PDGs pre-1936

Born in Rossburg, Ohio, Stanley Long attended law school in Chicago before moving to Seattle in the early 1900’s.  He built and sold his first house in Seattle in 1906 and went on building them for fifty years.  Doing business as the Long Building Company, he developed several of the residential neighborhoods on Seattle’s First Hill.

During his lengthy career, Long was active in nearly all of Seattle’s leading major civic organizations.  He joined the Seattle Rotary Club in 1913, and was its president in 1928.  He was District Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1935-1936, and later served as a Director of Rotary International.

During his presidency of the Seattle Rotary Club, the club raised $25,000 for Children’s Orthopedic Hospital (now Seattle Children’s Hospital).  He remained active in the organization his entire life.  Long was active in the Municipal League, served as a trustee of Seattle General Hospital and was a member of the Rainier Club and the Masons.

A long-time resident of Queen Anne Hill, Stanley Long died on August 15, 1959, after an extended illness.  He left his wife Blanche, three sons and two daughters.

Percy Basil Scurrah was once described by a colleague who said: “If Rotary were an academic institution instead of what it is, Percy Scurrah would undoubtedly qualify for a Doctorate without further ado. Few men have had such a deep and thorough knowledge of Rotary and such a wide and practical experience as that accumulated by Percy during his career.”

He was born in 1893 in Brechin, Ontario and died in 1970 in Victoria, BC where he was honored as “one of Victoria’s greatest citizens.”  In 1910 when he moved to Victoria, Percy obtained an interest in a major clothing store and shortly after that, bought the business, renaming it Scurrah’s clothing Store.  The store was a Victoria landmark until it closed in 1962.  In 1914 he married Mabel Dynes and they were married for 55 years.

Percy joined the Victoria Rotary Club in 1924 and maintained perfect attendance for 46 years until a few weeks before his death.  He served Rotary as District Governor in 1934-1935 and was a Director of Rotary International in 1937-1938.   In 1955 he was elected mayor of Victoria and served in that capacity for three terms.  Among his accomplishments in Victoria were pulling the city out of financial difficulty, replacing the “shaky” Point Ellice Bridge and bringing the BC Ferries to Victoria. 

On August 8, 1934, the 30th annual conference of Rotary District #1 was held in Tacoma, Washington.  At the gathering of approximately 1000 Rotarians, District Governor William J. Dinsmore and his wife Aida (Undenberg) Dinsmore hosted a dinner at the Hotel Winthrop.  It was followed by the Governor’s Ball at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.

 

“Bill” as he preferred to be called was born in London, England in 1887.  After emigrating to the United States, he settled in Seattle before moving to Aberdeen, Washington where he ran an oil distribution business.  Following retirement, he moved to Tacoma where he and his golf-minded partner Sam Allen built the Allenmore Golf Course.  The partners were a little immodest in naming the course after themselves….Allen-More.  That course is now known as the Tacoma Elks (Allenmore) Golf Course. 

In Aberdeen he completed the term of the previous club president in 1928 and then served a full year in 1928-1929.  He moved to Tacoma in 1930 and held membership under the classification “Public Golf Links.” Bill was District Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1933-1934.  Shortly after completing his term as Governor, he returned briefly to Seattle before living in Portland until his death in 1959.

District Governor William Gilchrist Jr. was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1885 and moved with his parents to the United States when he was six years old.  The family settled on a 30-acre fruit ranch a few miles south of Salem, Oregon which his father operated for a few years.  When Bill was a young adult, the family moved to Salem where the Senior Gilchrist purchased a restaurant.  After working in the family business for a few years, Bill purchased a furniture store which he ran until 1918. He was also actively involved in real estate.  In 1912 he married Eva Savage.

Bill McGilchrist was active in the Masons, the Elks Lodge and Rotary.  He served on the board of the Salem Chamber of Commerce and the YMCA.  In his last few years, he suffered from a heart ailment which took his life in 1947.  His remains were interred at Mount Crest Abby Mausoleum in Salem. 

William McGilchrist served Rotary District #1 as Governor in 1932-1933.  During his year as Governor there were 70 clubs in the District.

 

John Lyman Trumbull was born in Adair County, Iowa in 1890 and eventually settled in Vancouver, B.C.  He owned the J. Lyman Trumbull company, which was an importer of tea, coffee and spices.  In 1928 he was the president of the Vancouver Rotary Club.  Lyman Trumbull was very active in the civic life of Vancouver, serving on a number of boards.

