Our dear member, Petter Rasch, passed away Friday, October 11th, 2019 just before his 80th birthday. He was born in Oslo, December 7th, 1939.
Together with his brother-in-law Ingvald Liland, who is married to Petter's sister Ingrid, he was one of the 35 Charter Members that in November 1997 established Skoeyen Rotary Klubb (later renamed Oslo Vest Rotary Klubb in 2012). His sister Ingrid has often been a guest at club meetings.
Petter moved to Paris at the age of seven with his family. After high-school and one year at sea, he studied for one year at the University of Paris and four years in Zürich where he obtained his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. After this, he held various positions in Zürich, Oslo, Dallas and London. At the time when he became a member of Rotary, he was working as a management consultant primarily concerned with recruitment and head-hunting. His Rotary classification was "management consultant".
Petter was a fine human being with enthusiasm for everything he attended to in the Club. I would like to specially mention his huge contribution to the Club's peace project "Shalom-Salam". In cooperation with six other Rotary clubs, 6 Palestinian and 6 Israeli students were invited each year to attend the
International Summer School at the University in Oslo, with lodgings at the Blindern Student Home and invitations to Rotary members' homes for weekends. Petter was project coordinator when "Shalom-Salam" was established in 1994. More than one hundred students from the Middle East had participated, when regrettably the Intifada started in the fall of 2000 and the project had to be cancelled. (Also see the articles "
Shalom - Salaam: ROTARY's OSLO-based peace process" and "
Make Love not Walls!" from March 2005).
However, Petter did not give up! During a trip to Croatia in 2007, he contacted
Zagreb Rotary Club and presented the idea to carry on our peace project "Shalom-Salam". In cooperation with local Rotary Clubs, clubs in the Oslo area and the International Summer School, students from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia would be invited to the same type of studies as the "Shalom-Salam" students, expanded with a week at
Nansen Center for Peace and dialogue at Lillehammer. After a successful pilot in 2008, the first group of "Rotary Young Friends" arrived in 2009; the last group attended in 2014. Through seven years, 78 students from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro attended this peace and reconciliation project.
Petter was the President of our Club in 1996-97. During his year he wanted to focus on areas for improvement. "Amongst practical items, I wish to make a new membership register, a user friendly archive, a revision of the by-laws, a guest visiting card, a 10-years anniversary book and most of this is achieved or at work-in-progress as I write this" he noted in his annual report.
Petter was very active in the inner life of our Club. Recruitment of new members was an ongoing affair. He enhanced our social gatherings with his lively guitar music and French songs. I also remember his orderly documentation of committees and the membership. We received overviews on A4 sheets at the beginning of each Rotary year until the data technology took over and this information was provided on our website.
The latter part of his life was regrettably dominated by illness. His wife, Lillan, helped him to attend meetings until even that was to hard for him.
There is a large empty space in our Club after Petter. He will be missed, but the memories will be savoured.
