Peter E. Simonsen, 72, passed away September 5th at Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers after a lengthy battle with kidney disease. Born in Malden, he was the son of the late Aage A. Simonsen and Edna A. (Dauphinee) Simonsen. He was the beloved husband of Diane Humphries Simonsen for 49 years.

Peter attended Saugus High School and was a graduate of Northeastern University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Insurance. Peter held senior financial positions for over 45 years mainly as Chief Financial Officer at Cape Ann Bank and Trust, Beverly National Bank and ending his career at SeniorCare Inc. in Gloucester.

Peter joined Rotary in 1991 as a charter member of the Rotary Club of Hamilton Wenham. He was president of the club in 1996-1997. Over the years he held many positions in Rotary District culminating with serving as District Governor in 2014-2015.

In my monthly District Governor email a few days ago I had invited Rotary Clubs to do a project during Basic Education and Literacy Month (September) and perhaps build a "Little Library" in their community:

 

 

I want to follow up on this invitation with an offer. In recent months, Nora and I have gone through our library and removed a whole series of duplicate books that had accumulated over the years. We'd be happy to donate these books to any Rotary Club who actually wants to build such a "Little Library". It's about 250 books, mostly English and German, about evenly split 50:50.

 

Join Zone 32 Foundation Team learn best practices how to create and submit your lifesaving Disaster Response Grant.  Presentations by RI Grant Managers, experienced grant writers & expert panel of Rotarians.  Wednesday Sept 14 at 10:00 am EST.

 

Deadline extended to Monday, September 19, 2022

A 12-month Gloucester photo raffle calendar will be sold through the Gloucester Rotary that includes a raffle ticket. A winning number will be chosen each week in 2023. All profits from the calendar sales will go to the Gloucester Rotary’s efforts to raise money to support the many community and international activities in which the group is involved.

More information: https://gloucesterrotary.org/

Save the Ipswich River & Watershed: The Lifeblood of Our Communities Global Grant has been approved by RI. It couldn't have come at a better time. The Ipswich River is rated one of the top 10 endangered rivers in the US. Currently the river is facing its worst drought ever. “To be blunt, the river is dead,” said Wayne Castonguay, executive director at the Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA). As of Aug. 30, the river plummeted through all previous drought records when it reached zero flow. Last week, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded a mere trickle at 0.07 cubic feet per second. “Basically at zero,” Castonguay said.