Past District 6420 Governor Mel Sparlin and wife Pug
(1998-99)
| Mel first became a member of the Carbondale, Illinois Rotary Club in
1960. He has been a member of six different Rotary Clubs and served as President of the
Alton, Illinois club 1969-1970 and the Loves Park club from 1994-1995.
He received
the President's Award for outstanding service from the Alton Club in 1967.
He has
served as editor of the club bulletin in Springfield and Loves Park, Illinois and in
Newark, Delaware. He served on the 1989 planning committee for the Annual Conference
in District 7630 - Delaware/Maryland and co-chaired the District 6420 Conference in 1995.
Mel was instrumental in implementing the Loves Park club's fruit sale, which has
raised more than $200,000 for the Loves Park Rotary Foundation since 1984. He has also
been active in membership development in each of his clubs. He was the official
delegate to R.I. Conventions in Atlanta (1970), Tokyo (1978), and Melbourne (1993). He is
a lifetime member of the Paul Harris 711 Club and a sustaining Paul Harris Fellow. Mel grew up on a farm near Flora, Illinois, and received his education at Harter-Stanford High School, Flora and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He served as Assistant Farm Advisor in Clay County, Illinois for over three years before entering the health care field. Mel was employed by Blue Cross-Blue Shield for more than 28 years and was promoted to Vice-President of Alternate Delivery Systems. He served as Executive Director of First Care HMO of Indiana, Vice- Pres- ident of Health Plan Delaware and Senior Field Director and Adminsitrator of the American Heart Association before his retirement in 1995. Mel and his wife, Pug, are parents of four children, Brent, John, Julie and Denise. They have eight grandchildren and spend many hours each week with them. Mel enjoys gardening. Mel has been an active leader in many other organizations in each of the communities in which they have lived. |