“Thank you for the opportunity to be your president. It’s been a pleasure and a lot of fun,” said outgoing club president, Kyle Rheiner, as he turned over the presidential gavel to incoming president, Michael Louis. Kyle introduced us to the Ted Lasso Way, renamed Happy Bucks to Grateful Goldfish, gave weekly quotes from Ted Lasso, and weekly briefings following each Thursday meeting. He also introduced us to his two cute daughters who occasionally helped with activities, reinforced our belief that Rotary is really a family organization, participated in the first Rotary podcast with Steve Bayles, AND reported our membership rose from 103 to 119 this year!
Now, we welcome Michael Louis, an attorney with MacElree Harvey for over 46 years, who retired in April but is still finishing up on some cases, and doing tax sales to try to recover people’s homes lost at tax sales. . Born in Sharpley, north Wilmington, Delaware, near the DuPont Country Club (behind the Charcoal Pit on Route 202 to be exact!), Michael attended the University of Delaware and Dickinson Law School, where he met Debra, his wife of 47 years. They are parents of Sara, a wedding planner in Boston, and twin sons, Brian, a personal trainer, married to Jenna (former Rotarian) and parenting a son, and Chris, a tennis pro at Penn Oaks, who parents 3 children with wife, Jaime. As they grew up, Michael always coached his boys’ basketball and baseball teams. He even took their West Side Little League All Star team to Cooperstown Dreams Park, where they played a double header every day for a week, sleeping in bunk beds in one big room!
In 1996, Michael was named an Olympic Hero Torchbearer for the Olympics, and carried the Olympic Torch through West Chester. He was selected from among local nominees by a committee that included the late Charlie Swope, a well-known, prominent banker. We have a celebrity among us!
In 1993, Michael was among several folks who started the Interfaith Housing Assistance Corporation, serving as president for 23 years. Now known as North Star, the non-profit is run by Executive Director and fellow Rotarian, Don Niemetz. Michael was a member of the West Chester Lions Club for 35 years, serving as president twice, until it was disbanded. He joined our club eight years ago, commenting “My only regret is I did not join sooner!”
With all of his leadership experience, Michael is sure to be among our most strong club leaders!