History of Our Club

 

The Rotary Club of Pacific Palisades has rich origins dating back to February 1952. Pacific Palisades was a young community when the idea of bringing a rotary club to the new bustling city came to fruition. A group of 7 young professionals; Barney Bailey, Electrical Contractor, Fred Street, Roofing Contactor, John Bohannon, Building Contractor and Al Dingam, Architect saw the need for representation and leadership to ensure the welfare and advancement of Pacific Palisades. Therefore, they decided to create a Rotary Club of their own in hopes of bringing the professionals and leaders of the new Pacific Palisades together to provide humanitarian service, goodwill and peace to their new city. As the idea was brought to reality a group of 22 men turned to the nearest Rotary Club which was the West Los Angeles Rotary Club, headed by Jack Evans, of Evans and Reeves Nurseries and Frank Redman, of Redman Storage. On February 23, 1952 the group, voted to include Pacific Palisades as a Charter in the Rotary International, which was established in 1905, 47 years prior. Pacific Palisades joined a community made up of 6,900 cities in 82 countries where Rotary has made its mark. With sponsorship from the West Los Angeles Rotary Club, the new club was created for the community of Pacific Palisades. The group started with 22 members who were; Barney Bailey, John Bohannan, Cliff Clearwater, Joe Cleary, Barney Cohen, Rev. Hollis Caldwell, Ralph Drummond, Hossein Farmy, Dr. Neslin Forster, Walter Haas, Willie Hunter, Rev. Ben James, Ray Lapeer, Ron Macomber, Elmer Meyer, Nels Ross, Herman Schreiner, Carl Sheppard, Wes Sleeper, Dr. Les Spicer, Fred Streit and Robert L. Wilson.