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A R C H I V E S

Thanks for
visiting.

H O M E

C D

October 27, 2000

Calvin Coolidge said,

"Our Government is a government by political parties under the guiding influence of public opinion. There does not seem to be any other method by which a republic can function."

. . . I never thought I would start a speech with the words, "Calvin Coolidge said."
. . . Today we have the second of our 2 speakers representing the major political parties. Jeannette asked me to first do the capsule life history, but the political character of the season continued to color my thoughts, and I realized— Hey, if I do this right, the whistleblower out there won't know when my story ends and the introduction of our speaker begins.
. . . (Audible from member Joe Martin: "Don't you bet on it!")
. . . All week long I've been thinking of our speaker and it reminded me of one of my favorite Ronald Reagan jokes:

It was a story of a fella who was running for office as a Republican and he was in a rural area that wasn't known to be Republican and he stopped by a farm to do some campaigning and when the farmer heard he was a Republican his jaw dropped and he said, "Wait right here while I go get Maw, she's never seen a Republican before."
. . . So he went to get her... and the candidate looked around for something that could serve as a podium to give his speech and the only thing he could find was a pile of that stuff that Bess Truman took 35 years to get Harry to call fertilizer.
. . . So he got up on the mound and when they came back he gave his speech. And at the end of it the farmer said, "That's the first time I ever heard a Republican speech," and the candidate said, "That's the first time I've ever given a Republican speech— from a Democratic platform."

People ask me how I came to Danville, and I'll go directly to the short answer— I, like my 6 siblings, followed my parents to Central Kentucky. Accumulating our acreage near Hustonville was a family project that took over 12 years, in fact, but my Dad was a leader, and, without a doubt, the great hero in my life.
. . . Ladies and gentlemen— he was a great American —lowercase g. What's the difference between a man like my Dad and Ronald Reagan —Great American, uppercase G? Well, one was famous— performed on the big stage. My Dad's stage was small, but he did great things. Both influenced my political philosophy, as has our guest speaker...
. . . But I'm supposed to tell you some things about my life, so here are the biographical facts:
. . . I went to the University of Cincinnati on a Presidential Scholarship, studied in Europe for a time and went to Chicago after I earned a Bachelor of Science in Design. I had the good fortune to work for a partnership of four designers in the full maturity of their careers, men who had made all their business mistakes and creative blunders decades before. It was a golden opportunity for a young guy who dreamed of having his own studio. I had that firm goal, but, like many callow twenty-somethings, I was mixed up about a lot of things.
. . . As a student, I'd campaigned for George McGovern. As a young professional I supported independent candidate Eugene McCarthy.
. . . I believe it was Churchill who said— "If you were not a liberal when you were young, you were not using your heart. If you did not become a conservative when you grew up, you were not using your head."
. . . I was idealistic, and let's just say, that John Dixon might have been a bit disappointed last week when Gatewood didn't pass out a few free samples.
. . . When I returned to Ohio I took a position with Wright State University and they put me in a basement office. Bad luck? Hardly— another golden moment. I shared that room with an enormously talented woman named Dana. Within two years we were owners our own design business. That was over twenty years ago. We've expanded the partnership along the way.
. . . And I owe so much to some of the people in this room who helped us get established in Danville...
. . . But to finish my story I should back up— My grandfather John Dixon was a farmer. Believe it or not, I can't remember if he was a Republican or a Democrat. He had a son named John Dixon, who went to war. To oversimplify, it went something like this:
. . . Guys like Balden would drop the bombs. The Allies would stake the claim, and then guys like Dixon would fly in the cargo— sort of a "Red-Ball Express of the South Pacific." He became an engineer when he got home, married my Mom, and, although he never flew again, went back to the Air Corps for 30 years as a civilian— but now it was called the Air Force.
. . . I knew my Dad as a family man— my parents raised seven kids— but he spent the prime of his life as a warrior— more accurately, a Cold Warrior. Much has been said of the generation that won the war— and it's about time— but, eventually, we'll also know more about those who devoted the rest of their lives to winning a second one, too.
. . . I came with my Dad to Central Kentucky because he wanted his family to be close to the land that the first John Dixon had taught him to love. He was a Compassionate Conservative. I knew what that meant before I heard the phrase. He helped me discover my political roots in the '80s...
. . . I came to know another Compassionate Conservative, someone who first inspired me with his entrepreneurial spirit, and later, with his keen perceptions.
. . . Our guest speaker has contributed much to my sense of why America is great, and how one can leave a mark, and accomplish great things without the need for fame.
. . . A member of this Club has called him "the quiet man behind the scene," and there have been many scenes:
. . . The Children's Learning Center
. . . Wilderness Trace Child Development Center
. . . The United Way
. . . The Salvation Army
. . . Norton Center for the Arts
. . . The YMCA
. . . The Chamber of Commerce
. . . Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center
. . . I'm sure there must be more. Many of you know examples of his community involvement, his passion for citizenship, and his profound generosity.
. . . Our speaker is a native of North Carolina and began his first career in furniture manufacturing soon after he graduated from North Carolina State with a degree in industrial engineering. In just over ten years, he became president of Athens Furniture in Tennessee, where he spent almost 30 years.
. . . By 1985, he was ready for a second career. Jackson Furniture of Danville was about to close when he bought it. Under his stewardship, the company became a leading manufacturer of contract seating for the hospitality and healthcare industries. Although he sold the company last year and recently retired as its CEO, it's hard to imagine a man of his energy being retired in the traditional sense.
. . . Over the years he also has owned or been a major player in 17 different corporations in a variety of businesses, including machine tools, packaging, retailing, hospitality, food service, as well as furniture manufacturing.
. . . In addition to professional, educational and charitable service, he has been active in politics and was mayor of the City of Athens, Tennessee, for 6 years.
. . . He is currently a member of the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Kentucky, and was a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
. . . The father of 3, he and his wife, Betty, have a family of 6 grown sons plus 7 grandchildren.
. . . Ladies and gentlemen— Please give our best Rotary welcome to:
. . . Mr. Basil Turbyfill



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