A little history of how Rotary began
(written for Rotary International by Diana Schoberg, illustrated by Steve Buccellato and masterminded by Deborah Lawrence)
|
The Rotary Club was the first business-oriented organisation of its kind in the United States. It was founded more than a century ago in the Midwest city of Chicago by a lonely young attorney from a small New England town.
|
|
|
On 27 February 1896, at the age of 27, Paul Harris settled in Chicago and built a law practice representing victims of bankruptcy and embezzlement. It was good focus at the time in a lawless frontier town filled with fraud.
He found it difficult to settle down. He'd dine at ethnic eateries every night to learn about different cultures and attend churches of different religions every week. Sunday afternoons were the loneliest of all. 
|
|
Chicago's central business district, where Harris worked as a lawyer, was one of the most densely packed commercial areas of the world at the time.
The city was filled with people, yet it was impersonal, and Harris was lonely. He longed for a place where he could find people he could trust, people like those in the small New England town of his youth. |
|
|
One day in the Fall of 1900, Harris had dinner at attorney Bob Frank's house in a well-off neighbourhood on Chicago's North Side. They went on a walk through the area and stopped at shops along the way.
Harris was impressed by how Frank made friends with the businessmen in his neighbourhood. It reminded him of the New England town where he had grown up. So Paul Harris set out to organise a club of businessmen, each from a different profession, who would gather together for friendship and mutual cooperation in finding new business. Harris told Sylvester Schiele, a client and coal dealer from a small town in Indiana, about his idea for a club. It would include members who could join only if another member vouched for them. Over the next five years, the idea began to take hold. |
|
Harris and Schiele talked it over with Gus Loehr, a mutual client and mining engineer, who offered to hold the organisational meeting in his office. Loehr invited his friend Hiram Shorey, another New Englander and a merchant tailor. The date was February 23, 1905.
Harris hosted the next meeting, when the fifth member, Harry Ruggles, joined. Local businessmen welcomed the fellowship as the members shared fresh information that they picked up from their customers and other businesses in the city. |
|
|
Schiele was the club's first president, and Harris was elected to the post in 1907. Harris asked Manuel Munoz, who was going on a trip to San Francisco, to see whether people there were interested in forming a club. Munoz mentioned the idea to Homer Wood, who ran with it, leading to the formation of the second Rotary club in 1908.
!n 1909, the Rotary Club of New York was established, making Rotary a national movement. By now, Rotary's focus had turned toward good deeds in the community. |
