A Short History of Rotary
Paul Harris, a lawyer, gathered together three friends to meet on February 23, 1905.The three were Silvester Schlele, a coal dealer; Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor; and Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer.They met in Loehr's business office in Room 711 of the Unity Building at 127 North Dearborn in downtown Chicago.The purpose was to discuss Harris' idea that business leaders should meet periodically to enjoy camaraderie and to enlarge their circle of business and professional acquaintances.They decided to meet weekly and to rotate the meetings at each others' offices (hence the name Rotary).To promote diversity they decided to limit members to one representative from each business and profession.
As membership grew, the club abandoned the idea of meeting in members' offices and began to meet in local hotels and restaurants, a practice that continues today.By the end of 1905 the club had 30 members with Schlele as president and Ruggles as treasurer.Paul Harris became president of the Chicago club in 1907.
The Rotary commitment to service began in 1907 when the club donated a horse to a local minister to enable him to make the rounds of his parishioners.A few weeks later the club finished its first service project - constructing Chicago's first public lavatory located at City Hall.
To give voice to the club's service orientation, speakers at the national convention in 1911 used the phrases "service, not self" and "he profits most who serves best."These phrases later became "Service Above Self" which is Rotary's primary motto.
From this modest beginning, the Rotary idea spread beyond Chicago.In 1908 the second Rotary club was formed in San Francisco, followed by clubs in Oakland, Seattle (Seattle Rotary Club # 4 now bills itself as the world's largest Rotary club), Los Angeles and New York.In 1910 the first Canadian club was formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba.In that same year the National Association of Rotary Clubs held its first convention and Harris was elected president.Rotary expanded internationally beyond North America establishing clubs in 1912 in the British Isles.By 1921 Rotary was represented on six continents.To reflect this world wide presence the name Rotary International was adopted one year later.By 1925 Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members.Eighty two years later Rotary now has 1.2 million members in more than 31,000 clubs in more than 165 countries.
To commemorate Rotary's founding, members of the Chicago club preserved the interior of Room 711 when the Unity Building was demolished and later recreated it at the RI headquarters in Evanston, Illinois where it can be viewed and used an aid to recalling the beginnings of Rotary.From one room to an international presence in a hundred years -- truly a remarkable achievement of one man with a vision and three friends. (story by Bob Olson of the Rotary Club of Mercer Island--written to celebrate Rotary's 102 years of service on February 23, 2007)