Charter Members
About Our Club
THE CHESTER ROTARY CLUB
FROM 1957 TO 1982
The history of the Chester Rotary Club goes back to the
Saybrook Rotary Club which was the Hub Club serving the Towns of Westbrook,
Saybrook, Essex, Deep River, and Chester. Each of these towns had a few members
in the Saybrook Club, which met at the Pease House in Old Saybrook.
The Chester members, twenty-five years ago, were Stuart
Joslyn (who served as President in 1945-46), Horace Bush (President in
1947-48), Harry Archambault and Stan Warner.
The Saybrook Club cleared the lines of communication
between the leaders of the various towns and, contrary to Rotary's teaching, it
resisted the development of the individual clubs in each town. Gradually,
however, this feeling changed. Deep River and Essex formed individual clubs and
they were soon followed by Chester.
It was on the Island of Sanibel, Florida, off the coast of
Ft. Myers Beach, in January 1956 that Dave Lieberman and Robbie Collomore urged
Harry Archambault to organize a Rotary Club in Chester. By the fall of 1956,
Harry formed a committee with Stu, Bud and Stan to work up a list of
prospective members. Meetings were held at the Cove Road Inn in November and it
was agreed that a Rotary Club would be formed if the group were still together
by January 1, 1957. And so it was that the group then became a provisional
Rotary Club and shortly thereafter, it received its
charter from Rotary International as a member club in
District 798.
Charter night was held at the Ivoryton Hotel on April 10,
1957. There were about 400 people in
attendance. Louis Thomas, who was serving as District Governor, presented the
charter. Ted Wellman, who was president of the Saybrook Rotary Club, the
sponsoring club, served as Master of Ceremonies and later became a member of
the Chester Club.
The officers of the Chester Club were:
President Harry Archambault
Vice-President Archie T. Colvin
Secretary Fred Van Name
Treasurer Everett Brooks
Charter members were: Harry Archambault, Hamilton Bates
Jr., Wells C. Bates, Abe Birnbaum, Everett M. Brooks, Horace S. Bush, Gus
Calamari, Robert Collomore, Archie T. Colvin, James L. Grote, Harold Jones,
David Jordan, Stuart Joslyn, Daniel Lattarulo,
David Lieberman, D. Leonard Lieberman, Jr., Devereaux
Martin, Elwood Myers, Ridge O'Sullivan, Meyer Pargman, Bill Sevigny, Morton
Steinau, James Sypher, Domenick Tiezzi, Peter Tiezzi Sr., Fred Van Name, Stan
Warner, Dan Zanardi and Donald Zito.
By the end of the first year of the Chester Club, there
were thirty active members and their enthusiasm is attested to by an average
monthly attendance of 88.66%, a figure surpassed only in 1959 and 1960.
Membership remained at about thirty until 1961 when under
the presidency of Dave Lieberman, it reached thirty nine. The maximum
membership of the club was reached in 1970 under the presidency of Jesse Lanzi
when the Club had forty-four active and
two past service members. In 1982, there were thirty-seven
active members and two past service members.
Of the twenty five Presidents, Dave Lieberman also served
as District Governor from 1968 to 1969. The Club has had four Paul Harris
Fellows, Dr. Lieberman 1970, Warren Narducci 1977, Stuart Joslyn 1981 and
Horace Bush 1981.
The Club has met at seven different restaurants. The first
meetings were at the Cove Inn in Chester. This was followed by two restaurants
in Haddam, the Silver Ball and the Pueblo House, the Gelston House in East
Haddam in 1964, the Country Squire in
Killingworth in 1968, the Griswold Inn in Essex in 1969 and
finally the Chart House in Chester in 1976. A number of meetings were held with
other clubs including Old Saybrook, Essex, Deep River, East Haddam and Clinton.
In the summer months, the Club has been particularly fortunate in having the
availability of the grounds of the Chrisholm Marina by the courtesy of Rotarian
Lou Matz and the members have been enjoying the beautiful site on the banks of
the Connecticut River in the warm summer evenings. Similarly, the Chester
Rotarians are very much indebted to Rotarian Dave Joslow for the abundant
hospitability of the Joslow Barn for the December Holiday season party as well
as to the Archambaults, the Zitos, the Wheelers, the Sages and the Spires who
also had Christmas festivities in their homes on various occasions. Over the
years, the Club has also been indebted to the United Church and St. Joseph's
Church for the use of their facilities from time to time.
The Ladies Auxiliary of the United Church provided a number of suppers and the
Girl Scouts have hosted the club in the Parish Center for the annual St.
Patrick's Day corned beef dinners.
