Club History 1913
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100 Years of Service Above Self Rotary Club of Victoria November 15 1913-2013 2 INDEX Index 2 Preface 3 RI Beginnings 4 Club Formation 5 Charter Members 6 Club Presidents 7-8 Historical Highlights 8-9 Years 1913 on 10-145 HISTORICAL MOMENT Spokes 21 James Beatty 24 Malahat Fountain 24 -25 Publicity Bureau 45 -46 Rotary Boys Choir 47 -48 Goodwill Enterprises 54 -55 The Rotary Anns 65 Women in Rotary 96 Rotary House 103 -104 Student Entrepreneur Program 111 The Crossleys 120 -121 Rotary Welcome Garden 126 -127 Polio Plus 133 Family Members 137 Last Night at the Proms 139 -141 3 PREFACE This history of the Rotary Club of Victoria, BC was prepared because it needed to be and what better time to do it than for the 100 th anniversary of the Club in 2013. Most of the research material exists in the 40-50 boxes in the Archives of the City of Victoria. The other main sources were the BC Provincial Archives and the Victoria Public Library. Numerous other sources were checked but yielded little. Throughout the hundred years, there were literally dozens of individual members who contributed to the recording of the story. Most are now unknown but a few stand out. HP (Pete) Johnson was the historian during the twenties and the thirties. Captain Thomas J. (Cappy) Goodlake, who was the Club Secretary for twenty years and then was elected President, wrote an abbreviated 60-year history of the Club starting in 1913. Dr.Carron Jameson (President 1966-67) was the historian for many years until his death. He was followed by Bedford Bates (assisted by Judge Blake Allan). Bedford Bates made an appeal to the Club for historical information. Lo and behold, he was invited by Eric Dowell (President 1970-71) to visit Dowell’s Transfer and Storage warehouse where, with the use off a forklift, they obtained a large case filled with memorabilia. At this time, Bedford’s wife had passed away so he was rattling around in a large empty house. Bedford took the material from Dowell’s and sorted it by decades in different rooms of the house. Over the years, the material was all indexed and turned over to the Victoria Archives. The last major Club historian was Frank Cappello who continued the indexing and archiving. This history is a summation of probably 50-60,000 pages of material. There are a few scattered years where the information is sketchy and there are a few individual presidential biographies which were not found in the city, however, there are no historical events that have been missed. There are a number of Club members who deserve thanks in the preparation of this history. In particular, Past President Ros Scott took the basic draft and turned into a format ready for publishing. Others include Presidents Murray Ramsbottom (proof reading), Don Jensen, and Terry Toone as well as Bedford Bates and Frank Cappello. Flynn Printing, which has supported the Club for more than two decades, printed the history. SE (Stu) McGowan President 2000-01 4 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL BEGINNINGS Paul Harris organized the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905. The name ‘Rotary’ was derived from the practice of rotating meetings from one member’s place of business to another’s. This practice was changed when the size of the club became unwieldy and the luncheon meeting was initiated. By 1910, the existing 16 Rotary clubs linked to form the “National Association of Rotary Clubs”. In 1912, the name of the association was changed to the “International Association of Rotary Clubs”. During the same year, the first emblem embodying a gear wheel was adopted. In 1916, a Rotary endowment fund was established which was the forerunner of the Rotary International Foundation. In 1922, the name was changed again to “Rotary International”. In 1923, the present cogwheel (with 6 spokes, 24 cogs and a keyway) was adopted. In 1933, Chicago Rotarian Herbert Taylor formulated the “4-Way Test”. In 1942, at a Rotary conference in London, a vast educational and cultural organization was studied, which eventually resulted in UNESCO. In 1946, a graduate fellowship program was established in memory of Paul Harris. The 4 “Avenues of Service” were established in 1951. 1954 saw a new RI Headquarters building in Chicago. In 1962, ‘Interact ’was established (for youth at the secondary school level. A few years later in 1968, ‘rotoract’ was established (for 18-30 year olds). In 1985, RI established Polio Plus, a 20-year commitment to eradicate polio from the world. Ever since, this has been the highest priority for RI. The goal was to free the world of polio by the year 2005, Rotary’s 100 th anniversary. The present RI HQ building in Evanston, Ill was completed in 1987. A year later, approval was granted to admit qualified women into Rotary. 