A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he has felt in the small towns of his youth. The name “Rotary” derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.

Rotary’s popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary Clubs had been formed in six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of the club members. 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 principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called the 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.

During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications.

An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 :for doing good in the world”, became a non-profit corporation known as the Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, Rotarians around the world made donations in his honor, totaling USD2 million, launched the Foundation’s first program, now called the Ambassadorial Scholarship. Today contributions to the Rotary Foundation totaled more than USD80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.

Rotary has worked to meet the changing needs of the society, expanding its services efforts to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, immunization against polio, illiteracy, world hunger and children at risk. The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse f the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary Clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary Clubs in 166 countries.