick Robberts was born and reared in Arlington and Alexandria Virginia. He completed two years at the University of Virginia before joining the Air Force during Vietnam. While on active duty, he chalked up many interesting experiences, including two days stranded on an island in Greenland in minus-135 degree wind chill while cleaning up a nuclear accident. Needless to say, he appreciated his transfer to the South Pacific and a subsequent posting in California before returning home to Virginia. Dick finished his degree in Finance in the UVa school of Commerce and joined then NCNB when it had only $3 Billion in assets. His expertise has been in the Commercial Banking sector, which led him to SouthTrust Bank in 2000, where he now works in Commercial Lending. He married his wife, Susan Benfield in 1986. David Norman noted that Susan was one of the few Myers Park High School girls he had not dated, for which Dick was most grateful. Dick has three grown stepdaughters, four grandchildren and one more on the way.
  
Head Table:
David Norman, Myra Johnston, Chuck Panoff, Ed Lewis, Tom Robertson, Natalie English, Dick Robberts
 
Visitors and Guests:
Sam Woodard; Health & Happiness: Mike Rash; Invocation: Floyd Davis; Music: Thomas Moore
 

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