He was a director of the B. C. Power Corporation, and in 1928 served as president of the Vancouver Rotary Club. 

In March of 1932, District Governor Morgan Eastman requested a leave of absence  and Lyman Trumbull was selected to complete his term.  In 1941-1942 he was appointed by Rotary International President Tom J. Davis to be a member of the Canadian Regional Extension Committee of Rotary International. 

In April 1931, the Vancouver Sun announced that Morgan Q. Eastman of Vancouver “was elected governor of Rotary International in the first district by unanimous vote at the annual district convention here yesterday.”  Eastman was president of the Canadian Association of Advertising Agencies.  He was a fifth generation Canadian although he wasn’t born in Canada.  His ancestors emigrated to Canada in 1778, but his parents relocated to Minnesota for a short while and he was born there in 1890.

He was educated in Indiana and made his way back to Vernon, BC where was manager of a department store in 1914 and 1915.  He relocated to Vancouver in 1918 where he founded Eastman Advertising Company which he ran until 1931 when it merged with another advertising agency.  As Vice President of that agency he became established as one of Canada’s most respected advertising executives.  After serving as president of the Vancouver Rotary club, he was elected District Governor in 1931.  

In March of 1932, Morgan found it necessary to be away from Vancouver for business reasons until June.  During that four-month period, Lyman Trumbull of Vancouver was selected to be “Acting Deputy Governor,” completing Eastman’s term of office.

Morgan Eastman died on January 6, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario.  He was survived by his wife Flossie (Milligan) Eastman and his son Richard.  He and Flossie were married in Victoria in 1909.

         

Dr. Arthur T. R. Cunningham was a prominent Spokane Valley physician who was born April 27 1873 in Loraine, Ohio.  He attended Grade and High School there and then went on to receive his undergraduate degree from Oberlin college.After graduation he went to Western Reserve Medical College where he earned his doctorate in 1900. Albert (always known as A. T. R. Cunningham) moved to Spokane, WA in 1901 where he and his wife Emma Lou lived until his retirement in 1943. After retirement, he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii where he died in 1945.Both he and his wife are buried on the Island of Oahu.

When in Spokane, Albert was on the staff of St, Luke’s Hospital.In addition to Rotary, Dr. Cunningham loved to play golf and was a member of two Spokane area golf clubs. He was also on the board of the Y. M. C. A., and active in the local medical associations.   Under his leadership, the Spokane Rotary club established a fund to treat children with cleft palate and other conditions. He was District Governor in 1929-1930.

John F. Casper, from Walla Walla, Washington was the Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1928-1929.  He was born in Springfield, Ohio but moved to Walla Walla in 1903.  Two months later, he married Elizabeth Stine, a member of a pioneer family in the area.  Casper attended Wittenberg College in Springfield before receiving a degree in pharmacy from The Ohio State University. After moving to Washington, he began a career in wheat farming.

“Jack” Casper served a term as president of the Walla Walla chamber of Commerce and was president of the Rotary club in 1927-1928.  The following year, he was chosen to be District Governor of Rotary District #1.  In addition to involvement in The Shrine he was one of the founders of the Boy Scouts in Walla Walla and served as president of the Blue Mountain Council of the Scouts.  He died in Walla Walla in 1949.

 

One of Rotary District #1’s most popular Governors, Henry Haven (Hank) Manny was the son on John Pels Manny, inventor of the Manny farm reaper and mower.  He was born May 7, 1877, in Rockford, Illinois.  Living most of his adult life in Seattle, he worked in the Telephone Supply business, wholesale hardware, and eventually was Vice President of Hubbard & Company, a tool manufacturer.  Hank Many was a member of the Seattle Rotary Club and District Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1927-1928. 

On December 29, 1927, Many and his wife Katherine took a ferry from his home in Hunts Point on Lake Washington to Seattle for dinner with friends.  As the boat approached the ferry dock, Manny attempted to start the car.  When the starter failed, he got out and cranked the engine to get it started.  At the first turn of the crank, the engine engaged, and the car lunged backwards, crashing through the chain at the stern of the boat, and plunged into forty-five feet of water.  He yelled at his wife to jump but she was unable to get clear of the car.  Manny then dived into the water in an attempt to rescue her but was unsuccessful.  Henry Manny lived in Seattle, until his death on March 15, 1942.

