Drew Gidlof

Rotarian of the Month

First off I want to begin with stating how humbled, and honored, I am to be selected as the Rotarian of the Month.  Having only been an official member of this Club for a few months I have been in awe each month reading about previous honorees.  Thank you for the nomination Adam Lara.

    My wife Lynetta and I have been married for three years come May.  We have three adult children, one granddaughter, a grandson on the way, and the last of our three children is getting married in November.  They live in California, Nevada, and Washington.  Lynetta and I moved to New Braunfels two years ago.  After trying to get out of California for many years I was finally successful.  We absolutely love the Texas Hill Country and moved here because of what Texas has to offer.

    I am an avid outdoorsmen.  I love fishing, hunting, and traveling with our Truck and cab over camper.  When I’m not doing one of these I am DIY’ing the house / property, wood working, volunteering with Big Brothers or serving the Church we belong to.  In my spare time I am training a new hunting bird dog pup that is 9 months old — Rosie.   My motto as a retiree is — “I enjoy doing anything except Working….”

    I was fortunate to have a vocational career that spanned into a lot of different areas.  Shortly after test driving college for two years I enlisted into the Air Force as a Security Policeman for what I thought would be one enlistment, and moving on into the civilian law enforcement field.   During my 20 years in the service I spent approximately 10 years as an Instructor.  Those were my favorite years in the service.  When I retired in 1999 I was assigned to the 4^th Air Force Inspector General (IG) Staff out of McClellan AFB, in Northern California.

I retired from the City of West Sacramento in California about  six years ago after another 20 year term of service.  The first half of my career there was as the Information Technology (IT) Director.  The second half  was as the Construction Operations Manager overseeing Project Managers, Parks Developers, and Engineering Inspectors.  Upon retiring, I worked as a private consultant for a local engineering firm doing Construction Management and Oversight for various local Government Agencies.  On the side, I owned and operated a fishing guide business in Northern California offering trips along the various inland waterways and lakes.

     My Rotary career started in 2003 and I will be celebrating 20- years of Service Above Self in August. I have been a member of the Rotary Club of West Sacramento (2003 - 2021), New Braunfels Rotary Club (2021 - 22), and Rotary E-Club of Central Texas (August 2022 -  now).  I moved to the E-Club format because I wanted more flexibility in my schedule since I’m fully retired now.  The gentleman I consider my Dad sponsored me into Rotary.  I am a third generation Rotarian.  As luck would have it, I was sworn in during an Official Governor’s visit.  My interactions with Governors in District 5180 never seemed to end until I moved.  They are a persistent caliber of Rotarian to say the least.  In 2007 I served as President of my Club.  Probably the best year a Rotarian can have is as Club President.  From 2010 — 2013 I served as an Assistant Governor in District 5180 and had the opportunity to work with three of the finest Rotarians who served us as Governor’s.   I have held other various Club positions and worked on a few District programs as well.  I won’t bore you with them.  I am a Paul Harris Fellow +6.

    One of the things I like to do is ask a member of Rotary “when did you become a ROTARIAN?”  I’m asking all of you that now.  I will tell you when I became a Rotarian during the zoom meeting in February.  So if you want to hear my answer make sure you zoom in for the meeting.