HISTORY OF ROTARY’S WEST COAST DISTRICT: 5150

Organizations of all kinds flourish and grow in proportion to the dedication and strength of their membership and their leaders. The growth and strength of Rotary International reflects the service given by its members within their districts over the years.

Our West Coast District 5150 has been given different numbers over the years. But its record of achievement within the geographical area designated by Rotary International has been matched by only a handful of Rotary districts over the years.

From the beginning of the first Rotary Club in Chicago, until 1915, there were no Rotary Districts. Clubs acted independently and came together in exchanges between clubs that were geographically close in proximity, and at national meetings organized by Paul Harris and Ches Perry of the Chicago club.

H. J. “Bru” Brunnier was President of the Rotary Club of San Francisco in 1914. He is recognized as the originator of the district idea in Rotary. His idea came about during a regional fellowship gathering at a six-city meeting in Tacoma, Washington. Returning by train from Seattle following the conference, Bru awakened in the middle of the night with his idea. He summoned a porter to bring him a railroad schedule of the United States, which also included a map of the USA. Bru’s involvement in Rotary provided him with knowledge of the location of most of the 100 clubs in Rotary at that time. He placed them on the railroad schedule map with dots to show their location. He then combined the clubs on the basis of rail transportation and arrived at 13 groupings. His map and his idea formed the basis upon which Rotary leaders adopted the district plan at the Rotary Convention of 1915 in San Francisco.

In 1918, due to the tremendous growth of clubs in Rotary, Bru was again asked to assist in placing Rotary clubs in new districts. Called upon for a third time in 1923, Bru worked with a redistricting committee to redistribute clubs within districts. The committee needed to consider the explosive growth that was continuing in Rotary due to the chartering of new clubs all over the country and the world. Following 1923, Bru excused himself from further involvement in redistricting clubs, since there was much “trauma” in moving clubs to new districts because of geographical necessities.

Even today, redistricting becomes necessary as Rotary’s growth throughout the world continues to add new clubs to its rolls. Redistricting is also inevitable when certain areas in Rotary continue to grow rapidly and others lose clubs and members. Redistricting is an unhappy event in Rotary, as personal friendships, made over years of district gatherings, are interrupted when clubs are assigned to new districts.

District 5150 has been involved in many changes in its geographical makeup. This is not surprising when one considers that from the 100 clubs in 1915, Rotary has grown to over 32,500 clubs and over 530 Districts in 2007. How District 5150 grew in importance to Rotary, while actually losing more than 90% of its geographical territory is an interesting story.
District 13: 1915-1918

District 13 came into existence in 1915 with H. J. “Bru” Brunnier of San Francisco as its first District Governor. Bru’s territory was the largest territory in our history. Bru was responsible for clubs within the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, as well as for the territory of Hawaii. Most of the clubs in existence at the time were in California. Bru traveled to every state in the District, recruiting new clubs as he went. Following Bru’s year as District Governor, Homer W. Sumption of San Diego (1916-17) and Dr. Dewey R. Powell of Stockton (1917-18) led the district as DGs.

District 23: 1918-1922

In the redistricting of 1918, our District’s geographical area remained the same.

Clinton E. Miller of Los Angeles served as the first governor of the newly renumbered District in 1918-19. He was followed by Alex Sheriffs of San Jose in 1919-20, Leslie S. Everts of San Diego in 1920-21, and Charles B. Bills of Sacramento in 1921-22.

District 2: 1922-1937

As a result of the third redistricting effort by Rotary, our District lost territory and was given a new number. District 2’s territory became the States of Nevada, California, and the territory of Hawaii.

This was the period of time that included WWI, the flapper age, and the depression years. Much good happened over this period of time with many new clubs being formed during the early years, and the District maintaining its numbers throughout the depression years. By the middle of 1937, District 2 included 170 clubs within its territory, and almost 8,500 members. Division of our large District became inevitable.

Our District Governors who led us during a time of tremendous growth and into the depression years, are: John R. Williams of Long Beach in 1922-23, Paul Rieger of San Francisco in 1923-24, Harry S. Mason of Los Angeles in 1924-25, Thomas B. Bridges of Oakland in 1925-26, Fred McClung of Huntington Park in 1926-27, Almon E. Roth of Palo Alto in 1927-28, Herbert E. Harris of Whittier in 1928-29, Harvey B. Lyon of Oakland in 1929-30, Arthur S. Crites of Bakersfield in 1930-31, David J. Reese of Bakersfield in 1931-32, Charles D. Hayward of Berkeley in 1932-33, Edward B. DeGroot of LA in 1933-34, Herbert K. Walton of San Rafael in 1934-35, George W. MacLellan of Santa Barbara in 1935-36, and Marshall DeMott of Corning in 1936-37.

During this period of time, Almon E. Roth [now in the RC of San Francisco] became Rotary’s Second Vice President in 1929-30; and in 1930-31 Almon E. Roth became President of Rotary International. In 1931-32 Almon E. Roth continued to serve on Rotary International’s Board of Directors.

District 104: 1937-1949

Following an extensive study of new district territories, our formerly very large District was divided into five new ones. These five districts were in California and Nevada. The shrinking of our geographical territory meant that District 104 included only 30 clubs in 1937. Over the next twelve years, District 104 [from Hollister on the south, to Arcata on the north, including 10 counties of the Coast of Northern California] grew to 43 clubs.