From its first days, the Chester Rotary Club has considered
the distaff side to be an important part of the Rotary family. Rotarians wives
have played an important part in rotary activities and have done considerable
volunteer work for which too often little credit has been given. As a measure
of appreciation, the Rotary schedule generally includes three or four
"Ladies Nights" yearly.
Rotary Clubs are deeply involved in civic activities and
from its inception Chester Rotarians have taken an active part in community
service, International Service, Vocational Service as well as its own Club
Service. All of these services have been reflected in the broad and varied list
of speakers at rotary meetings: Business men,
educators, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, members of the
Armed Forces, holders of public office, writers, artists, craftsmen and foreign
students. These speakers, both men and women, have brought to the meetings a
sense of awareness and challenge of the problems, movements and forces
affecting our current society, thereby enriching each Rotarian with a broader
vision of community, national and international affairs.
Service in Rotary consists not only of talk but, more
importantly, of action. Over its twenty five years, the Chester Club has
instituted and carried out a number of projects designed to raise funds for
community services. Since 1957, approximately $40,000 has been raised by
Chester Rotarians and contributed to over fifty different
civic, educational, social and charitable groups. Among the
larger contributions, the following are of note:
One of the first projects was the building of a children's
library in the basement of the present library building. The cost was several
thousand dollars which was a considerable sum for a new fledgling club but this
project marked the beginning of the fund raising activities of the club for
such purposes.
In 1980, the Rotary Bandstand on the Town Green was
completed under the direction of Rotarian Robert Powell and it has since been
in active use for concerts, Christmas parties, weddings and other occasions.
The bandstand with its cost of over $13,000 has been the largest single
contribution of the Chester Rotary.
From its earliest years, the Club has been a staunch
supporter of various summer camperships for teenagers and nearly $4,000 has
been contributed to these programs. An almost equal amount has been contributed
to the Valley Y.M.C.A. including $1,350 for the building fund and $500 in 1975
for the flag pole in Westbrook.
The Little League and the Intermediate League have been
among the activities supported by the Chester Club which provided approximately
$1,500 for a new field in 1970 generously built by Rudy Netsch. Likewise, over
the years support has been given to the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and
Brownies programs. Chester youth has also been helped through
contributions for the school band uniforms and gym mats.
In the field of international service, the Club has made
contributions to the Student Exchange Program and Chester Rotarians hosted
students from abroad: Janet Lowe from England in 1968, Bjorn Muller from Sweden
in 1969, Justin Akrofie from Ghana in
1970 and 1975 and Megre Motoko from Japan in 1971 and
Liliana Burina from Argentina in 1970. The Chester Club also sponsored Chester
students to various foreign countries. Nancy Tremalgia spent a year in Sweden,
a group, which included Pat O'Sullivan and Carol Brogan spent three weeks in
France, and one student went to
Mexico.
Support for the Meeting House Restoration undertaken by the
Chester Historical Society in 1972 was evidenced by a substantial rotary
contribution to the building fund, to the cost of a piano and the installation
of a glass enclosed billboard in front of the Meeting House in 1980.
Other groups to which the Chester Rotary made contributions
in these years include the Chester Ambulance, the Middletown Hospital, the
Chester Firehouse, the Park and Recreation Commission, Valley Regional High
School, the Chester Library for the
Children's corner, the American Field Service and the World
Community Service.
The Club has also made significant contributions to Rotary
International. As previously noted the Club has had four Paul Harris Fellows.
Its contributions to Rotary Foundation of Rotary International have brought the
Club to the 1900% plateau making it the fifth largest contributor among the 53
clubs of District 798.
The Rotarian ideal of personal involvement has also been
the motivation for two special Chester programs. One of these is the annual
Christmas visit to the local convalescent homes when the Rotarians gather
around the carol singing and the giving of small presents to the guests at the
homes. The other has taken the form of
an annual dinner for the "old timers" meaning the
townsmen who have reached the seventy mark and who are hosted at a special
party in their honor. Personal involvement has also been exemplified in
welcoming exchange groups from other countries such as the Chester visit of six
members of the Work Study Group from
Queensland, Australia in 1975 when the Australians were
given a tour of the lower River Valley prior to the District Conference held in
Newport R.I. (at which the Chester Club was one of five host clubs). In 1978, three Chester Rotarians hosted five
handicapped British visitors as part of the "Rotary Wheels" program
of District 798.
Rotary has also been active in local projects designed to
improve the town. The Club sponsored street poles and signs in the early
1960's. Some years later it undertook some research on old houses and supplied
signs with names and dates. In 1981 individual rotarians volunteered their
services in the painting of the three Chester flagpoles.
