"Women Also Serve": Celebrating International Women's Day - Rebekah Maxwell, Chair

Dr. Sylvia Whitlock was born in New York City but was educated through high school in Kingston, Jamaica. After returning to New York City she earned a B.A. in Psychology from Hunter College. Sylvia worked for the United Nations as a Statistical Clerk at the Secretariat Building in New York before moving to California to start a career in Education.

In California, she earned a Masters Degree, cum laude, in Education from Cal Poly, Pomona, and a Ph.D., cum laude, in Education, from Claremont Graduate School. Subsequently, she earned another Masters Degree, in Marriage and Family Therapy, from Azusa Pacific University. After that time, she began a second career as a therapist and is licensed by the Board of Behavioral Sciences in California.

In 1982, while an Elementary School Principal in Duarte, CA., she was invited to join the history-making Ex-Rotary Club of Duarte. Dr. Whitlock became President of that club in 1987, the year the United States Supreme Court ruled that the club be reinstated, thus making her the first woman in the Rotary World to head a club as President. She has served as President twice, Secretary, Treasurer, and Foundation Representative. At the district level, she chaired the Four-Way Test Speech committee for six years, chaired the Ambassadorial Scholarship Committee for six years, chaired Simplified Grants for two years and received a Service Award from DG Don Aikin. She has been an Assistant Governor, presenter in Governors Institutes, and speaker in Rotary Clubs conventions and meetings, here in the United States and abroad, including South Africa and Jamaica.

Dr. Whitlock is multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Benefactor and Member of the Bequest Society. Also, she has received numerous awards and recognitions including  Global Citizen Award from the United Nations Association in 2013.

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1977 : The Rotary Club of Duarte, California, USA, admits women as members in violation of the RI Constitution and Standard Rotary Club Constitution. Because of this violation, the club's membership in Rotary International is terminated in March 1978. (The club was reinstated in September 1986.)

1987:  On 4 May, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary issues a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership.

The Rotary Club of Marin Sunrise, California (formerly Larkspur Landing), is chartered on 28 May. It becomes the first club after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to have women as charter members.

Sylvia Whitlock, of the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, becomes the first female Rotary club president.

- taken from Rotary International website on the History of Women in Rotary
https://www.rotary.org/en/history-women-rotary​