Elm City Rotary Honors James Rousmaniere with Paul Harris Fellow

James A Rousmaniere Jr. was recently honored with a Paul Harris Fellow by the Keene Elm City Rotary Club.  A Paul Harris Fellow is an honor of distinction given by Rotary Clubs to individuals who meet high professional  and personal standards  set forth by Paul Harris.  He was a Chicago, Illinois attorney who founded Rotary International in 1905,  a service organization that currently has over 1.2 million members worldwide in 33,000 clubs in 200 countries.

 

James was honored for his work as a professional journalist, for both his editorial guidance at The Keene Sentinel and his volunteer activities  both locally and worldwide.

 

James has worked at The Keene Stentinel since 1981. both as Assistant Publisher, and Editor and President.  He has also undertaken journalism training and news media development projects with nonprofit associations in Bangladesh, India, Africa, The Czech Republic, Russia, Bosnia, and the Ukraine.  In the local community he has participated formally and informally in NH Humanities Council projects, community television enterprises, literacy coalitions, and school and college journalism programs.  He has also helped produce five one-hour documentaries about the history of the region, was the principal editor of books about the ice storm of 2008 and the Keene Pumpkin Festival, and has served on the speaker selection committee for the annul James D. Ewing World Affairs lecture at Keene State College. Finally, he competes with distinction in the jam and marmalade categories at the Cheshire County Fair.  He resides in Roxbury with his wife Sharon, and has three daughters.