History

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.

William Halsey

How 100 years of service started

The day Rotary began was February 23, 1905. The automobile was still evoking cries of "get a horse". The Wright brothers had yet to keep an airplane aloft for more than a few minutes.

The first motion picture theater was soon to open in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a film entitled "The Great Train Robbery". The ice cream cone had just appeared on the American scene and the first concrete cantilever bridge was being built in Marion, Iowa. It was the year Einstein introduced his Theory of Relativity, and James J. Jeffries retired as the world';s heavyweight boxing champion. And a short 9 years later our oldest club member, Stewart Wade, was born.

How and why was this world';s first service organization named 'Rotary'; started which today is one of the world';s most influential and international service organizations?

The founder of Rotary was an uncommon, perhaps even extraordinary man. He worked as a cowboy, an actor in a stock company, a newspaper reporter, and for a time, as a business college teacher and then a lawyer.

The name of this versatile, adventurous young man, was Paul P. Harris. He was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on April 19, 1868. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a law degree. The graduation address by an attorney, who was an alumnus of the school, emphasized the value of broadening oneself through travel and new experiences. Paul resolved to take five years in which to travel and work at various trades before actually beginning a law practice.

Then he went to Chicago to practice law. One day he dined with a friend in a residential section of Chicago. After dinner they took a walk and Paul Harris was impressed by the fact that his friend stopped at several stores in the neighborhood and introduced him to the proprietors. Paul Harris';s law clients were business friends - not social friends. This experience, however, gave him the idea to make social friends out of at least some of his business friends.

Rotary started because Harris was lonely and wanted friendship and fellowship. His idea was to bring together men of different businesses and professions so they could recapture the friendliness of the small towns many had known as youngsters.

This idea of socio-business relationship of clients and friends developed. Finally on february 23, 1905, Paul Harris and three law clients, Silvester Schiele, a coal merchant; Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer; and Hiram Shorey, a tailor; met officially to start the new club. The aim of the first Rotary club was the encouragement of friendship, fellowship, and mutual assistance. Thus began one of the world';s most influential organizations.

At one of their early meetings, several names were suggested for the new organization. Adopted was Paul Harris'; suggestion "Rotary", which was prompted by the original plan of the club members to meet in rotation at their various places of business.

As the club';s membership increased, it became inconvenient to meet in the offices of members. As a result, the club began to hold dinner meetings, which later gave way to weekly noonday luncheons.

Paul Harris and his members heard that some sick people were being neglected because a doctor could not get to their homes. His horse had died. They saw a need and bought him a new horse. This was their first vocational service project. Then, even in a city as big as Chicago, there were few public rest rooms. They performed their first community service by raising money to build comfort stations in Chicago';s city hall.

These young rotarians came upon the realization that they could not survive as a luncheon club, but by giving service, they had a bond that would bind them together forever-hence the growth of the first service club in the world which has been copied by many but exceeded by none.

While the Chicago club continued to grow, interest was increasing in other parts of the country. In 1908 in San Francisco a second Rotary club was formed and in the following year clubs blossomed up and down the west coast and in New York. Interest was also growing in other countries. In 1910 the Rotary club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, became the first club outside the United States and within a decade eleven other countries joined Rotary. Today Rotary is worldwide with clubs in 165 different countries.

In 1911 the Rotarian magazine was first issued and two mottos 'service above self'; and 'he profits most who serves best'; were adopted.

Rotary came to Hawaii in 1915, very appropriate for the time, on shipboard - the Lurline. It all started with a social acquaintance between V. O. Lawrence, a member of the Oakland Rotary club and James L. Coke, a Honolulu attorney, who later became chief justice of the supreme court of the territory of Hawaii. As they sailed, they talked about organizing a club in Hawaii.

After arriving in Honolulu, justice Coke invited a number of local professional and businessmen to meet with Lawrence and himself at the old commercial club. After the objects of Rotary had been explained, the group decided to organize the Rotary club of Honolulu. On July 1, 1915, just 10 years after Paul Harris started the Rotary movement, the Honolulu club received its charter with 28 charter members and Rotary moved into the South Pacific. The Honolulu club was the 170th club admitted into Rotary and there were about 20,000 rotarians then.
Cuba was also admitted into Rotary that year as the first Rotary club organized in a non-English speaking country but is no longer active due to the lack of freedom there.

Our club was sponsored by the Rotary club of Honolulu and its representatives - Ken Barr, Roy Turner and Charles Frazier and on October 16, 1953 was admitted into membership of Rotary International as the 11th club in Hawaii. There were 25 charter members; including Dr. Lindy Chun who is still active in the club. Rotary International president Joaquin Cibils of Montevideo, Uruguay, presented our charter - the only club in our district to be so honored by the president of R.I.

Today there are 41 clubs on the four major Hawaiian islands with 2,100 members. That original Chicago club has grown to over 32,000 clubs located in 165 countries and the original four men have grown to 1.2 million men and women who proudly call themselves Rotarians.

This worldwide fellowship of business and professional people occupy positions of leadership and influence in the communities and countries in which they live. Rotary International, the worldwide association of Rotary clubs, played an essential role in the formation of the vision and organization of the United Nations. Forty-nine rotarians helped draft it';s charter and the first five presidents of the UN general assembly were rotarians. Today Rotary has a representative to the UN and maintains a liaison office in the United Nations.

Rotarians plan and carry out a remarkable variety of humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programs that touch people';s lives in their local communities and the world community.

The Rotary foundation of Rotary International provides humanitarian grants which save lives and improve conditions throughout the world, and creates international ambassadors of goodwill through educational awards to university students and teachers and through group study exchanges of business and professional people. The foundation is supported by voluntary contributions by rotarians and friends of Rotary. This year';s budget for its programs exceeds $120 million.

The global eradication of polio is Rotary';s highest priority and Rotary has contributed over $500 million towards polio eradication. Equally important is the army of rotarian volunteers who have donated hundreds of thousands of hours of their time in planning, publicizing and carrying out national immunization days throughout the world.

As a result of these efforts, more than two billion children have been immunized against this devastating disease and the number of polio cases has been reduced by 99 percent, from 350,000 in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 in 2003.

During the past 50 years that I have been a rotarian, Rotary has developed into a global organization that partners in multimillion-dollar projects with influential partners such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF. We promised to eradicate polio and we are doing it.

We have seen the actual face of Rotary change: women admitted to membership, more ethnic diversity, and the extension into central and eastern Europe with twelve of the fifteen countries of the former Soviet Republic chartering clubs.

But what is most remarkable is what hasn';t changed in our 100 years. Rotary';s core values of fellowship between business and professional people, goodwill, and service above self - and those will never change.

William Bains-Jordan