A Century of Service

Rotary had its origin in 1905 when Paul Harris, a Chicago lawyer, and several business associates began meeting for business and friendship. The name Rotary came from the practice of rotating their meetings at each member’s place of business.

 

The idea of Rotary spread rapidly and became international in 1910 when the Rotary Club of Winnipeg was formed, and came to the Lakehead in 1916 with the formation of the Fort William-Port Arthur Club. The new separate Port Artur Club held its inaugural meeting on April 24, 1924.

 

Since its inauguration the Port Arthur Rotary has been an active supporter of the needs of the community, and during its Centennial Year has celebrated its successes in a variety of ways including a successful Centennial Gala on April 20^th.

 

The concept of “A Century of Service”, a series of weekly articles in the Chronicle Journal newspaper came from a similar successful project of the three Kingston Rotary Clubs in 2021. With the assistance and guidance of the late Colin Bruce (a past president of Port Arthur Rotary and former publisher of the Chronicle Journal) and the support of Hilda Caverly, publisher, and Chen Chekki, editor of the paper our series became a reality.

 

A total of 45 articles were published during the year, with 22 individuals contributing. The work of Lakehead Rotary, Nipigon Rotary, and Rotaract are included in the articles as well as individual articles by several students and former exchange students. Bill Everitt was the general editor and author of a number of the articles.