History of Rotary
Posted by Chad Eaves
The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of
Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on February 23, 1905 by Paul P.
Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the
same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of
Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on February 23, 1905 by Paul P.
Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the
same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's
popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that
followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921,
Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization
adopted the name Rotary International a year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of
club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing
their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's
dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self.
Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to All Concerned?
- Will it Build GOODWILL and Better FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to All Concerned?
During
and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in
promoting international understanding. A Rotary conference held in
London in 1942 planted the seeds for the development of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), and numerous Rotarians have served as consultants to the
United Nations.
An
endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the
world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary
Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of
Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched
the Foundation's first program - graduate fellowships, now called
Ambassadorial Fellowships. Today, contributions to The Rotary
Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide
range of humanitarian grants and educational
programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international
understanding throughout the world.
In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of
the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with
nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign.
Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.
As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of
society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues
as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at
risk.
The organization admitted women for the first time in 1989 and claims more than 90,000 women in its ranks today.
Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 30,000 Rotary clubs in more than 160 countries.