Rotarian celebrates 100th birthday, 72 years of rotary membership

MARQUETTE — A Marquette County Rotarian turns 100 next month, and he and his wife were honored Monday.

Rotarians sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Bill Cohodas, who has been a rotary member for almost 72 years.  Bill joined Ishpeming’s rotary club in 1942, and has been a member of Marquette’s for over thirty years.

“Rotary has been in dad’s DNA as long as I’ve known him,” Bill’s daughter Lynn Cohodas Stahl said. “And I was just saying to mother I remember every Monday night, he went to rotary. Rotary has been a part of dad’s life for as long as he’s been an adult.”

“Having a member that has been involved with rotary for 72 years is just a huge showing of loyalty to rotary worldwide,” Marquette Rotary Club president Ryan Whitley said.

His wife and daughter said Bill’s favorite part of the rotary club was the charity work.

“He was just so grateful–starting out as a young man he would be ringing a bell for the Salvation Army, and the Bay Cliff (Health Camp) connection was really important to him,” Lynn said.

“I also think making friends here meant an awful lot to him,” Bill’s wife Lois Cohodas said. “He made a lot of friends. And of course, as Lynn said, the connection with Bay Cliff was very important.”

Lois was honored with the Paul Harris Fellowship for the work she’s done for the rotary club.