Norma Taylor-Roderique

Rotary Stats

Club: Rotary eClub of the Southwest
Been a Rotarian since: Jun 01, 1988

Achievements: Paul Harris Fellow, Paul Harris Sustaining, Benefactor

My Rotary Info

How long have you been in Rotary? Estimate if you do not know exact dates.
I have been in Rotary for 22 years.

List the Rotary clubs you've belonged to.
Phoenix Arcadia Rotary for 13 years; Scottsdale Rotary for 6 years, recswusa, 3 years

What club offices or leadership positions have you held?
Member of Board of Directors, Foundation Chair, Secretary, President, Lifetime Honorary Member of Phoenix Arcadia.

Which was your favorite? What roles would you be interested in pursuing?
I really don't have a favorite. I very much enjoyed my year as President. I was a member of the Phoenix Arcadia club during my year as District Governor.

Have you held district or int'l offices?
Yes

If yes, list them:
District 5510 Governor, 1997-98. International Council on Legislation, Chicago, 2001. Member of Foundation Simplification Committee, Evanston, 2002. Zone Chairman of Poverty Alleviation Committee, 2003. Speaker at PETS, District Conferences and Zone Institutes a number of times.

What other Rotary involvement have you had? (Exchange, Friendship exchange, GSE, etc.)
My husband is also a Past District Governor -- of District 5490. We have hosted a Gift of Life child and members of that district's GSE team. I also have a long-term low-cost shelter project in the Sierra Norte area near Puebla, Mexico, which is ongoing. We have hosted several couples from that area.

eClub works for me because...
In 2005 I lost my voice box to laryngeal cancer. It is difficult for me to swallow, eat and drink, and especially to speak and be heard when there is background noise. Since Rotary meetings consist primarily of eating and talking, it has been challenging for me.

About Me

How would you describe yourself? List qualities that friends might use to describe you.
My daughter was asked once to describe me. She said "scrappy." She is the grandmother of four little ones, so guess what that makes me? I like to read, travel, redecorate, shop for antiques, play with my grandchildren and be with my wonderful husband.

What are your favorite things, in personal and work life?
Oh, dear. Well, start with chocolate. I love to putter around my house listening to Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. I really love traveling, but it is rather chancy for me nowadays because of my throat condition.

Some least favorite things?
Petty politics. Medical appointments. Phoenix in the summer when it is 116*. (Like today)

Is there a quotation that gets you through the day, or is very meaningful to you?
What doesn't kill you outright makes you stronger.

What type of vehicle do you drive, or doperfer another mode of transportation?
2002 Red Cadillac Deville.

What type of pets do you prefer?
None right now. I lost my 20-something year old cat, Priss, about four years ago. I haven't had the heart to replace her yet.

My special skills and talents are...
I'm a good typist -- isn't that lucky, being in an eClub?

Education and Occupation

Level of traditional education:
Some College

Do you have a specialty degree?
No

Describe it:

Where did you attend High School?
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Where did you attend college?
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, on a music scholarship

I use my degree in my current occupation:
False

What is your current occupation?
Retired. Homemaker. Grandmother. Occasional morphing into Miss Truly Candid, Society Editor of the Podunk Pines Weekly News, a bustling town of nearly 5,000. Exciting, eh?

How long have been at your current occupation?
I have been retired since becoming District Governor in 1997.

What was the least favorite job you've ever had?
When I was about 16, I worked in a local bakery in Colorado Springs. I had to be at work at 6:00 a.m. I am not a morning person. I was always late. I can't remember for certain whether I was fired or quit -- either way I did not last long.

Entertainment/Interests

What are your hobbies?
Interior design, reading, writing (working on my second novel), giving parties.

Do you play sport? List them.
No. Bad knees. I walk a treadmill at the nearby country club a few times a week, but I don't really like it.

Do you watch sport? Who are your favorite teams/players?
Not much. I like to watch the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Diamondbacks when they reach the finals.

Do you like to camp?
No

Do you prefer books or movies?
Books

Food

Do you like to cook or go out for dinner?
Go out

What is your favorite meal?
That's way too hard a question. There is very little that I do not like. I was on a feeding tube for six months after my throat surgery, and it was wonderful to be able to eat -- anything -- again.

Miscellaneous

What is your favorite book and why?
I guess I'd have to say "Gone With The Wind." Some nayspeakers have called it a "Civil War soap opera," but I found it to be a story of valor and survival. I first read the book when I was about 16, a very impressionable age, and perhaps that accounts for my continuing to like it.

If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why?
I have no idea. I am reminded of the saying (Buddhist?) that if everyone laid down his baggage and picked up that of another, he would only take a few steps and ask for his own back.

If you could meet your great-great grandparents, what would you ask them?
What life was like in their day. What the names of my great-great grandfather's parents were. He was born in 1808 in South Carolina -- way before the Famine -- and I'd like to "get him across the pond," so to speak. I know his parents came from Carlow, Ireland, but I don't not have their first names. Last name was Nolen. I have been to Carlow a couple of times -- even made up at Rotary there twice, ten years apart. They told me if I could get these first names, they could take my family history back 800 years.

If money were not an a concern, what profession would you choose?
Since I am retired, I tend not to think in terms of a profession these days. However, were I a few years younger, I'd love to become an interior designer -- doing over old castles and manor houses in Europe, knocking out walls, hunting for old boiserie and antique furniture. I would do that for free!

What is your favorite movie? Why?
Once again, "Gone With The Wind." (See favorite book, above.) I also love "Auntie Mame," who is one of my heroines.

What might surprise people about you?
I can't think of one surprise. I am pretty much "what you see is what you get." (Well, maybe that once I wanted more than anything to be a world-famous concert pianist -- but that was long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

If you could muster the courage, what would you like to do?
Try to put together a peace conference between countries of the Middle East.

If you relive one day, which would it be?
One day in about 1970 when my youngest son was nearly four. I was sitting under a tree on the patio watching him play. He asked to go to a favorite fast-food place nearby for a "monster burger." We procured this burger for him, brought it home, and as the two of us sat together at the picnic table, and I thought to myself, "I cannot think of one single thing in my life that would make me happier than I am right now with this child at my side on this beautiful day."

If you could take only three items with you to a space colony, what would they be? (Your family is already coming with.)
An ENT physician with all the equipment necessary to care for my throat (bet no one else asks for that one!), the Bible, a sidecar full of dark chocolate.

What is the best advice your parents gave you?
You can do whatever you decide you want to do.

What is the best advice you have given your children?
You can do whatever you decide you want to do.

If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
I would be my cat. I do not have her anymore, but when I did she was queen of the house, got pretty much whatever she wanted, and was quite self satisfied.

Describe the most beautiful sight you have ever seen:
My babies' faces the day they were born.

Family secret for treating a cold?
Hot toddy. Boiling water poured over bourbon, lemon, and honey, stirred with a cinnamon stick.

Where would you like to retire?
Right where I am, in Phoenix. Perhaps a summer home in Colorado, Phoenix in the winter.

The world will be a better place when…
Not that it will ever happen, but when we have world peace, and all the money that is now spent on war and weapons is used for humanitarian and educational purposes.