In his book, From Flood to Fire, John McDowell described the beginning of Rotary in Indianapolis, “The winter of 1913 was harsh in Indiana…by the evening of February 4, when George B. Wray mailed a bundle of letters to more than 100 Indianapolis businessmen, the city was shivering in an 11-below ‘deep freeze.’”

“The letters…touched off a stir of speculation in the city’s growing business community…’not a stock-selling proposition,’ but beyond that, they had no idea of just what Wray and the six other signers of the letter, Gerry M. Sanborn, Albert Worm, Lucien King, G. W. Ilgenfritz, J. F. Gregoire and Charles A. Bookwalter, had up their sleeves.”

With this mysterious beginning, nearly 100 attended the meeting four days later. And, less than a month later, Rotary Club Number 58 was chartered, on March 1, 1913, with King as the charter president of a club of 75. Indianapolis Rotary, was one of the largest Rotary clubs in existence at the time.

After chartering, the club began meeting on Fridays. However, near the end of March, the club decided to change its meeting day to Tuesdays, and the first one would be April 1, 1913. It was never held. Nor was the last Friday meeting, March 28. They were washed out by the “Great Indianapolis Flood.” Club members returned to the meetings determined to build Indianapolis Rotary and rebuild Indianapolis. While unsubstantiated, it has long been believed that the club’s incredible community involvement was founded in the community spirit that erupted during the recovery from that disaster.

The club has long been committed to community service projects such as the Rotary building at Riley Memorial Hospital, the Southwest Social Service Centre, the Junior Achievement headquarters, the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, and the Rotary Greenway Project. Today, with approximately six hundred members and its finger in most civic pies in the city, the club operates multiple projects ranging from support of specific inner city schools to Habitat for Humanity, a model trade fair, and citywide initiatives for nonviolence and area growth.

Since 1913 the Rotary Club of Indianapolis has had the enviable ability to draw the real community business heads, nonprofit executives, and political leaders into its service programs. To provide long-term financial support for its social service projects, the club established the Rotary Foundation of Indianapolis in 1947. The club's "Senior Active" and "Active" lists (until Senior Active memberships were discontinued in 2001) reflect many of the most influential names in Indiana and corporate history, and the accomplishments of the club mirror the growth of the city itself. In fact, when the club celebrated its 50^th Anniversary in 1963, seventeen members had over 45 years of membership.

Doug Rudman

One of the less well known Rotary Clubs and, indeed, one that was never chartered was the ALLIED ROTARY CLUB OF FRANCE. Before he left the United States for Europe in the later days of world war one, Ancil Brown, the secretary of the Indianapolis RC and auditor for the YMCA, was authorized by the Board of the IARC to arrange regular meetings for Rotarians stationed in Paris or its vicinity.

Basis Lewis

 

Senator Richard Lugar, Honorary Rotarian,

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