Volunteering led Rotarian Marty Raiss to a 20-year career with the City of Norfolk. The former president of the Junior League of Norfolk-Virginia Beach was serving on a city advisory committee when she was hired in 1990 to lead the Mayor's Task Force on Drugs. That was the same year Marty joined the Rotary Club of Norfolk after she spoke to our club at a lunch meeting about her new job and was recruited by the late Jack Magee. Jack holds the unofficial record for helping connect the most members to our club.

 

Marty retired from the city in 2010 as the city's PACE Outreach administrator. (PACE stands for Police Assisted Community Enforcement.) Marty's nickname was "the catalyst" because she helped initiate new projects by bringing together citizens, police and city officials to make Norfolk better. Marty later worked in marketing at The Ballentine retirement community. She currently heads our club's Program Committee helping arrange club field trips to interesting places. Marty also is a Paul Harris Fellow recognized for her contributions to the Rotary Foundation. You can frequently find her volunteering for Rotary service projects.

 

Marty grew up in Miami and earned a degree in English from Duke University. She taught English for a year in Tennessee before moving to Norfolk where she taught in a school for learning disabled students. When her children were born she started tutoring students in subjects that included English, algebra, Latin, Spanish, French, chemistry, biology and history. Marty is married to George Raiss and is the mother of Christopher and Martha and the grandmother of three. Her 6-year-old granddaughter is the eighth female in a direct line of Marthas since 1818. All descend from Marty's mother's side of the family.

 

Marty enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, reading, planning trips and going on the trips she plans. She spends a lot of time in Miami helping care for her 97-year-old father. He is a past Rotary Club president as is her brother-in-law. She likes how our club lets her keep her three years of 100% attendance by banking activities and outings she attends when in town or in Miami. "With Rotary I like meeting folks and finding out who they are and what they do. I enjoy our speakers and thoroughly enjoy going on the flexible activities."