5 CLUB FORMATION In the early days of Rotary, it was considered unwise to attempt to organize clubs in communities of less than 25,000 people. Growth was slow for the first few years, but eventually the movement took hold on the Pacific Coast quickly resulting in the formation of – San Francisco in 1908, Los Angeles in 1909, Seattle in 1909 (#4), Portland and Tacoma in 1910 and Spokane in 1911. The Seattle Club organized the club in Vancouver in the spring of 1913 and during the same year the Vancouver and Seattle Clubs brought the idea to Victoria. Ernest L. Skeel of Seattle and James Giffen and WO Webster of Vancouver did the ground work. Skeel, a lawyer, went to one of his own profession, Frank Higgins, to promote the idea. Giffen and Webster canvassed the businessmen in Victoria and the idea of Rotary caught on rather quickly. The Club began with a number of informal gatherings in October 1913 of young businessmen who had heard of Rotary and were inclined to go further. Some of these men were Percy Abell, W.R. Dale, R.F. Fitzpatrick, John Hart, Alex Peden, W.P. Sweeney and, of course, Frank Higgins. It is noted that the Vancouver Club (#61) was chartered in March of 1913 and the Victoria Club was formed later in the same year as Club #90. The inaugural dinner was held at the Empress Hotel on November 15, 1913 with 41 charter members and 14 visitors (9 from Vancouver and 5 from Seattle). This date was considered as that of the formation of the Club. The dinner cost was $2.50 which included a 6-course meal and cigars. The average age was 37 and they were all on their toes to make Rotary work without the burden of a battalion of older members to keep them in their place. The Charter arrived from Chicago in due course dated January 1, 1914. Frank Higgins was elected as President. According to custom, the first president was re-elected for a second year, so Frank was president during the year s1914-15. Captain Thomas J. (Cappy) Goodlake was elected Secretary, a position he held for 20 years. Cappy was undoubtedly the spark plug behind the Club. His patience, excellent judgment and quiet sense of humour were of inestimable value to presidents, as all who served under his stewardship would testify. As might be expected, the major activities during the first year were Rotary education, acquaintance and classification talks by the members. 6 THE CHARTER MEMBERS – NOVEMBER 15, 1913 C.A. Forsythe F. Hall Dr. A.C. Sinclair Captain T.J. Goodlake A.E. Mallett Ajex Peden W. Cathcart P. Richardson David Miller Hugh Kennedy H.C. Lane G.A. Okell A.B. Taylor W.R. Dale S.J. Drake James Hunter Wilfred Hunter R.A. Hutchison Frank Higgins R.F. Fitzpatrick John Hart A.E. Waterman J. Kingham H.P. Johnson A.J. Ratcliffe J. McIntosh J.A. Taylor Jessie M Warren W.H. Wilkerson A.M. Fraser J.O. Cameron T.H. Hayward G.T. McKinnon Percy C. Abel W.M. Allen R.H. Brenchley Claude A. Solly W.H.P. Sweeney 7 CLUB PRESIDENTS Frank Higgins 1913-15 Frank Norton 1962-63 James Hunter 1915-16 D.E. Johaneson 1963-64 Percy Abell 1916-17 R Stark 1964-65 J.D. O’Connell 1917-19 Carron Jameson 1966-67 JF Scott 1919-20 Jack Lort 1967-68 C Denham 1920-21 Don Wagg 1968-69 Lester Patrick 1921-22 George Maycock 1969-70 Percy Scurrah 1922-23 Eric Dowell 1970-71 James Adam 1923-24 Bob Wallace 1971-72 Jim Beatty 1924-25 Nick Corry 1972-73 Bob Mayhew 1925-26 Jack Baines 1974-75 Edward Tomlin 1926-27 David Hambleton 1975-76 James Fletcher 1927-28 Denis Whyte 1977-78 Herbert Anscomb 1928-29 Jack Gregory 1978-79 Alf Carmichael 1929-30 Bill Skinner 1979-80 Montague Bruce 1930-31 Dick Batey 1980-81 Percy Watson 1931-32 Harold Wrinch 1981-82 George McGregor 1932-33 Don Jenson 1982-83 Charles French 1933-34 Jim Linney 1983-84 Morse Hatt 1934-35 Denny Ryan 1984-85 Herbert Pendray 1935-36 Hugh Smith 1986-87 Frank Doherty 1936-37 Jack Matvenko 1987-88 Tom Goodlake 1937-38 David Iles 1989-90 Hamilton Harmon 1938-39 Bob Whyte 1990-91 Walter Lunney 1939-40 Wayne Morson 1991-92 Gerald Yardley 1940-41 Gus de Jardin 1992-93 AC Lindsay 1941-42 Dick Sparks 1993-94 Frank Turley 1942-43 Don MacDonald 1994-95 Jim Little 1943-44 Pat Crofton 1995-96 John Craig 1944-45 Bob Yanow 1996-97 Victor Clarke 1945-46 Norm Bradshaw 1997-98 Len Hobbs 1946-47 Rick Stolle 1998-99 Jeff Arnott 1947-48 John Carrieres 1999-00 Louis Michelin 1948-49 Stu McGowan 2000-01 Walter Fletcher 1949-50 Ken Walton 2001-02 George Duck 1950-51 Allan Neale 2002-03 George Warren 1951-52 Jim Cutt 2003-04 Bill Clarke 1952-53 Sandy Peel 2004-05 John Gough 1953-54 Terry Jones 2005-06 Jack Cruise 1954-55 John MacKenzie 2006-07 Tom Bradbury 1955-56 Terry Toone 2007-08 Verne Davidson 1956-57 Peter Norman 2008-09 8 Reg Wride 1957-58 Keith Walker 2009-10 Maurice Green 1958-59 Carol Livingstone 2011-12 Tom Little 1959-60 Ryan Burles 2011-12 Roy Denny 1960-61 Ros Scott 2012-13 Mac Edmison 1961-62 Murray Ramsbottom 2013-14 PAST DISTRICT GOVERNORS 1926-27 Jim Beatty 1934-35 Percy Scurrah 1947-48 Frank Doherty 1954-55 Jack Cruise 1983-84 Jack Gregory 1990-91 Doug Lewis HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS After a number of meetings in 1913, with principals Frank Higgins of Victoria, Ernest Skeel of Vancouver, and James Giffon and W.O.