40 Fun Facts About Rotary International

What did the first Rotary club build in 1907 as its first community service project, under president Paul Harris?

Public toilets turned a businessmen's social circle into something new: the project is the reason Rotary is described as the world's first service club.

In which US city did attorney Paul Harris gather three acquaintances for the first Rotary meeting in February 1905?

Chicago hosted that first meeting in Room 711 of the Unity Building, the office of mining engineer Gustavus Loehr. A coal dealer and a tailor made up the four.

Why did the founders of the first Rotary club in 1905 choose the name 'Rotary'?

Meetings moved between offices because the first members took turns hosting each week. Within a year the club had grown too large and settled on one regular meeting place.

Which body ruled in May 1987 that Rotary clubs could not exclude women, after a California club admitted three?

The US Supreme Court upheld a California ruling in favour of the Duarte club, whose charter Rotary had revoked in 1978. Two years later Rotary opened membership to women worldwide.

Which billionaire announced a $255 million challenge grant for Rotary's fight against polio in January 2009?

Bill Gates's foundation had given Rotary a $100 million challenge grant a year earlier. Rotary answered the two grants with a $200 million pledge of its own, which it met five months early.

Which phrase became Rotary's principal motto in 1989, having been one of two official mottoes since 1950?

Service Above Self grew out of 'Service, Not Self', a Minneapolis club slogan shared on a river outing during the 1911 convention. The older motto was 'He Profits Most Who Serves Best'.

Which question opens the Four-Way Test Rotary members apply to the things they think, say or do?

The opening question, 'Is it the truth?', begins a test of just 24 words, written in 1932 by a businessman trying to save a near-bankrupt aluminum products company. Rotary adopted it in the 1940s.

World Polio Day, established by Rotary on 24 October, commemorates the birth of which vaccine pioneer?

Jonas Salk led the first team to develop a polio vaccine, an injected one. The oral drops used in most mass campaigns came later from Albert Sabin.

Which religious body issued a 1951 decree forbidding its clergy from becoming members of Rotary clubs?

The Catholic Church's Holy Office published the ban in L'Osservatore Romano. A second decree later that month limited its warning for laymen to certain countries, not including the US.

Which garment, usually navy blue, marks out Rotary Youth Exchange students and gets covered in traded pins?

A blazer's colour usually shows where a student comes from: navy is the most common, with green, red, black or maroon also in use. The pins and patches are swapped with other students.

Rotary members served as delegates and consultants at the 1945 conference that wrote which organization's charter?

The United Nations charter talks included 11 Rotary representatives, who took turns as consultants to the US delegation. Rotary was one of 42 organizations invited to advise it.

Rotary's PolioPlus campaign helped inspire which body's 1988 resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000?

The World Health Organization works alongside Rotary, UNICEF and the US CDC in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. More than 2.5 billion children have received the oral vaccine.

What does the 'L' stand for in RYLA, the Rotary training program for young people aged 14 to 30?

Leadership is the 'L' in Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Clubs can tailor the programme's content and format to narrower age groups to suit the needs of their own communities.

Which Illinois suburb became home to Rotary's world headquarters in 1954, after decades in rented downtown space?

Evanston's first Rotary building opened on Ridge Avenue in August 1954. In 1987 the headquarters relocated to Sherman Avenue, into a building now known as One Rotary Center.

Which job did Rotary founder Paul Harris hold during five wandering years after earning his law degree in 1891?

Cowboy was one of several odd jobs: Harris also worked as a newspaper reporter, a salesman, an actor and a hand on cattle ships bound for Europe before opening his law practice in 1896.

What title is held by the officer who leads a Rotary district for one year and must visit every club in it?

Governor is the title, and each one is nominated by the clubs of the district. The visits carry the international president's message and annual theme to every club.

What did Rotary founder Paul Harris plant on five continents during his travels as symbols of goodwill and friendship?

Trees went into the ground from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. Harris planted his first on European soil in Berlin in 1932, on a sports field that had once been used for military purposes.

Which city's Rotary club, chartered in August 1912, was the first chartered in Europe and made Rotary intercontinental?

London's club took a year to receive its charter after members organized it. Mainland Europe had to wait until 1921, when a club was chartered in Madrid.

Which famous figure was named a Paul Harris Fellow in 1980 after a Maryland Rotary club donated in her name?

Mother Teresa was honoured after an incoming Rotary president challenged every club to make one non-Rotarian a fellow. Boris Yeltsin and astronaut James Lovell have been named too.

Which Rotary-sponsored service club for students aged 12 to 18 began in 1962 at Melbourne High School?

Interact blends the words 'international' and 'action'. The first club outside the United States followed in India within months, and girls were admitted from 1968.

