History of our Club

 

 

One hundred years ago a prominent young attorney in Doylestown, Webster (“Mike”) S. Achey, became inspired by the “Service Above Self” objective of Rotary. Men’s service clubs were ‘a new idea’ back then. Mike’s inspiration led him to recruit nineteen other likeminded community leaders to help form a local club. One of the 20 founding fathers was the grandfather of one of our Club’s current members, Nick Molloy. Nick is a 3^rd generation Rotarian.

 

With the sponsorship of the Lansdale Rotary Club, the Provisional Rotary Club of Doylestown was organized on April 28,1924. It was amongst the first 2,000 Rotary International Clubs formed.  Today there are over 46,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide.

 

The Club’s first officers were: Webster S. Achey, President; Claude S. Wetherhill, Vice President; Rev. Charles F. Freeman, Secretary; and George H. Miller, Treasurer.

 

The charter presentation took place in the Doylestown Armory on May 27, 1924. The Club was presented with the Rotary International Club Charter #1777 by Dr. Harry S. Fish, Governor of R.I. District 35. President Chester Knibe of the Lansdale Rotary Club presided at this gathering of 120 prominent citizens of Doylestown and Rotarians from neighboring clubs. Past President of Rotary International Glen Mead gave the address.

 

In the early years, the club directed its efforts toward youth and youth leadership projects.  These projects included: support for the local chapter of the “Boy's Brigade of America” (the Doylestown chapter was founded by “Uncle” George Murray in 1907 who eventually became Doylestown Rotary’s first ‘honorary member’), Christmas parties for less fortunate children, donating to the Red Cross Christmas Toy fund, honoring winning athletic teams of Doylestown High School, funding awards  for the recognition of outstanding graduating students, erecting two Adirondack cabin shelters at the local Boy Scout Summer Camp (“Ockanickon”), and co-sponsoring the annual Boys’ Week Program with the Albert R. Atkinson Post of the American Legion from 1926 to 1930.

 

An interesting historical note is that for many of the Club’s early years it had a reputation of being a “singing club’ and had its own paid pianist ($50/year according to 11/4/31 meeting minutes) named Mary Maneely from Doylestown who played for the Club weekly from 1924 until she retired in 1966. She was so dedicated that she only missed 4 meetings over 42 years.

 

During World War II, Club members filled 500 stockings with gifts for servicemen at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station and participated in and contributed to local Civilian Defense activities.

 

After the War, Doylestown Rotary’s community service efforts expanded as the Club continued to grow.  The Club helped raise money for War Memorial Field and two all-weather tennis courts at the Community Athletic Field, assisted with the development of the local YMCA, planted Dogwood trees along the highways leading into Doylestown, assisted Delaware Valley College with its annual Horse Show fundraiser from 1992 to 2000 and assisted at the Bucks County Historical Society annual Folk Fest for 25 years.

 

In November 1959, the Club hosted the District Conference at the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J.  At the time, the District Governor was one of the Club’s own members, John H. Elfman.  The most distinguished guest at the conference was Past President of Rotary International, Charles (Buzz) G. Tennent, of Asheville, North Carolina. A number of other Club members have held Rotary International District positions including Janet Mintzer (ADG 2013-2016), John Ortolf (ADG 2016-2020), Gail Linenberg (ADG 2020-2023) and Carol Ferguson (District Polio Plus Coordinator position 2017-present).

 

The Doylestown Rotary has been a longtime supporter of Doylestown Hospital. In the summer of 1925, both the hospital and local community reeled when beloved physician Frank Swartzlander died suddenly in London shortly after his physician brother Joseph died that Spring. That fall, the Doylestown Rotary established a fund to expand the hospital in memory of Frank and Joe, both members of the Rotary. According to a local newspaper account, J. Carroll Molloy, Doylestown realtor and president of the Rotary, stressed that every dollar of the $2,800 the Club raised for this gift was given “voluntarily with no solicitations”, testifying to the “admiration, appreciation and affectionate regard” these local doctors inspired.

 

The stone addition, built atop the Fretz operating room at the original Doylestown Emergency Hospital located at Pine Street and Oakland, created a modern obstetrical department with an up-to-date delivery room, adjoining private hospital room, new bath and a ‘diet kitchenette’ with a sterilizing room attached.  The new addition to the hospital was dedicated January 19,1927.

