David Patrick Obot-Oruk, Mr.

Tribute to a Fallen Friend, fellow Rotarian and Mentor; David Patrick Obot David was a great leader. I met David in late 2011 when we were preparing to establish an elite Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Kampala Day-Break. The club was set up by a number of Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors, and heads of public, private and civil society organisations who found it difficult to follow the usual meeting times of the then existing clubs which mainly met in the evenings. The Rotary Club of Kampala Day-Break set out to meet in the mornings on Thursdays from 7am to 8am at the Grand Imperial Hotel. The club subsequently moved its meeting venue to Fairway hotel. The club was chartered with 32 members on the 14th of March 2012 with Rotarian Dr. Robert Rutaagi as its Charter President. David was very instrumental in the founding of the club and became the club’s second President. The club faced some challenges immediately after its launch. A number of its members who were heads of multinational institutions left the country after their tour of duty and others got transferred out of Kampala. The club at that time remained with less than ten numbers and with no meaningful projects under implementation. It was a very difficult time and the club needed strong leadership to bring it back on track. The club members unanimously agreed that David was the most suitable person to take over from Dr. Robert Rutaagi and he was installed as President for the Rotary Year 2014/2015. And who was David as a leader? I worked very closely with David over the years and found him to be a very effective leader. He was a man of impeccable integrity. He was someone you could rely on and kept his word. He also believed in developing leaders and mentored a number of members like me who subsequently served as Presidents. I recall that he continued to guide me at the time when I was President of the club during the Rotary Year 2018/2019. David was a soft-spoken gentleman. In the words of Charter President Robert Rutaagi, he was a ‘gentle gentleman’. Make no mistake, in that calm speaking gentleman was a strong leader with a firm resolve to achieve the club’s objectives. He was an effective communicator who never raised his voice at any one time. I learnt a lot from him. I now try my best to keep calm under all circumstances. David showed respect to every member of the club. He treated all of us equally well and he was such a uniting factor in the club. David also used his research capabilities to support the club develop excellent project proposals. The first project he developed was for the support of a school for the deaf in Soroti. This was undoubtedly, Day-Break’s first project that impacted the communities in the eastern part of the country. David was a gentle giant. He had big dreams for the club. Members of the Rotary fraternity will surely miss him. The best we can do now is to ensure that his legacy lives on. May his soul Rest in Eternal Peace. Rotarian Dr. James Okello Onyoin Past Assistant Governor Rotary Year 2021/2022 and 7th President of the Rotary Club of Kampala Day-Break Rotary Year 2018/2019