History of the Rotary Club of Houston
History of the Rotary Club of Houston
The Rotary Club of Houston was founded in August of 1912, soon after newspaper executive Robert Cornell returned from an advertising convention in Dallas, where he had met a member of the newly formed Minneapolis Rotary Club.The new Houston club began meeting in the Mecca Cafe, where club president Cornell had to hear members complain about the $1 initiation fee and $2 annual dues. A year later, club members and wives gathered for an evening banquet at the brand new Rice Hotel a day before its official opening. The club would meet there for the next seventy three years. In 1914, the club hosted 1288 Rotarians and wives who attended Rotary International's (RI) 5th Annual Convention in Houston. Thereafter, the club's membership grew steadily until September, 1963, when it became the world's largest with 773 members, two more than the founding Chicago club's total. Meanwhile, RI credited Houston with bringing Rotary to numerous other Texas cities as far away as Amarillo, 600 miles to the northwest in the Texas panhandle. In 1972, Houston again hosted the RI convention and its' 14,000 delegates. When the Houston club reached its zenith with 941 members in 1985, there were 34 neighborhood Rotary clubs throughout Houston, 24 of which the Houston club had sponsored. The Houston club's distinguished record of service to the community began in 1919 when it first supported the young residents of the Burnett Bayland County Home with Christmas parties and summer picnics - support that has continued uninterrupted for 86 years and today also involves computer mentoring to help the troubled youngsters improve their reading skills. Following a club luncheon in 1944, Goodwill Industries was launched in Houston, and is now among the largest in the world. In 1958, the club began judging applications for the Houston Endowment's Jones Scholarships, a continuing program which grew larger through the years and to date has awarded more than $44 million in scholarships. In 1966, not long after Houston joined two other local clubs to save the area's Little League from bankruptcy, club members began counseling inmates about to be released from the Texas prison system, a program of the Fresh Start Committee which currently also coordinates television conferencing to help female inmates improve their family, financial and health life skills. In early 1971, five months after NFL Coach Vince Lombardi died of cancer, the first Rotary Lombardi Award dinner was held to recognize the outstanding college football lineman before 800 persons and guest speaker U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew. To date, proceeds of these annual banquets have raised just over $3.1 million for cancer research. In 1987, after club leaders viewed a similar program during the large club conference in Fresno, Houston initiated Camp Enterprise, which during a weekend each spring teaches business practices to 72 outstanding high school juniors. And in 1993, a thirty year dream of the club, following upon its providing free apartments to Rotarians from other countries being treated for cancer at the Texas Medical Center, became a successful fund raising reality with the completed construction of the $17 million Jesse H. Jones Rotary House International, the largest project by a single Rotary club in history. The Marriott Corporation managed facility provides convenient, economical housing for families of cancer patients across the street from the world renowned University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, with easy access through an enclosed bridge over a major thoroughfare. Included in the work of some two dozen other committees, the Houston club supports students at four inner city elementary schools and provides the panels who judge candidates for another multi-million dollar group of college scholarships offered each year by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Foundation.
Compiled and edited by Jack U. Wells
Contributing sources: Alvin R. Busse, Steven P. Luffburrow, Jack D. Owen, Arthur D. Schwarz, Jr., and Bill Teague
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 had 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 on 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 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. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program - graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 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.In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, 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 of 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.
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John Kenny, Grangemouth, Scotland
President, Rotary International, 2009-10
Vice Chair, 2008 (Los Angeles) Convention Comm., 2007-08
Trustee, The Rotary Foundation, 2000-04
Chair, Executive Committee, Rotary International, 1996-97
Director, Rotary International (RI), 1995-97
President, RI in Great Britain and Ireland, 1992-93
Vice president, RIBI, 1991-92
District governor, 1984-85
John is a past dean of his local law faculty, a judge, and a notary. He is active in the Scout Movement and earned the Scouting Medal of Merit for helping to form new scout groups in Eastern Europe. Kenny was appointed deputy lieutenant of his district by Queen Elizabeth II. An elder of the Church of Scotland, he has served as session clerk and presbytery elder. He is a past president of both the Forth Valley Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Scottish Junior Chambers of Commerce. He is also past general legal counsel of Jaycees International. A Rotarian since 1970, John has been president and vice president of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. He has served RI as director, executive committee chair, Rotary Foundation trustee, institute moderator, district governor, convention vice chair and group leader, president’s representative, and committee member and chair. He’s been a delegate, member at large, and parliamentarian at several Councils on Legislation. John is a Major Donor to The Rotary Foundation and a Bequest Society member, and has received the Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. He has been married to June since 1965.
2009-2010 Rotary International Theme
"The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands"
To visit the Rotary International website, click here.
District 5890 Governor - Ed Charlesworth
Ed Charlesworth is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice with his wife, Robin. After earning a doctorate in clinical psychology he completed internship and post-doctoral fellowship programs at Baylor College of Medicine. He has been the Director of Willowbrook Psychological Associates for nearly thirty years. Ed has written three books including Stress Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Wellness (Ballentine Publishers). In 2005 a comprehensive revision celebrated this book's 20th year of continuous publication. This new edition was dedicated to Rotary's 100th anniversary of "Service above Self" and introduced categories of coping tools related to service and meaningful pursuits.
Ed is a strong believer in civic activities as a way of giving back to his community. He is Past President of the Willowbrook Rotary Club, American Heart Association, and the Biofeedback Society of Harris County in his community. Ed and his wife, Robin, have enjoyed hosting international visitors, exchange students and Rotarians from over 20 different countries. Ed has been selected as Rotary District 5890 District Governor for the years 2009 - 2010. He has received the District Governor's award for Membership Development and is a past Rotarian of the Year. He has chaired District Conference, Group Study Exchange, Mediation, District Friendship Exchange, and Rotary Foundation Alumni Committees. As crew leader he helped to build a Rotary Habitat for Humanity House. He has assisted as Sergeant-at-arms for President Elect Training and Zone Institutes, representative for ASETS (Ambassadorial Scholarship Training), and Youth Exchange trainer. He led a team of young professionals on a GSE exchange to Romania.
Ed has been on the advisory board for the Houston Police Bicycle Relay Team and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and has raised money to fight blood related cancers for the last six years through annual long distance bicycle rides from Houston to Los Angeles, New York City, Quebec, Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria, BC. He has received several citizenship commendations from the Houston Chief of Police for his efforts and has arranged Rotarian home hosting for the relay team members along their routes through out the country.
Ed has been married over thirty years to Robin and has two beautiful daughters, Brittany and Alli. Robin is past president of her Rotary Club. Brittany has been president of Interact and vice-president of Rotaract clubs. Alli and her mother are active in National Charity League. Ed enjoys marathons, long distance bicycling, sailing, cross-country snow skiing, and traveling with family and friends.
"Whatever modicum of success that is reflected in my life is related to the concept that we can all contribute something to this world to make it a better place."
To visit the District website,click here.
The Four-Way Test
From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions: "Of the things we think, say or do:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"