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"A Better World Through Rotary"

PERSONAL

While Hurff was born in Bellingham, Washington in 1913, his education was in South Dakota, graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1924 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering cum laude.

CAREER

The next 16 years were spent in that state on highway construction, and with private industry as construction superintendent.

In 1940 he went to Alaska and for the next ten years was a Civil Engineer for the U. S. Coast Guard, on installations with much interesting and challenging military and advanced electronics facilities. His next association was with the joint venture contractors who built the first pulp mill in Alaska near Ketchikan. Succeeding that was another ten years with the Civil Service as construction engineer, and chief engineer, mainly for Alaska Public Works during which period 140 projects were built allover Alaska, including 53 schools. Some of these were on refrigerated footings in the arctic. Another project was the original circulating water system for the City of Fairbanks. His last job before retiring was as supervising chief engineer on the construction of the U.S. Post Office and Federal Courthouse in Juneau.

In his professional societies he has served as local President of the National Society of Professional Engineers; and for the American Society of Civil Engineers; has been President of both the local and state chapters and is still a Fellow member.

ROTARY

Hurff joined the Rotary Club of Ketchikan in 1944 and was its President in 1948-49. On moving to Juneau in 1950 he joined that club and was its President in 1959-60. He has continued his Rotary membership there, though he and his wife, Florence, for periods sojourned in California and Arizona before permanently returning to Juneau.

Hurff and Florence have attended many Rotary conventions and zone meetings, before and after his year as Governor. His assignments for con¬tinuing Rotary service haye been numerous, including: District 504 delegate to Council on Legislation in 1966; Forum moderator for five districts in 1967-68; Member R.I. World Community Service Committee in 1968-69;Chairman of that Committee in 1969-70 when he made an around-the-world trip at his own expense to assemble ideas and suggestions from his committee members, which he presented to the R.I. Board at Lake Placid; Vice-Chairman R.I. Extension Committee in 1970-71; more new clubs were formed that year than in any previous year; balloting arrangements Committee, Sydney Convention 1971, and President's Representative to conferences at Moses Lake, Washington, and Palm Springs, California.

IN HIS GOVERNOR YEAR

Hurff's year as Governor was a memorable one. District 504 was the one district in Rotary International where all Rotary Foundation activities could be pictured. R.I. send a scriptwriter and photographer here and made the slide set "The Foundation for Understanding" which was used at the R.I. convention in Nice, France and later throughout Rotary. Several graduate students were studying in our District, as well as technical training awardees, and two pilot agricultural project students at U.B.C. from Brazil and Ecuador. The Group Study Exchange team from Sweden was at the district conference in Anchorage, and the next year Hurff and his wife, Florence, the Andy Lofts of Mount Vernon and the Norman Terrys from Burnaby Hastings attended the Swedish District's conference at Helsingborg. The Saunders have also visited awardees in their home countries after their return: Kassa Gabre in Addis Ababa and Ralph Gwynne in Australia. During his year the Squamish Club charter was presented, though all the preliminary work had been completed by John Morrison, his immediate predecessor as Governor; and the Coquitlam Club for which Frank Trotto of New Westminster had been special representative.

Truly, Hurff is one of the eminent Rotarians in our part of the world.