In which country did Rotary launch its first polio project in 1979, a plan to immunize about six million children?

The Philippines agreed a joint multi-year effort with Rotary costing about $760,000. Its success made ending polio Rotary's top priority and led to the PolioPlus programme in 1985.

Which Canadian city gained a Rotary club in 1910, the first outside the United States, making Rotary international?

Winnipeg's club began meeting in November 1910 and was chartered in April 1912. The association of American clubs then added the word 'International' to its name.

A gift of what size to the Rotary Foundation earns the donor recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow?

$1,000 has been the mark since the recognition began in 1957, when it supported the Foundation's only programme, graduate fellowships. The millionth fellow was named in 2006.

In which southern US city did a Rotary club found the first Rotaract club for young adults in March 1968?

Charlotte North Rotary Club started Rotaract as a youth programme. The name stands for 'Rotary in Action', and since 2019 it has been a full membership type of its own.

Which businessman wrote Rotary's Four-Way Test in 1932 and served as Rotary International president in 1954-55?

Herbert J. Taylor wrote it on a white card after praying at his desk at Club Aluminum, then tried it on himself for 60 days. He gave Rotary the copyright in 1954.

Which Rotary president's 1917 call for an endowment for 'doing good in the world' led to the Rotary Foundation?

Arch Klumph, a Cleveland Rotarian, made the proposal as his term was ending. The fund's first contribution was just $26.50, and it took the name Rotary Foundation in 1928.

Which Canadian became the first woman to serve as president of Rotary International, taking office in 2022?

Jennifer Jones, a media company founder from Windsor, Ontario, first covered Rotary as a radio reporter in the late 1980s, when nearly every member she met was a man.

In which New England state was Rotary founder Paul Harris raised by his grandparents from the age of three?

Vermont shaped him, though not always smoothly: Harris was expelled from Black River Academy, and later from the state university after an incident involving a secret society.

Which city became home to the second Rotary club, the first of four founded in the western United States?

San Francisco was followed by Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles, so four of the first five Rotary clubs were in the West. By 1910 there were 16 clubs, enough for a first convention.

Which city hosted the 1921 Rotary convention, the first to be held outside the United States?

Edinburgh's delegates added the promotion of peace and goodwill to Rotary's constitution. By then Rotary had clubs on six continents, only 16 years after it was founded.

Which custom did Harry Ruggles, often called the 'fifth Rotarian', introduce to Rotary club meetings?

Singing was his idea, and his printing company later produced the first Rotary songbook as well as the first issue of the organization's magazine. He had joined at the second meeting.

What did engraver Montague Bear sketch in 1905 as the first Rotary club's emblem, years before the gear design?

A wagon wheel with 13 spokes was the first sketch. When members called it lifeless, Bear added clouds beneath it, which some complained looked like dust kicked up on both sides.

Which organization did Margarette Golding found in Manchester in 1924 for the wives and daughters of Rotary members?

Inner Wheel held its first official meeting on 10 January 1924, a date still marked as International Inner Wheel Day. A Rotary connection is no longer required to join.

Which disaster relief charity began in 2000 as the millennium project of a Rotary club in Cornwall, England?

ShelterBox was the idea of Rotarian Tom Henderson, a former Royal Navy search and rescue diver. Its first 143 boxes went to survivors of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.

On which date does each new Rotary year begin, a custom that grew out of a 1913 accounting decision?

1 July follows the 30 June year-end that auditors recommended, so the accounts could be ready before each convention. Rotary's first fiscal years had started in August.

Rotary's 3-H grants, announced at its 1978 convention in Tokyo, stood for Health, Hunger and which third word?

Humanity completed the name. The first 3-H grant paid for a polio immunization drive the following year, the project that set Rotary on course to fight the disease worldwide.

Which coal dealer, not founder Paul Harris, served as the first president of the first Rotary club in 1905?

Silvester Schiele led the club in its first year and remained a lifelong friend of Harris; the two lived near each other and are buried in the same cemetery. Harris became its third president.

What feature was added to the hub of Rotary's gear emblem by 1924 so that it could transfer power to a shaft?

A keyway made the emblem a 'real worker', in words credited to Will Forker of Los Angeles; without one the gear would turn idly. Oscar Bjorge's 1919 design had six spokes and 24 cogs.

Which western US city did a Rotary committee recommend as its new headquarters, only for two conventions to say no?

Denver was the surprise pick after 30 clubs asked to host the headquarters and the committee toured seven cities. Delegates debated the move at length before rejecting it in 1946 and 1947.

Which South American capital gained the continent's first Rotary club when it was chartered in February 1919?

Montevideo's club carried Rotary into Uruguay just 14 years after the organization's first meeting. Mainland Europe would not get a club of its own until 1921.