Photo by Jason Fochtman
Sondra Hernandez, Featured Editor with The Conroe Courier, receives the William Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award from Larry Foerster, chairman for the Montgomery County Historical Commission in 2018. Foerster, Hernandez and Joy Montgomery and Dr. Robin Montgomery have partnered for a new pictorial history book on Conroe. It will be released on Feb. 1 from Arcadia Publishing.
 

The Rotary Club of Conroe’s Club Secretary (and Courier Features Editor) Sondra Hernandez is an author! Sondra writes about others and is very quiet when it comes to her own accomplishments, but the community grapevine made its way to us and the secret is out.

Sondra has collaborated with Joy Montgomery, Executive Director of the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County, Dr. Robin Montgomery, who has authored many books and articles and also writes for The Courier, and author Larry Foerster, Chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission for this project. The book is a part of the “Images of America” series and is all about our wonderful city of Conroe!

Sondra was the guest speaker at the club’s weekly luncheon last week and produced a wonderful Power Point for the club. Her love of Texas history has deep family roots. “Our family vacations when I was growing up were to historic sites across Texas. If there was a historic marker we were going to stop and read it” she told me.

In August 2019 the local ABC affiliate, Channel 13, came to Conroe for a segment about the city and Larry asked Sondra to be there. Sondra thought she was there as an observer, but alas, her friends had other ideas. They put her in front of the camera and a local star was born! Joy was on hand too and together they tag teamed her with the idea for the book. The rest is history - a very vivid and well researched history, of Conroe! We’ve long enjoyed Sondra’s pages in The Courier about Conroe, and it’s fabulous to see that history come alive in book form. We’re so proud of our Rotarian sister.

To purchase the book, go to www.arcadiapublishing.com. Type in “Conroe” at the search icon and it will link to the book. Personally, I think we need a book signing! Our heartfelt congrats to you Sondra.

Family of Rotary - Today we celebrate our Rotarians with more than 20 years of service this month. From The Woodlands Rotary Club - are J.R. Moore, Jr. - 44 years; John Fackler - 35 years; Jerry Hantman - 27 years, Ann Snyder - 27 years and Kevin Gaffney - 18 years. From the Lake Conroe Club - Christina Rathbun - 33 years; and from December (I missed these) Tommy Metcalf and Roz Dauzat, with 21 and 26 years respectively. And from the Conroe Club - Tom Sellars - 40 years and Robert Putnam - 36 years. We just have to mention this too - our wonderful Rotarian Bert Lynch, who passed away last year, would have been a Rotarian for 54 years on Jan. 1 of this year. He is missed.

To learn more about Rotary contact Kris via email at  or text 713 825-0141. Also see the website and facebook pages of any of our local clubs, or the Rotary District 5910 website at www.rotary5910.org.
 

Reprint from The Courier, Jan. 25, 2021, p A3