The Rotary Club of Rocky Mount recently celebrated George Hooks’ 100th birthday.

Hooks, who has been a Rotarian for 69 years, used the occasion to present a “One Jen-u-Wine Split Out Tobacco Stick” to 2013-14 Rotary Club District Gov. Brenda Shaw. Hooks, the Rocky Mount club’s Rotarian Centurialis, was concerned over Brenda’s trip to California, where she would be required to represent District 7720 to about 200 nations – twice the number of nations visited by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in four years. Then she would have to come home and govern more than 40 Rotary Clubs.

One of Hooks’ contemporaries provided wise counseling for this endeavor. Hooks was just entering school in 1919 when Teddy Roosevelt died. He was the same person responsible for the wise proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big tobacco stick,” which was engraved on the tobacco stick given to Shaw.

Following this presentation, Past President Sonny Foster discussed how Rotarian Centurion lives by the Four Way Test and always sets an example for other Rotarians.

He then awarded Hooks, by unanimous consent, the Rotarian Centurion Certification by the entire membership of the Split Tobacco Stick Society of Rotary International on Jan. 5, 2013.

This was followed by Mayor David Combs, a member of The Rocky Mount Rotary Club, presenting Hooks with a Citation of Honor from the city of Rocky Mount.