Reaching Out

By Charles C. Keller

Lawyering is a profession. That means
we help people solve problems, usually,
but not always, with a legal twist. Service
is our business.

So it is a normal extension for lawyers to become involved in service clubs like Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, or Zonta. At Peacock Keller, we have a long history of involvement in service clubs and their community service activities.

For my part, I joined the California Rotary Club in 1950. Ralph Peacock had already been a member of the Canonsburg-Houston Rotary Club for years. Ken Baker, Roger Ecker, John Rodgers and Rachel Lozosky currently belong to the Washington Rotary Club. I progressed through various leadership roles and was privileged to serve as the world-wide president of Rotary International in 1987-8. Since that time, I have concentrated my efforts in the field of international service with The Rotary Foundation, especially on our goal of fostering world peace, goodwill, and understanding.

That's what brought me to Birmingham, England in June of this year. Our annual Rotary Convention brought us together with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the U.N., Jane Goodall, the animal protector and Mia Farrow, the actress and UNICEF ambassador who currently is leading the charge for world action in relief of Darfur in Sudan.

Just prior to the Convention, I went to Normandy to walk the beaches and climb the cliffs and feel the tensions of this historic battlefield. Then I returned to Birmingham and as chairman of our Peace Centers Committee, I hosted a Peace Symposium and our keynote speaker, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. This monumental gathering also allowed me to speak with and listen to some of the world's leaders in the search for peace and conflict resolution — Professor Paul Rodgers of Bradford University in England, Don Smith, Secretary General of International Alert and Jan Egeland, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

This was also an opportunity to mingle with and listen to more than 100 of our Rotary World Peace Fellows who currently work worldwide at peace building for the U.N., World Bank, government foreign services, non-profit organizations, etc.

Yes, service is our business, whether working in our offices on client problems, or in our communities on local needs and issues, or on the world stage in search of world peace and conflict resolution.