HISTORY OF ROTARY

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the works.

In 1905, Paul Harris and three acquaintances met in Chicago to organize a small group of business leaders to meet weekly for fellowship. They rotated the meeting sites and called it a Rotary Club. It soon became a luncheon meeting club, and the service idea was developed. A wagon wheel became the club symbol. In 1908, other Rotary Clubs were formed, and in 1910 a National Association of Rotary Clubs was established, with Paul Harris as president.

Today, Rotary International has more than 1.2 million service minded men and women belonging to more than 29,000 rotary clubs in virtually every nation in the world.