James H. Beatty was a member of the British Columbia Parliament, President and managing director of the University school and manager of Sprott-Shaw schools of commerce in Victoria.  He joined the Victoria Rotary Club in 1913, and was on the Board of Directors of Rotary International in 1933.  James served as District Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1926-1927.  

He was born in Frankford on the Trent River in Ontario, and received his early education there and later in Colbourn and Toronto.  He moved west in 1908 and became associated with the Sprott-Shaw School and Rockford Academy.  While not a charter member of the Victoria Rotary Club, he joined it about three months after it was established, serving as President in 1924-1925.

 

Edmund (Ed) W. Campbell of Seattle, and District Governor of Rotary in 1925-1926, was born in Davis County Iowa on a farm, and educated in the public schools there.  He began his business career in the retail lumber business in Des Moines, Iowa.  Following that he moved to Los Angeles for about three years and then moved to Seattle in what he called “the best section of the United states.”  He joined the Seattle Rotary club about 1920 and served on a number of committees in the club.  He was elected club president in 1925. 

Campbell was involved in a number of business investments in the Seattle area including the Linden Record Company and the Puget Sound Savings and Loan Association. At one time, he served as President of the S & L.  In October of 1931, he and his business partners were found guilty of embezzling funds from both the S & L and Linden.  Both Campbell and his partner were sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.   That sentence was reaffirmed on appeal.

Frank C. Riggs was a pioneer in the automobile industry and one of the first car dealers in the Northwest.  After twenty years in the automobile industry he transferred his interest to bulb raising and nut growing and became an outstanding figure in both industries.

Frank was born in Watseka, Illinois in 1867 and started his professional career in the bicycle industry in Syracuse, New York.  He then moved to the rubber tire industry from 1905 to 1907 and was vice president of the Fisk Rubber Company in Chicago.  Riggs became vice president of sales for the Packard Motor company until 1915 and eventually was general manager of the Willys-Overland Company on the West Coast. 

In the 1920’s he became one of the first commercial growers of daffodils in the Pacific Northwest.  Frank was one of the early sponsors of the Portland Rose Festival and served as a judge at the festival for many years.  He was an active Rotarian and served as president of the Portland Rotary Club in 1912.   In 1924-1925 he was selected to be District Governor, replacing Robert Booth who had resigned early in the year.  Frank Riggs died at age 81 in 1949 in Portland. Oregon.

 

 1924 - 25  Robert A. Booth  (Oregon); Replaced by Higley, then Riggs

Miles Morrell Higley, president of the Northwest Business College in Spokane was selected to be Governor at the District Conference in March 1923.  His term began three months later July 1 of that year.  After his year of service, he was chosen to be “Acting Governor,” replacing Robert Booth who resigned shortly after the start of the year.

Higley was born in St. Charles, Minnesota on November 24, 1867, and married Mae Florence Shields in 1897.  As a young man in Minnesota, he worked on his father’s farm when not fishing and hunting.  He described his younger life by saying “I am a real Yankee, even if I was born in Minnesota and lived on a farm until I was 15.  I did what the average farm boy does, getting up at five o’clock to do chores before going to school.”

 

After moving to Spokane in 1897, he worked at the Griffith Plumbing and Heating company as a bookkeeper.  From that position, he moved to the business college and remained there for his entire career.  He loved fancy cars, and at one time owned eleven of them.  Higley always described Rotary as “one of the greatest developers of men of all organizations.” Miles Higley died in Seattle, Washington in 1940.

Pioneer timber man and industrialist from Hoquaim, Washington, Frank H. Lamb wrote a number of books, one of which contributed significantly to the study of “broad leafed trees” and their impact on temperate forests of the world.  He also wrote a book in 1924 titled The Future of Rotary when he was Vice President of Rotary International.  Frank was District Governor in 1922-1923.

He was born in Imslaytown, New Jersey in 1875 and moved to Houaim in the summer of 1897. He lived there the remainder of his life.  In addition to his contribution to the timber industry, Frank Lamb was one of the key leaders that pushed the Washington State Legislature to adopt the Port District Act.  This legislation allowed communities to form and own public port districts.

