Sunday, March 12, 2023
A True Gentleman with an ornery streak, and a great sense of humor.
Penn was the guiding hand behind our clubs 501c3 application. This was during Lois Lerner's tenure. Her group got our soaring club's application thrown in the the pile of right wing political group applications for 501c3 non profit status. We applied, and our application was denied, we re-applied, and our application denied, this continued every three months for a year and a half.
Finally Penn requested, and got us on a conference call with the IRS Agent that was denying our application. He went over every objection to our application, and very politely pointed out the errors the IRS agent was making, sensing further intransigence from the IRS agent, Penn then went on to describe his relationship with a host of federal officials who would be most interested in why this particular IRS agent was not performing his duties correctly, expressing his hope that the IRS agent wouldn't force him to start making those phone.
calls. Penn never raised his voice, never got angry, he just calmly, and firmly explained the errors of his ways, and the pending consequences of continuing down that path.
Our 501c3 approval letter was received two weeks later. I'm going to miss seeing Penn at soaring contests. His story of his dog chewing the valve stems off of all four of his tires in his garage. is one of my favorites.
Scott Fletcher
