John Senn, #18196, had been recently married and worked in research lab at Dow Chemical in Williamsburg VA. His bride had a new job at the opening of a Savings & Loan in Williamsburg. The manager was a former president of the Virginia Beach Jaycees and invited John to a meeting. John states, “It was the first meeting that I attended and was so nervous that I couldn’t remember where I worked!”
Two months later, in 1963, he was inducted into the Williamsburg Jaycees where he was pined by State President Herb Bateman.
In the summer of 1963, John’s first project was installing seatbelts in cars. Cars were directed to a large parking lot near the College of W&M and with some gutter nails and other tools holes were put into the floor board of a car, and minutes later – seatbelts were in your car! At one point a limousine came by and it was the Governor of Virginia – Albertis Harrison, Jr.!!! Two weeks later, members of the project team and chapter were invited to the State Capitol and presented the governor with a set of belts for his car.
John’s first project chair was an idea that he formed entitled, “Send a Mouse to College.” This project involved sending ‘mice’ to a college for cancer research. Over the next couple of years, he served the Williamsburg Jaycees as Secretary, Director, and Vice President. In 1968, he moved to Richmond where he joined the West End Jaycees, where he rose to become chapter President in 1973-74.
John received the most coveted award in the West End Junior Jaycees, the Herbert Perry Award, during his first year of membership with the chapter.
In 1969, he was the founding chairman for the West End Jaycees Christmas Tree Lot that is one of the chapters’ and states’ longest running projects and is still a major income source today - 41 years later.
In John’s year as President of the West End Jaycees, the chapter began to raise money to purchase and donate to MCV Hospital a neonatal care mobile unit. It took two years to complete but on the day we presented it to MCV Hospital an hour later it was dispatched to Fredericksburg and save an infant’s life.
John has served the Virginia Jaycees as “Spark Plug” Chairman (a membership activation program) in which he visited 110 of the 119 chapters in Virginia to promote the program. As a result, he was awarded the US Jaycees National Outstanding Spark Plug State Chairman.
He also served as the first State Virginia Chairman for prison Chapters where the state grew from 3 to 12 chapters! As part of a team of West End Jaycees, he helped start at the State Penitentiary prison chapter in Powhatan. The next year – at the National Convention, Virginia Prison at Spring Street was #1 – and the Powhatan prison chapter was #3~!
John states that in the 14 years he was active, he attended all four state meeting every year totaling -59~!, 4 National conventions and one International convention… (I would say he was busy, huh?)
For his professional career and part of the confidence that the Jaycees instilled in him, he went on to the Life Insurance business and worked with Protective Life 25 years. He change directions and ended up in the dental business becoming a national sales manager for a dental company. He is now retired.
John does note that at the tender age of 42, in 1982, he suffered a heart attack and subsequently triple by-pass surgery. The interesting factoid is that he learned to snow ski only 4 years earlier and was sure that that was the end of ski-season for him. He had a second heart attack in 1994, triple by-pass again and then in 2004 had to endure open heart a third time to make repairs. He remained strong in spirit!
Since 1979, he has never missed a ski season, has been active with the Richmond Ski Club for 30 years and served as their President. He’s been a ski trip leader for 25+ years and has skied all over the US along with 12 trips to Europe.
In his SPARE time, for 15 years, John was as an active Clown in Clown Ally #3 performing magic and tying balloon animals for kids of all ages. He’s also been an extra in “The Jackal” and “John Adams” movies, shot in Richmond. Today, he is very active with Chapter #28 of the Mended Hearts in Richmond. The organization visits patients before and after heart surgery as well as the families. He also works with the Mended Little Hearts – which fosters children who are born with congregative hart problems and their parents.
When asked how the Jaycees have impacted his life, John simply stated, “I will have to say that if it weren’t for the opportunity I was presented back in Williamsburg by the Jaycees taking a somewhat shy young man and giving him the confidence and backbone to step up and accept challenges, I am sure, I would never have had to chance to become successful in life as well as to travel the world.”
Here’s to your continued success, John!
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