Murrysville-Export Rotary president will serve as district governor in '23

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The local Rotary Club was an easy fit for John Hartman.

“I’m a retired chief of police, so public service was front and center my entire career,” said Hartman, 66, of Penn Township. “While I was a police officer, I found out about the Rotary and its mission and thought it was a great addition to what I was doing professionally.”

Hartman has spent the past five years with the Murrysville-Export Rotary Club, where he serves as president. In 2023, he will spend a year serving as the organization’s district governor for Rotary District 7305, which spans from Aliquippa to Cambria and southern Westmoreland counties.

“It’s a huge district, 82 clubs, and the governor is in charge of managing it,” Hartman said. “Your job is to provide service to every level, and to make sure the organization is running well.”

If the Murrysville-Export Rotary Club is any indication, District 7305 will be in good hands: The club recently purchased gas-detection meters for a local fire company, purchased specialized cots for the Murrysville Export Emergency Management Agency and delivered lunches to several local groups on the front lines of the pandemic.

“Helping people in need is what it’s all about,” Hartman said. “Our club has one full-ride scholarship per year that we’re now in our second year with. We do things locally and globally, but it’s all about helping those in need.”

Hartman said he knew Rotary was for him when early on, he spent a summer day working the Rotary’s sausage booth at what was then Murrysville Community Day.

“It was probably about 185 degrees,” Hartman joked. “I remember working up there all day with the members, and there was an energy that really attracted me, it’s never failed to attract me.

“The people who get involved in these projects are a special kind of people,” he said. “They really want to do things for the sake of doing good things. For someone who was in my career, that was an easy transition.”