Ed Jones passes Rotary gavel to David Bluford

Tom KingFarragut, Our Town Leaders

Rotary International clubs worldwide make their leadership transitions on July 1 – today. On Wednesday, the Rotary Club of Farragut (RCF) membership stood for a warm and loud ovation for its outgoing president – Ed Jones – and then welcomed its new president for 2021-22 – the Rev. David L. Bluford.

The club calls it the “Changing of the Guard” ceremony. The official Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30 annually.

David Bluford

This has been the year of Covid, the year when we learned how to adapt and overcome, to use Zoom for weekly meetings, and the year when we lost four members: Ray Fisher (stroke), PP Chris Camp (pancreatic cancer), the Rev. Ron Jordan (Covid) and Mark Bialik (heart attack).

“It has been an unprecedented year of challenges, but it also has been a very successful year for the club,” Jones said. “It has been a privilege and an honor to be your president this year.”

Jones is the founder, president and CEO of Jones Kirkpatrick and Associates Financial Services LLC.

Through it all, Jones led with patience, planning, understanding, humor, his soft touch and quiet manner, his passion for the job and for Rotary. He never missed a meeting. He’s been our rock.

This has been a year when every past president applauds Ed Jones and is thankful they were not presiding!

Now, Bluford has the gavel. One of his primary focus areas will be expanding the membership of 89 members. “If every member can sponsor a new member this year, we’d be able to do a lot more than what we do now in our community projects and internationally,” he said.

On many days, Bluford rides his big Harley Hog motorcycle from Parkwest to Fox Den Country Club where the club meets at 12:15 p.m. each Wednesday. Bluford has been Parkwest’s chaplain for 31 years and also its director of guest services. He earned his Ph.D. in ministry and his master’s degree in divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and his undergraduate degree from Carson-Newman University.

For 20 years, he was a TSSAA high school football official in Knoxville. Bluford joined Farragut Rotary in 2000 and has held various positions within the club in his 21 years.

He will preside at the club’s July 14 meeting. The club will not meet on July 7.

To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, call 865-659-3562. Tom King, a past president of Farragut Rotary, has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.

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