Out of Africa

Join Karen and Duane on their adventure to the Serengeti, the School of St. Jude, and Mount Kilimanjaro.  Their careers in academia led them to journeys throughout Europe, China, India, and Russia, all of them dwarfed by their travel to Tanzania, Africa in the Spring of 2022.  In the Serengeti they witnessed lions, elephants, giraffes and zebras by the hundreds, colorful birds, monkeys of all varieties, and thousands of wildebeests crossing the countryside during annual migration.  At the School of St. Jude they were entertained by incredibly talented children, learned how to weave and drum, dined on beans and rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and fell in love with bright, young, enthusiastic children eager to learn and challenged to lead their people out of poverty.  At Kilimanjaro they slept with native people, ate goat and rice prepared on three stone firepits, and witnessed how to make the most of life in the village with smiles, laughter, and joyous conversation.  Karen and Duane are now enthusiastic supporters of St. Jude and enjoy bringing other Rotarians to Africa to share these same life changing experiences.

Karen and Duane were born in the Midwest.  Their careers led them to appointments in Michigan, Washington, D.C., Arizona, and South Dakota.  Living in the Black Hills, Duane joined Rotary in Rapid City.  After retiring from academia, Duane and Karen moved to Sparta, Wisconsin, almost exactly between grandchildren in Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.  Karen and Duane joined the Thursday Luncheon Rotary Club shortly after moving to the LaCrosse area in 2023.  “We’ve had an exciting life and want to share these experiences with others through contributions to Rotary.” Karen is retired from two careers.  She was geologist/geophysist, employed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. She was also a secondary school teacher (7^th grade!) in Houghton, Flagstaff and Rapid City.  Duane is retired from a 45 year career as a tenured full professor in mechanical engineering, physics and chemistry with research in high pressure combustion.  He served as Dean of Engineering at three institutions.