Frank Lamb studied Botany at Stanford University is Palo Alto, California, where he met and married Alice Emmerson.  He died while on family vacation in Imlaystown, New Jersey in 1951.  His remains were interred in Hoquaim. 

Ernst Laughlin “Ernie” Skeel, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, migrated to Seattle in 1907 and practiced law there for 44 years.  He was better known for his wide-ranging business interests, his advocacy of economic development, and his wide-ranging civic contributions.  At various times he headed the Municipal League of Seattle, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Club, the Seattle Rotary Club, and in 1949 headed a committee formed to prevent the Boing Airplane Company from transferring bomber production to its plant in Wichita, Kansas. 

Ernst Skeel earned his law degree in 1906 at Western Reserve University in Cleveland and worked his way through law school as a football coach at the nearby College of Wooster.  In 1908 he married Marguerite Willard who later said “the most outstanding thing I did in college was marry the football coach.”

Ernie Skeel was a founder of the Seattle Rotary club in 1909 and helped establish clubs elsewhere in the state and in Alaska. He served as president of the Seattle club in 1914, and finally was Northwest District Governor in 1921-1922.  As one of the early leaders in the district he wrote much of the early Constitution and By-laws of Rotary International.  Ernst Skeel died in 1952 after a long illness.      

Pike was born February 6, 1867 in Clarence, Iowa where he learned the trade of carpenter.  In 1890, he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he was employed in a lumber mill, doing construction work.  He then lived for about ten years in Sheridan, Wyoming before moving to Portland in 1910.

In Portland, he opened a photographic supply store known as Pike & O’Neill Photo Supply Company.  He eventually sold the store to the Eastman Kodak company. Later for several years he was vice-president of the Portland Trust & Savings Bank until his retirement in about 1941.

In 1916, Nelson was elected president of the Portland Rotary Club and became District Governor in 1920-1921 when he replaced Charles Cochran who resigned in December of 1920.  

At his District Conference he introduced the delegates to the concept of a “wheel” to be used in defining the attributes of a Rotary Club.  The presentation was repeated at the next international convention of Rotary.  Nelson G. Pike died in Portland at the age of 78 in 1945.

A graduate of Oregon State Normal College in Monmouth, with a Law degree from the University of Michigan, Charles Cochran practiced law in Portland.  He and his brother George of LaGrande, Oregon were partners in the Law firm of Cochran and Cochran.  For a number of years, he represented Union Pacific Lines as assistant general attorney.  He was married to Nellie Virginia Ghormley in 1905 and they had two daughters. 

Cochran was a Shriner and a Rotarian, having been a member of the Portland Rotary Club and was District Governor of Rotary District #1 in 1919-1920.   Cochran was selected to be District Governor for 1920-1921 but resigned in December of 1920 and was replaced by Nelson Pike.   He was on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Rotary in 1924-1925.   

He died at the age of fifty (50)  in Hot Lake, Oregon.

 

Clayton Williams was born in Romulus, New York on December 22, 1878.  After graduating from high school there, he attended the University of Missouri Law School, graduating in 1907.  After graduation that year, he married Grace Lucille Parker and they immediately moved to Everett, Washington where they raised three children. 
 
“Clayt” as he was known, was not only active in Rotary but was also a leader in the Elks club, the Chamber of Commerce, his church, the Boy Scouts and the school board.  It was said at the time that there was nothing in Everett in which he was not involved.
 
He first became interested in Rotary in 1916 when he was elected the Charter president of the Everett Rotary Club.    He and the Rotary Club were instrumental in starting the National Guard in Everett and having the Everett Armory built.  After his year as club president Clayt’s interest in Rotary continued and he served as Governor helping form 16 new clubs.  He also laid the groundwork for ten more to be chartered the following year.

When Alex McFarlane died in 1975 at the age of 88, he was the last surviving charter member of the Vancouver Rotary Club.  For 41 years he was the Secretary of the Northwest Commercial Travelers Association.  In his early career, he worked in the tea and coffee business and later was in wholesale hardware industry.

Alex had a distinguished career in Rotary and for his many contributions to the Rotary cause and his profound knowledge of  Rotary, he was affectionately known as “Mr. Rotary.”  He was president of the Vancouver club in 1915-1916, was Governor of District #22 in 1918-1919, and was a director of Rotary International in 1924-1925.  He served on the Rotary International Board as chairman of the Canadian Advisory Committee.