 

The Club also ran a chicken barbecue at the Doylestown Hospital Village Fair from 1968 until 1993 with net proceeds of $76,000 benefiting the Hospital. Other Club fundraisers for the hospital included sponsoring or co-sponsoring concerts, pancake festivals, etc.  More recently, the Club has contributed thousands of additional dollars to the Hospital in the form of Community Grants and Club members regularly provide volunteer support to the Village Improvement Association’s annual “Designer House” fundraiser.

 

Important changes were happening in the 1980’s. On May 4, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the California decision supporting women in the case of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte which ended its policy of gender restrictions.  When the Supreme Court’s decision was announced at a Doylestown Rotary meeting, some of the members walked out in protest. However, many more stayed and many ultimately returned.

 

Doylestown Rotary’s first female member was Cynthia Kantor and Trish Kieffer was elected the Club’s first woman President in 1999. It is also worth noting that half of the 14 Club Presidents elected since 2010 have been women.

 

In 2005, to celebrate its 80^th birthday and the 100^th anniversary of Rotary International the Club donated a large pedestal clock (with a Rotary logo) to Doylestown Borough. The clock stands in the center of town at the intersection of West State Street and Hamilton Street.

 

Beginning in 2008, Doylestown Rotary wanted to establish a more focused, competitive and transparent approach to prioritize funding requests, so it implemented a formal Grant Request Process to identify projects that best aligned with Rotary’s objectives. Since its implementation, Doylestown Rotary’s Grant Request Process has supported 126 programs at 60 non-profit organizations in our community and throughout Bucks County and has disbursed over $360,000 to highly impactful projects.

 

2010 proved to be a challenging year when twenty-eight Club members decided to split off from Doylestown Rotary to form a new Club as a result of disagreements on how the Club was operating.  With the sponsorship of Doylestown Rotary, The Rotary Club of Central Bucks as formed. This was a pivotal moment for the Club and many changes were made to the structure of meetings and the focus of the Club after their departure. 

 

In order to grow the Club, in 2014, several new ideas were implemented.  A weekly breakfast meeting was added to reach people not available for our dinner meeting as well as a family discount and a complementary membership for our Interact Facilitator.

 

When the idea of a ‘Young Professionals Group’ (aka “YPs”) came up, there was lengthy discussion on whether it should be a separate club but it was ultimately decided to add them as an extension of the main club. The YP’s membership targets people under the age of 40, they meet once per month and develop their own service projects and fundraisers. 

 

Both the YP’s and the wider club have benefited from this working relationship with the YP’s adding new ideas, excitement and manpower while the main club provides guidance, additional sources of fellowship, funds to initiate projects, access to other volunteer opportunities and the administrative support needed to run a club.  Many YP’s attend both their meetings and the main club’s which helps to foster communication and coordination between the 2 groups. In 2022, one of the original YP’s, Alex Nocella, was elected President of the Doylestown Rotary Club.

 

In an effort to broaden its impact in the Community and beyond, over the past 2+ decades the Club has sponsored and organized a number of fundraising events to help support the local community. These include:

 

In addition to providing grants to worthy non-profits, over the past several decades Doylestown Rotary has supported a number of local organizations in the area by providing volunteers to their events. These include:

 

Doylestown Rotary has continued its long tradition of providing support to various Youth and Young Adult Initiatives, both locally and internationally.

 

In addition to the Club’s support of local initiatives, Doylestown Rotary has partnered with other Rotary Clubs and Rotary International on a number of important domestic and international projects:

 

Within the family of Rotarians worldwide, Doylestown Rotary has hosted a number of Clubs from around the world including the Rotary Club of Transylvania, Romania as part of the vocational exchanged sponsored by Rotary International.

 

Finally, Doylestown Rotary members have been a major contributor to the Rotary Foundation, donating over $438,000 to the Foundation’s various initiatives including $98,000 directed to Rotary International’s PolioPlus program. Rotary members worldwide have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease.

 

Over the past 100 years, Doylestown Rotary has succeeded in realizing Paul Harris’ and Mike Achey’s vision of creating an organization dedicated to Rotary International’s Mission to “provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders”.