Where it all began

ROTARY

THE FIRST SERVICE CLUB IN THE WORLD!

It all began at Madame Galli's Bohemian Restaurant at 18 Illinois Street in Chicago when Paul Harris sat down with Silvester Schiele to discuss Harris' idea about a new kind of club. The vision of Rotary founder Paul Harris was of a club that would kindle friendship among businessmen of Chicago. He wanted to find in this large city the kind of friendliness and helpfulness that he had known in the small towns where he had grown up.

The time was February 23, 1905. After enjoying a good meal they soon left the restaurant and met with Gus Loehr and Hiram Shorey at Gus' office to talk about the formation of the club and potential members. Harris said he knew a printer named Ruggles who would join. Loehr knew a life insurance man named Tunnison who would make a good member. Schiel thought of Arthur Irwin who operated a laundry. Soon they had a list of potential members that numbered a dozen. They divided the list up and each of these four friends took three names to contact.

The friends set up a second meeting on March 9, 1905 in Gus Loeh's mining office and the club theme and potential were again discussed.

"Why not meet in each members office in turn," suggested Harris?. "That way each of us will soon have an intimate knowledge of each other's business. "The membership grew as well as the Rotary movement because of the efforts of these men.

It soon became apparent to the founders of Rotary that something more than a "back scratching" organization was need and from these thoughts developed the idea of "He Profits Most Who Serves Best" and "Service Above Self" which later became the motto's of Rotary. The first service project was the building of Chicago's first public toilets! This was when Rotary was only two years old and Community Service has been imbedded in the fabric of Rotary ever since.

• In 1908, the second Rotary club was founded in San Francisco.

• In 1910, First Rotary Convention was held in Chicago and 16 existing clubs unite under The National Association of Rotary Clubs. Rotary becomes international when a club is started in Winnipeg, Canada.

• In 1911 Rotary moves across the Atlantic. Clubs are started in Dublin, London and Belfast.

• 1912 First International Convention held at Duluth, Minnesota. First Districts formed. Five in the USA, two in Canada, one in Britain and Ireland.

•  Rotary census: 50 clubs, 5000 members.

• 1917 The 300th club organized at Huntington, Ind.

• 1918 400 clubs with 40,000 membership.

• 1930 150,000 mark in membership achieved.

• 1938 5000 clubs worldwide with total membership of 200,000.

1947 Founder Paul P. Harris passed away in Chicago on January 27 at the age of 79. He had lived to see his "idea" take root and grow in to a great organization made up of more that 6,000 clubs in more than 75 countries with over 300,000 members of different religious and political backgrounds at the time of his passing.

Today, there are: 

• 1,170,000 Rotarians; 29, 268 Clubs; 528 Districts in 162 Countries

•  Rotaract:  Clubs 6,684; Members 154,000; Countries:

• Interact Clubs: 6,827; Members: 160,000; Countries:

•  Rotary Community Corps: 3,395; Countries: 55

Thanks to Paul P. Harris

    To mute background music, hit the stop button on your browser