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Rotary History
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Rotary's
first day and the years that followed...
February
23, 1905.
The airplane had yet to stay aloft more than a few minutes. The
first motion picture theater had not yet opened. Norway and Sweden
were peacefully terminating their union.
On
this particular day, a Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three
friends to a meeting. What he had in mind was a club that would
kindle fellowship among members of the business community.
It
was an idea that grew from his desire to find within the large city the
kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he had grown
up. |
Paul Harris |
The four businessmen didn't decide then and there to call themselves
a Rotary club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting
of the world's first Rotary club. As they continued to meet, adding others
to the group, they rotated their meetings among the members' places of
business, hence the name. Soon after the club name was agreed upon, one
of the new members suggested a wagon wheel design as the club emblem.
It was the precursor of the familiar cogwheel emblem now worn by Rotarians
around the world. By the end of 1905, the club had 30 members.
The
second Rotary club was formed in 1908 half a continent away from Chicago
in San Francisco, California. It was a much shorter leap across San Francisco
Bay to Oakland, California, where the third club was formed. Others followed
in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New
York. Rotary became international in 1910 when a club was formed in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada. By 1921 the organization was represented on every continent,
and the name Rotary International was adopted in 1922.
What
is now The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International grew from a small
endowment fund started in 1917. It became the Rotary Foundation in 1928
but grew only modestly until 1947 when it received a number of gifts in
memory of Paul Harris upon his death on Jan. 27 of that year. Accelerated
growth in recent years has made it a major source of activities to provide
humanitarian assistance, to enhance education and promote international
understanding and peace. Since 1917, contributions to the foundation total
$824.3 million including $61.7 million in 1994-95.
A
major source of the Foundation's recent growth, and of Rotary's increasing
membership, has been the burgeoning of the Rotary movement in Asia. Also
growing is the number of new Rotary clubs in countries formerly in the
Communist-governed bloc of eastern Europe. Countries where there were
no Rotary clubs in 1987 now have more than 220.
Among
programs that Rotary has undertaken in recent years, the largest is PolioPlus,
whose goal is the eradication of the disease polio throughout the world.
To achieve that goal, Rotary is working in coalition with the World Health
Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
and the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, supplying funds
for vaccine purchase and manpower for polio immunization campaigns in
polio-endemic countries. If the disease is eradicated by the year 2000,
the achievement will be certified in time for Rotary to celebrate the
100th anniversary of its birth in a polio-free world.
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