Our Rotary History

Dr. Bill Taylor was one of the original charter members. He was the XRay Doctor for the miners in this area.The following letter was written by Dr. Taylor : March 11, 1974 Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? I thought not ! You may recall that on the night of February 24, 1949, in the basement of the old Goldfield's Hotel in the then town of Timmins, the undersigned had the pleasant task of nominating a slate of Officers for the Provisional Rotary Club of Timmins. The slate - Bill Long, President; Andy Anderson, Vice-President; Cliff Gibson, Secretary; Sol Shankman, Treasurer. Directors - George Gedge, Hendy Henderson, Charlie Remus, Hugh Thompson and Elvin Urquhart. Sergeant at Arms - Scotty Kidd, elected. Lloyd Simpson and Ray Jessop of the Rotary Club of Sudbury, prior to this date for a period of months, made the many long return trips from Sudbury to Timmins at their own expense in weather fair or foul, (and we did not have Highways 101 and 144 in those days). They conceived and officiated at the birth of 25 new Rotarians who were to obtain Charter 7206 from Rotary International. Words are quite inadequate to express our feelings to Lloyd and Ray but then and over the years, they know how we all feel for their efforts. Twenty-five years have slipped along as time has the habit of doing and the Rotary Club of Timmins is still alive having gone through the diaper and teen-age stages and has now setled down for weel or woe into a middle age spread status. In the 25 years, there, of course, have been many changes, some sad, some pleasant. Andy Anderson, Tom Feldman, Henry O'Grade and George Gedge have passed along. Seven of the originals still reside in Timmins and with the exception of one, all are still active in the affairs of the club. Timmins has changed a bit too. In 1949, the Hollinger Mine had some 3500 employees. Now, there are none. Texas Gulf, which had not been heard of, is now the economic mainstay in mining along with the Dome and the Noranda Group. We now are the largest city (at least area-wise) in the North American Continent. Come Saturday, April 6, 1974, the club is having a party to celebrate our 25th Anniversary at the McIntyre Community Building at 6 p.m. It is the same place where we had our Charter Night on April 9, 1949. Three hundred, twenty-five people attended this now Historic function and although computers were not much in vogue in those days, some expert figured it out that 173 visiting Rotarian's travelled a total of 116,838 man miles to be present. We realize that distance is a determining factor but we invite you and your good wife to be with us on April 6, 1974. Please take a minute to reply and if unable to be present, tell us of some of your happenings since you left us.