The fund raising projects of the Chester Club have been as
varied as they have been interesting and always the occasion of good fellowship
among the members. The principal project for the Club has become well known
throughout the lower valley has been the annual lobster festival. The festival
had its origins in the early days
of the Club when clambakes were organized at Dr.
Lieberman's summer home in Fenwood in Old Saybrook. Originally planned for
Rotarians and their wives, they were soon enlarged to accommodate guests. In
1969 the concept was expanded to include the general public on a fund raising
basis and the first Lobster Festival was held at the Pattaconk Yacht Club where
it has taken place ever since with the exception of 1971 when it was held at
the Elks Club in Westbrook. Volunteers
drove to Falls River to bring back the lobsters and all the Rotarians pitched
in so that the entire operation was carried out exclusively through Rotarian
labor.
Another project which goes back to the early days of the
Club is the soda sale at the Chester Fair in August. At first the Club
sponsored bingo games but the project was turned into the sale of soda from a
separate Rotary booth. Other fund raising projects held from time to time
include dances held in 1965 at the Elementary School and in 1972, 1973 and 1974
at St. Joseph's Parish Center, auctions in 1972 and 1976 and a raffle in 1966
which did not prove to be very successful. In 1982 two new projects were undertaken; a mid-winter brunch
held at the Chart House which was very well received and a spring shrubbery
sale held on the Town Green.
Membership in Rotary involves the commitment to attend
meetings with regularity. If attendance at a club meetings is impossible, the
conscientious rotarian will make up at some neighboring club or in some other
part of the country or, occasionally, some club abroad. Chester Club members
have brought back the club banners of some seventy-five different clubs from
every part of the United States and Canada as well as clubs located all over
the globe from England and Germany to Africa, from Mexico to Argentina and from
the Far East. The record for make ups is undoubtedly held by Stuart Joslyn whose
record for perfect attendance over thirty years can be explained in part by the
fact that he has made up in every state of the Union excepting Alaska
and North Dakota, attendance at two Rotary
International Conventions at Hawaii in
1969 and Lausanne, Switzerland in 1973.
Other notable attendance records are those of Warren Narducci, Dave and
Len Lieberman, Everett Brooks, Jesse Lanzi, Archie Colvin and Charles Hayward.
In addition to attending four Rotary
International conventions while a member of the Saybrook
Club, Stuart and Tee went to the Hawaii meeting in 1969 with the Liebermans
(Sr.), the Haywoods and the Colvins and to the 1973 meeting in Lausanne,
Switzerland with the Liebermans and a large group from District 798 of whom
some twenty or thirty return annually to the Chester Lobster Festival.
Each of the 900,000 and more Rotarians living in 156
different countries throughout the world received The Rotarian or its
Spanish language edition Revista Rotaria covering a wide variety of
subjects of universal interest. Each club, however, has its own bulletin and
Chester has its Barker, so-called because at the time of the inception
of the Chester Club, some of our friends in the lower river
valley disparagingly referred to Chester as "dog town". Initially
edited by Len Lieberman in 1957, it came out as a monthly publication and
became a semimonthly in 1981.
The Chester Rotary Club has been a vibrant organization
which has done much for our community and this in turn has enriched our members
for in the words of St. Francis "It is in giving that we receive". As
our first President, Harry Archambault, put it at the tenth anniversary party
in 1968.
"I think Rotary has been good for Chester. It has
furnished many of the leaders of the Town and it gives opportunity to these
people to share their ideas with others across the table. I would certainly
except that it will continue to provide and include the future leaders of our
community".
May 22, 1982 Edmund T. Delaney
Club Historian
CHESTER ROTARY CLUB PRESIDENTS
Harry Archambault 1957
- 58
Archie T. Colvin 1958
Everett M. Brooks 1959
Herbert Hills 1960
Dr. David Lieberman 1961
James Sypher 1962
Donald Zito 1963
Morton Steinau 1964
Ridge O'Sullivan 1965
Arnold Watrous 1966
Frank Cadwell 1967
D. Leonard Lieberman, Jr. 1968
John Brogan 1969
Jesse Lanzi 1970
Daniel Zanardi 1971
Lou Matz 1972
Rudolph Netsch 1973
Edmund Delaney 1974
Robert Radicchi 1975
Bruce Watrous 1976
Paul Sage 1977
Clark Judge 1978
Richard Bickford 1979
Stephen Spires 1980
David Joslow 1981
Warren Narducci 1982
IN MEMORIAM
Robbie Collomore
Archie Colvin
Nick Garbarino
Henry Grzybala
Charles Hayward
David L. Lieberman
Devereaux Martin
Meyer Pargman
Charles McKew Parr
Gus Plettenberg
Edwin Pratt
Al Pross
Fred Van Name
Stan Warner