Our leaders led District 104 from peacetime to war and back again into peacetime. They were Charles L. Wheeler of San Francisco in 1937-38, Floyd A. Parton of San Jose in 1938-39, Russell O’Hara of Vallejo in 1939-40, Harry A. Mitchell of San Francisco in 1940-41, Roy N. Dreiman of Santa Cruz in 1941-42, Frank J. Brennan of Eureka in 1942-43, J. Percy Robinson and Melvin Hitchcock of San Mateo in 1943-44, Prentiss A. Rove of San Francisco in 1944-45, Joseph L. Gabriel of Hollister in 1945-46, Clarence C. Price of Vallejo in 1946-67, Frank E. Allen of Burlingame in 1947-48, and Harold D. Bostock of Santa Rosa in 1948-49.

District 155: 1949-1957

Renumbering our District in 1949 did not change our territorial limits. Our District continued to include the Northern California counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Sonoma, Napa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and the Rotary Club of Vallejo. Continued chartering of new clubs in the District throughout this period enlarged our District to 51 clubs.

We were led during this period by Herbert S. Shuey of San Francisco in 1949-50, William E. Williams of San Jose in 1950-51, Bernard J. Bush of Garberville in 1951-52, William Otis Callaway of Burlingame in 1952-53, Wallace S. Myers of San Anselmo in 1953-54, G.P. Bacon of Santa Cruz in 1954-55, E. W. Stephens of San Francisco in 1955-56, and George P. Chaffey of Vallejo in 1956-57.

District 513: 1957-1970

No changes in the territory of the District were made when the District number was changed to 513. During this thirteen-year period, the District grew by three clubs, but new member growth within the clubs took the District membership to over 4,000. Our leaders during this period included Monroe E. Brown of Burlingame in 1957-58, Lloyd Hayes of Sebastopol in 1958-59, Dr. Walter J. Hamilton of San Carlos in 1959-60, Francis Whitmer of San Francisco and Dr. Walter J. Hamilton of San Carlos in 1960-61, Norman LeLaittre of Cloverdale in 1961-62, Percival M. Bliss of West San Jose in 1962-63, Harold E. Tucker of Garberville in 1963-64, Stanley McCaffrey of San Francisco in 1964-65, George Starbird of San Jose in 1965-66, Stanley L. Lance of Santa Rosa in 1966-67, Jack B. Power of Palo Alto in 1967-68, Robert E. Barwick of Napa in 1968-69, and Harold Graves of Mill Valley in 1969-70.

District 513: 1970-1989

Once again redistricting reduced the size of our District, although the District 513 number did not change. The counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and San Benito were placed into another district, as was the Rotary Club of Vallejo. Thus, District 513 now contained the nine counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. This left the District with 42 clubs and 3,239 members to start the new decade of the 1970’s.

District 513 remained in this configuration for the next 19 years. Tremendous growth occurred during this time, bringing the total clubs in the District to 67 and a membership of 4,784. Our leadership included Ray Winther of So. San Francisco in 1970-71, Charlie Strope of Eureka in 1971-72, Alfred D. Quilici of San Rafael in 1972-73, John K. Withers of West Santa Rosa in 1973-74, Robert C. Glidden of So. San Francisco in 1974-75, William A. Jamieson of Fortuna in 1975-76, George P Newlon of San Mateo in 1976-77, Arthur W. Agnew of Petaluma in 1977-78, Robert J. Paroli of Menlo Park in 1978-79, Harry C. Empey of Santa Rosa in 1979-80, Reuben W. Kaehler of Novato in 1980-81, Robert R. Rockwell of San Francisco in 1981-82, Richard D. Keith of West Santa Rosa in 1982-83, Clifton C. McGarr of San Rafael in 1983-84, Larry D. Myers of South Ukiah in 1984-85, Norman Lawrence of Ignacio in 1985-86, Sidney Berlin of Redwood City in 1986-87, Aldo Simonetti of Burlingame in 1987-88, and Robert V. Kane of Tiburon-Belvedere in 1988-89.

District 515: 1989-1991 and District 5150: 1991-date

The growth of District 513 once again created an inevitable redistricting for our District. This time, redistricting meant that a new District was created and District 515 became our District. It is the smallest territory we have ever had, containing only Marin, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties. We initially started with 31 clubs, and under 2,300 Rotarians. Only two governors led District 515, as in 1991 Rotary International decided to add a ”zero” to each district’s number. In 1991, our District became District 5150, and has remained so ever since. In the almost 20 years of our smaller geographic District, we have added eight new clubs for a total of 39. Membership as of 2007 is over 2,000.

Our leaders during the past 20 years include William B. Sturgeon of San Francisco #2 in 1989-90, William Conklin of Redwood City in 1990-91, Dale W. Luehring of Mill Valley in 1991-92, Thomas G. Bormes of San Mateo in 1992-93, Charles C. Swensen of Ross Valley in 1993-94, Jon B. Grant of Foster City in 1994-95, Tony DeAngelis of Millbrae in 1995-96, Lou Bartolini of San Rafael in 1996-97, Dave Cresson of Half Moon Bay in 1997-98, Mary Janney of Burlingame in 1998-99, Michael Fish of Ignacio in 1999-00, “EZ” Eric Zorr of Mission San Rafael in 2000-01, Peter C. Lagarias of San Francisco #2 in 2001-02, Greg Molloy of Terra Linda in 2002-03, Fred West of Belmont in 2003-04, Eric Shapira of Half Moon Bay in 2004-05, Holly Axtell of Marin Evening in 2005-06, Mark Flegel of Menlo Park in 2006-07, Brian McLeran of Terra Linda in 2007-08, Russ Ketron of Novato in 2008-09, and Riki Intner of San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf in 2009-10.
 

Provided 20 August 2007 by RGHF member PDG Bill Sturgeon