A One Page History of the Beginning and Growth of Rotary

In 1905…37 year old attorney Paul Harris changed the world.

1891-92-93 Harry Ruggles, the printer. Harry was destined to play an important part in the life of the Chicago club, for through his suggestion of club singing his influence has been made felt by the entire movement.” Paul P. Harris, page 95 “The Founder of Rotary 1928. Two weeks later the group gathered at the office of Silvester Schiele, in his coal yard at Twelfth and State Streets. Six of the previous seven were present along with Charles Newton and Arthur B. Irwin.

1908-1909 1Paul was very interested in starting Rotary in other cities. The second Rotary club was founded by Homer Wood in San Francisco in 1908. 7Wood then quickly organized Oakland #3

1910-1911 3&7 By August 1910 there were sixteen clubs and the National Association of Rotary Clubs was organized and held its first convention that year, in Chicago. At the 1911 Portland Convention, “Service, Not Self” was introduced by Frank Collins of Minneapolis. It later became “Service Above Self. ” The slogan “He profits most who serves best,” was also read there. It had been written by Arthur Sheldon and delivered by him at the first convention the previous year in Chicago. Both were approved by RI in 1950. Learn what Sheldon really meant by his well thought phrase. You can study all of Rotary’s conventions from 1910 on and learn about each of our presidents from Paul Harris to the present as well as their clubs from our website dedicated to presidents of Rotary. Another important event at the 1911 Portland convention was the platform brought forward by Seattle #4. This platform, is still essential to the philosophy of Rotary today.

1912-23 4When clubs were formed in Canada and Great Britain in 1912, the name was changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs, and was later shortened to Rotary International in 1922. 5Paul Harris was the first president of the National Association of Rotary Clubs, serving two terms. He was named President Emeritus of the International Association in 1912 and served until his death in 1947. 1Harris suffered a near fatal heart attack in his final year as president of the National Association and required a full year to recover. Yet, over the next 35 years, he and his wife Jean Thomson Harris made numerous exhausting trips to nearly every continent, visiting hundreds of cities, planting friendship trees and attending Rotary conferences.

ROTARY TODAY
4There are over 31,000 Rotary clubs, in 164 countries, whose members carry on club, vocational, community and international service. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International annually spends some $105 million on international education and humanitarian programs, providing grants which save lives and improve conditions throughout the world. Rotary also sponsors international ambassadors of good will through educational awards to university students and teachers, and through international exchange of business and professional people. Today the Rotary Foundation scholarship program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program. 7Approximately 1,100 scholarships are awarded annually. Rotarians have raised some 438 million dollars for the PolioPlus program alone as well as provided thousands of volunteers to administer the vaccine around the world.

“Silvester Schiele, my most intimate Chicago friend, and one of the three who first met with me, was made our first president, and has been a constant member. Gustavus Loehr and Hiram Shorey were the other two but they failed to follow through. On the other hand Harry Ruggles, Charley Newton, and others who were quickly added to the group, with hearty zest joined in developing the project.” (Paul Harris, page 231 “My Road to Rotary”)

This short history was produced by Rotary’s Global History Fellowship (An Internet Project): http://www.rotaryhistoryfellowship.org/ Sources and applicable copyrights are listed at the website links found on this page. Contributors to this project are members of our board of directors and historians. The project is sponsored by clubs, districts and fellowships on every continents.