As so often happens the unexpected address turns out to be one of the best.
Stepping in when the scheduled speaker was unable to attend, John gave an outline of Rotary history complete with compelling minutiae and anecdotes. He has held many senior positions in Rotary, including that of District Governor and is the incoming President of the Petone Rotary Club.
When in Chicago he had noticed that the grave of Paul Harris, founder of Rotary is close to that of Melvin Jones, founder of Lions. John remarked on the coincidence that so many of our current service clubs were founded in the early years of the nineteenth century, and most in USA, Rotary in 1905, shortly followed by Lions, Jaycees, Kiwanis, Altrusa, Soroptimists and Round Table (in U.K.). Of these, Rotary and Lions are by far the largest, with Rotary's full members just outnumbering those of Lions.
There are 36,973 Rotary clubs. In order of foundation, Chicago is number one and Eastern Hutt is number 18,601. Clubs started as lunch time clubs, the first evening club was in 1938 and the first breakfast club was in 1968, in Mosgiel. There are 545 Rotary Districts, numbered from 1 to 9,980. Northern Scotland is number 1 and Southland is number 9,980 (NB, not sequential).
The Rotary Banner was introduced in 1915 and examples have found their way to the South Pole in 1929, into orbit in 1968, a Rotary Pin on the moon in 1969 and a banner on top of Mt Everest in 2005.
In 1935 Paul Harris visited NZ. When he was introduced to the proud President of Timaru Rotary he remarked that he, the President, was not wearing his Rotary Pin. Crestfallen, nay, devastated, the President admitted that he had forgotten it. Paul Harris gave him his own and it remains in Timaru to this day.
Rotary N.Z. was instrumental in the introduction of school milk in 1937, and in setting up Outward Bound N.Z. among many, many other projects.
Famous Rotarians have included Neil Armstrong, President Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Walt Disney and Pope Francis 2nd, who was ejected for not meeting the then compulsory attendance requirements!
Thank you, John, we are now far more knowledgeable and appreciative of our Rotary.
