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Little River’s Rotary Couple
DG Schumacher and featured in the August 28th, 2025 Horry Independent (Page B2)
Little River residents, the Billards, are a Rotary couple
By D.G. Schumacher
Rotarians Diane and Francois Billard reflect the internationalism of Rotary as well as the family and friendship aspects of the service organization founded in 1905. Diane, the new assistant governor for several Horry County clubs, is an Indiana native and an Ohio attorney; Francois, in his second year as president of the Rotary Club of Little River, is a French Canadian and computer guy with hands-on skills in crafts such as auto mechanics and carpentry.
Sandy Morckel of Mount Pleasant is the 2025-26 governor of Rotary International District 7770, which covers approximately half of South Carolina, including the several Horry County clubs. The Rotary tradition is for district governors to visit every club in her district during the Rotary year July 1 to June 30.
As Morckel prepared for her year as district governor (“the DG” in Rotary talk), she needed an assistant governor for the Rotary clubs of Carolina Forest, Conway, Little River and North Myrtle Beach. Prior to moving to South Carolina, Morckel was president of a club in Ohio. Diane Billard was president of the Columbus club. “We have a mutual Rotarian friend,” Billard said.
So Morckel did not need to search widely for an assistant governor. Together, Morckel and Billard visited five clubs, including Wednesday’s 7 a.m. meeting in Carolina Forest and noon meeting in Little River. Morckel also visited two other area clubs last week that have another assistant governor liaison.
Diane Billard is a native of Clinton, Indiana, near Terre Haute. Her heritage is Italian, Croatian, Lithuanian and Serbian. The Italian background is the strongest, as demonstrated by her culinary talents. “My nonie lived with us.” Growing up, she and her siblings spoke Italian.
She received her bachelor’s degree at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, then a law degree at the University of Toledo. She stayed in Toledo, then Columbus, the capital of Ohio and home of The Ohio State University. Eventually, her parents moved to Ohio.
Her law career spanned large law firms in Columbus, then general counsel of a statewide public pension system, work in business cases for the Franklin County prosecutor, then chief legal counsel to two state departments/agencies.
She became a Rotarian in Columbus in 1997, and was club president in 2011-2012. She also chaired District 6690’s Grants Subcommittee. After moving to Little River, she transferred to the Little River club and was president in 2023-2024.
Francois Billard was born in the Montreal, Quebec, area, educated (bachelors at the Computer Institute of Canada) and worked there until 1997. He was recruited to Columbus by Levi Strauss, for which he had done consulting work. “So they hired me, moved me, and on the first day I received an email saying we have to do layoffs, reducing the work force by 2,000.”
He stayed with Levy four years, then worked for Enron, the energy company, and the retailer DSW. He lost his wife to cancer, and through a mutual friend, met Diane. They married in 2014, and his best man was his “Little Brother” in the Big Brother, Big Sister program.
The Billards moved here in 2019, after being regular visitors for three years. Earlier this year, he became a U.S. citizen, and was among more than two dozen from “all sorts of countries” including Brazil, Canada and China.
He joined the Rotary Club of Little River, and followed Diane as president.
[ITAL]Little River resident D.G. Schumacher has been a newspaper journalist for more than 60 years. He was a Rotarian in Illinois and is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Little River. [UNITAL]