Columbus Torch Club dues for 2025-26 Program Year

Good news! Dues will remain the same as last year.

As a result of a number of cost-cutting measures, the Board of Directors at its August meeting agreed not to raise the Torch Club’s dues for 2025-26. The dues will remain at $460 per person and $870 per couple. The cost for a guest, which should be paid by the club member inviting the guest, will be $45 (except for the December meeting when it will be $50).

To pay your dues, make your check payable to:  Torch Club of Columbus and send to our Treasurer, Kent Bermingham, 521 Retreat Lane W, Powell, Ohio 43065.  Or bring your check to the first Torch Club meeting on October 2, 2025 at the OSU Faculty Club. 

Options for club members not attending Torch due to COVID

Although most Torch Club members have attended the in-person monthly meetings that resumed in October 2021, there are a few members who have been reluctant to attend in person due to ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. These members or persons in their households may be at greater risk for the illness for a variety of reasons. As a result, the Torch Club at its March 3 meeting set aside an area of socially distanced seating for members particularly concerned about COVID-19. This will permit them to hear the Torch paper. In addition, the Faculty Club will prepare a take-home dinner for these members. If you require a takehome dinner, please indicate that in your RSVP to Thom Seelbach’s monthly Evite.

Presentation by Violet I. Meek on March 5:

“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” 

Construction of the transcontinental railroad was a major national achievement for 19th century America. In her Torch paper on March 5, Violet Meek will answer the question of what life was like for the thousands of men and women who worked to bring railroads across the vast American prairies and through the mountains to the Pacific. 

Violet will discuss who these railroad workers were. She offers these questions that she plans to answer: “What did these workers do? How did they live? How did they keep the tracks and travel safe? And what were Gandy Dancers? Did they really have a Gandy Dancers Ball?”

Violet also will offer Torch Club members the opportunity to ask questions of a real Gandy.

Biography of Violet Meek 

Violet Meek, a member of the Torch Club since 2014 and club president in 1918-19, has had a varied career as a chemistry professor, academic administrator, leader of a regional campus, and a minister. 

An inorganic chemist by training, Violet earned her undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois, where she met her late husband, Devon W. Meek. She joined the faculties at Mount Holyoke College and Ohio Wesleyan University, leaving OWU as professor of chemistry and dean of educational services to become director of annual programs for the Council of Independent Colleges in Washington, D.C. 

Violet returned to Columbus and, after a stint at The Ohio State University Research Foundation, became the dean and director of Ohio State’s Lima campus. She led the regional campus from 1991 until her first retirement in 2002. She then became an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She served a congregation in Logan, Ohio, for 10 years. Her husband, Don M. Dell, served as the club’s president in 2015-16. They share five adult children and seven grandchildren.

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Two ways to support the Columbus Torch Club and its members  The Board of Directors asks you to consider two ways to contribute to your Torch Club and to keep our fellowship strong as we look forward to our club’s centennial in 2026. 

1.  You may contribute funds directly to support the club by writing a check to “Torch Club of Columbus, Ohio.” Mail the check to our club’s treasurer, Kent Bermingham,521 RetreatLane W., Powell, Ohio 43065. (Donations to the club do not qualify as a charitable tax deduction.) 

2.  You may pay for the crudités or other foods served during the cocktail hour that precedes the monthly meetings. Anonymous donors paid for the crudités served at the October and November meetings and for the December meeting. The cost for the crudités is about $430, but there also are less expensive options. For information on donating the crudités or other options, please contact the club’s treasurer, Kent Bermingham who works closely with the Faculty Club on the menu and costs of the monthly dinners. Kent is at Kent1942@gmail.com

Torch Club’s monthly meeting agenda:

4:30-5:30 p.m. Board of Directors meeting

5:30-6:15 p.m. Cocktails and conversation

6:15-6:35 p.m. Business matters

6:35-7:30 p.m. Speaker

7:30-8:45 pm. Dinner and table discussion