Charli has Sam Lowry and Dwight Leeper on this week to talk about pumps in Senegal and how they continued to give of their skills even in retirement.
Sam Lowry was born in South Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1952 and then spent his childhood and early youth in Cincinnati, Ohio. Currently a retired engineer living in Huntsville, Alabama he joined Rotary International in 2018 as a member of the Huntsville Rotary Club for the opportunity to be involved with volunteer work.
Sam has a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering and Applied Physics from Harvard University, a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a PhD in Engineering Sciences from the University of Tennessee Space Institute.
After service as a Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps, he arrived in Huntsville in 1981 from Cleveland, Ohio to work as a NASA engineer in the MSFC Analysis Branch during the early years of the Space Shuttle.
In 1991 he joined CFD Research Corporation, where he spent 14 years helping develop a class of computer software tools known as Computational Fluid Dynamics.
After CFD Research Corporation, he spent a year as a full-time science teacher at Lee High School and then as a volunteer for the next seven years teaching their AP Physics class.
Following his full year as a teacher at Lee, he went back to the private sector as CEO and co-founder of Simerics. Simerics develops simulation software for modeling pumps and fluid systems used in a variety of applications, including the oil and gas, water, and automotive industries.
Having retired from Simerics in 2016 , he enjoys a mix of consulting, travel, recreation and volunteer work, including serving as one of the leads on a recently approved Global Grant to introduce deep-water hand pumps into rural communities in Senegal, working with the West Chester PA Rotary Club as the International Sponsor and the Dakar Soleil SN Rotary Club as the Host.
This year, he is very much looking forward to helping provide reliable access to clean water for rural communities in Senegal under the Rotary Club Deep-Water Pumps for Senegal project.
Dwight Leeper’s philosophy, borrowed from Scouts, is “to leave the world a better place than we found it.” He began his Rotary journey in D7510 NJ in 2002 with the Fanwood Scotch Plains Club. There he served two terms as Membership Chair and two as President. He served the District with a three-year term as Assistant Governor, as Deputy Governor, Vice Governor and was District Governor 2012-13 during which he led a U.S./Canada NID in Pakistan and subsequently hosted a GSE team from Pakistan. He is a graduate of the Leadership Institute, a multiple Paul Harris fellow, a member of the Paul Harris Society and have been a facilitator at multi-district PETS. He chaired a District Long Range Planning Committee for two years and joined a District team to Nepal, He joined the West Chester Rotary Club in 2015. With our District, I have been a DG trainer. Most recently, he has participated in a Rotary school project in Leogane, Haiti.