Origin of Rotary

Over ninety years ago, there lived in the city of Chicago a young lawyer who had only a few friends and acquaintances and who felt the pangs of loneliness. His name was Paul P. Harris, and desiring to extend his circle of acquaintances he conceived the plan of calling together a few men engaged in different lines of business, and explaining to them an idea which had been forming in his mind. His idea was that man is friendly by nature, and that the necessity of earning a livelihood under modern economic conditions should not compel a man to sacrifice his natural instinct to have friends and be friendly. That it should be possible for the man in the city to have a business and professional friends as does the man in the small town. Friendship should be, and in reality is, the fundamental basis of a man’s business relations with his fellow man. It was believed that a group of men freed from the depressing and restraining influence of economic depression would quickly develop into genuine friends capable of and desiring to be of service to one another, would become broader minded and bigger visioned, because of contact with one another, more successful and efficient in business and therefore better citizens. Paul Harris, accordingly, invited three men of his acquaintance to meet at the office in the Unity Building, Chicago, on the evening of February 23, 1905. Those invited were Silvester Schiele, a coal dealer, H.E. Shorey, a merchant tailor, and Gus H. Loehr, a mining operator.

The meeting was informal, and Paul explained his idea to those present, and the formation of a club composed of men each from a different line of business or profession was discussed. It was agreed to meet a week later in the office of Paul Harris. At the second meeting several other gentlemen were present by invitation and the formation of a club completed. The name of “Rotary” was suggested by Paul Harris for the reason that it was decided to hold the meetings in rotation at the offices of the different members. In the fall of the year 1905, the first dinner of the club was held in the old Sherman House. So came into existence Rotary, and Club No. 1 in Chicago. Space here will not permit an account of the wonderful growth and spread of Rotary.