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The world's first service club, the Rotary
Club of Chicago, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P.
Harris, an attorney who wished to capture in a professional club
the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his
youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of
rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's popularity spread, and within a decade, clubs were
chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada. By
1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents. The
organization adopted the Rotary International name a year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club
members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began
pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help
serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this
ideal is best expressed in its motto: Service Above Self.
By 1925, Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000
members. The organization's distinguished reputation attracted
presidents, prime ministers, and a host of other luminaries to
its ranks — among them author Thomas Mann, diplomat Carlos P.
Romulo, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and composer Jean
Sibelius.
The Four-Way
Test
In 1932, Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor created The Four-Way Test, a
code of ethics adopted by Rotary 11 years later. The test, which
has been translated into more than 100 languages, asks the
following questions:
Of the things we think, say or do
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Rotary and World War II
During World War II, many clubs were forced to disband, while
others stepped up their service efforts to provide emergency
relief to victims of the war. In 1942, looking ahead to the
postwar era, Rotarians called for a conference to promote
international educational and cultural exchanges. This event
inspired the founding of UNESCO.
In 1945, 49 Rotary club members served in 29 delegations to the
UN Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN
conferences by sending observers to major meetings and covering
the United Nations in its publications.
"Few there are who do not recognize the good work which is done
by Rotary clubs throughout the free world," former Prime
Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain once declared.
Dawn of a new century
As it approached the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet
society’s changing needs, expanding its service efforts to
address such pressing issues as environmental degradation,
illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.
In 1989, the organization voted to admit women into clubs
worldwide and now claims more than 145,000 female members in its
ranks.
After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established
throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The first Russian Rotary
club was chartered in 1990, and the organization underwent a
growth spurt for the next several years.
More than a century after Paul Harris and his colleagues
chartered the club that eventually led to Rotary International,
Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of
that first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting
place, Room 711 in Chicago’s Unity Building, by re-creating the
office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris
711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians.
In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the
club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior,
including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of
Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711
on the 16th floor of RI World Headquarters in nearby Evanston.
Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs
in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.
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The first four Rotarians: (from left)
Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, Hiram Shorey, and Paul P.
Harris Courtesy of Rotary Images
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