Tracing the roots of Rotaract What ever happened to the club of '68?

In 1968 the United States was bubbling over with the energy of change. Apollo 8 rocketed toward the moon, protesters screamed for an end to the Vietnam War, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. sparked riots in cities across the nation.

In this revolutionary climate, several entrepreneurial college students sought to establish a new club at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, N.C., USA. Their drive sparked the creation of the club that became Rotaract.

Today, Rotaract, Rotary International's service club program for young adults ages 18-30, has grown to more than 186,000 members in about 8,100 clubs in nearly 140 countries.

Although Rotaractors everywhere have continued traditions started by the UNCC club's 21 founding members, little is known about the founders. So we tracked down several of them to ask about their lives today and their memories of the club.

Rotarians have known for a long time that Rotaract builds leaders, and the pioneer members we spoke to thrived because of their entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and drive — hallmark traits of Rotaractors past and present.

Bill Baumgardner

Then: Club president, 1967-68

Now: Successful entrepreneur and race-car owner

Bill Baumgardner was a freshman at UNCC when he and his buddy Dick Helms brought their proposal for a college-level Rotary program to the Rotary Club of Charlotte-North.

"At that time, we wanted to help in the growth of the college and continue the tradition of Rotary," says Baumgardner, who had been part of an Interact club in high school. "So we thought maybe we could get a Rotary club to sponsor a college version of Interact at UNCC."

The time was right for new ideas. When Baumgardner enrolled at UNCC the campus was just getting established. Dorms were under construction, and barely 1,800 students commuted to the campus each day.

The idea of extending Rotary to college-aged youths struck a chord with Charlie Grier, a member of the Rotary Club of Charlotte-North.

"We met at Grier's house one night with several Rotarians and they said we had an interesting concept," recalls Baumgardner. Grier contacted the university president as well as the dean of students to get permission to promote a club similar to Interact, sponsored by Charlotte-North Rotarians.

"It just snowballed from there," says Baumgardner. "We got it through the board at UNCC, and I was president when Rotary gave us our official charter." Baumgardner still keeps a plaque from Rotary, thanking him for serving as president of the club, in his office.

"I have a glass cabinet and a wall with mementos from various parts of the world," he says. "That Rotary plaque is right there with everything that's meant something to me."

After his days in Rotaract, Baumgardner went on to own a small accounting firm. He later created StaffAmerica, an offsite human resources company that takes care of staffing and accounting needs for companies. "In the beginning, it was just me and a part-time secretary," says Baumgardner. "But it grew from a start-up to almost a billion-dollar company."

Baumgardner sold StaffAmerica in 2003 and says he's been retired ever since, though he is considering starting another company.

Baumgardner's other business venture, the BACE Motorsports race team, is still going full speed ahead. The team competes in the NASCAR Busch Grand National series, and has won three national championships.

"We have more exciting plans for BACE Motorsports," says Baumgardner. "But I can't reveal those yet."

John Lafferty

Then: Club treasurer, 1967-68

Now: Lawyer and Rotarian

John Lafferty, the treasurer of the UNCC club in 1967-68, stayed close to home after his days in Rotaract. After finishing at UNCC, Lafferty earned a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to open his own law practice in Lincolnton, N.C., just west of Charlotte. After moving to Lincolnton, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined a Rotary club.

You could say that appreciating his roots runs in his blood. "My dad was a radiologist, and my mother was pregnant with me while he was doing a residency at the University of Pennsylvania," says Lafferty. "When she was ready to deliver, my mother got on a train by herself to have her baby in North Carolina so her kids weren't born Yankees," he says, chuckling.

Lincolnton, a town of about 10,000, is where Lafferty and his wife, Peggy, have lived for the majority of their 36-year marriage. It is the town where they raised their two daughters, and where Lafferty found his way back to Rotary.

"Rotary's just the club to be in here in Lincoln County," he says. "As a past district governor said, 'This is the club where the movers and shakers in this community are.' "

As an attorney in private practice for 20 years, Lafferty has taken on everything from traffic tickets to murder cases. "But the bulk of my practice is real estate work," he says, explaining that his legal experience came in handy when the Rotary Club of Lincolnton took on its centennial project: building a home for a needy family in cooperation with the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity International.

"I told my club, 'Well, I can't build, but I can do the legal work!' " says Lafferty.

This wasn't the first time Lafferty had to explain his deficiency as a handyman to Rotary. His Rotaract club's first project involved building a float for the annual Christmas Carousel Parade in Charlotte. "We didn't know the first thing about how to build a float – and I wasn't much help – but I do remember stuffing paper into the chicken wire!" he says.

The float concept was a '49ers gold rush theme that evolved from the idea that UNCC was located on Highway 49, and their mascot was the '49er. With a bit of beginner's luck, the float came together and featured a papier-mâché mountain and real running water so the club members could pan for gold candy nuggets.

The Rotaractors were shocked when the float took first place, but happy to gain recognition for the new university and their new club.

Lafferty also remembers planting an oak tree near UNCC's student union to signify the establishment of their club as the first to get its charter. It became a tradition to plant a tree on campus each time another country got its first Rotaract club.

In 1969, Lafferty gave a speech to the Rotaract club and several Rotarians from the Charlotte-North club summarizing Rotaract's short history. "This is where Rotaract came from," he said. "I am not sure where we are now, but I do know that it is only a step for the future, the club's and our own. We, both as college students and as neophytes struggling with the motto Service Above Self, are looking, trying to find better answers. What finer framework could we have [for that] than Rotaract?"

Dick Helms

Then: Club president, 1966-67

Now: Sales representative and father of four

After Dick Helms received his diploma from UNCC, Uncle Sam congratulated him with a draft notice to fight in the Vietnam War.

"I was lucky to be able to get into an Army Reserve unit," says Helms. "I was on active duty for six months, training in Fort Jackson, S.C., and Fort Dix, N.J. Then I came back to my unit as a drill sergeant and spent six years doing that while working."

Helms worked for a company that manufactured equipment to produce synthetic fibers for six years until he took a sales job at Deublin, another manufacturing firm.

He still lives in Charlotte and has been married to his high school sweetheart, Linda, for 30 years. They have three daughters and a son. All have remained close to home, except for one daughter who teaches English in Ecuador.

Helms presided over the UNCC club in 1966-67, before Rotary officially recognized it as a Rotaract club. He says that after Rotaract was established at UNCC, he met with several students at nearby Gaston College and helped them set up their own club.

Though he's lost touch with many of the original Rotaractors, Helms does occasionally see Baumgardner and has kept abreast of his race-car pursuits. The two former Rotaractors also remembered the trouble they faced completing the float in the Christmas Carousel Parade.

"I remember that project best because we had to overcome some problems that we didn't think we'd be able to overcome," says Helms, noting the group's difficulty locating a flatbed truck and figuring out how to build a papier-mâché mountain.

But Rotarian Bill Kemp, who advised the group along with fellow Charlotte-North Rotarian Charlie Grier, had faith in the young men from the very beginning.

"They were fine young men and very conscientious and sincere in trying to help others," Kemp recalls. He has since moved to Georgia and joined the Rotary Club of Augusta.

Dean Colvard, who served as chancellor of the university in 1968, is proud that UNCC was the home of the first chartered Rotaract club. "We were looking for ways to let the students and young faculty exercise their leadership in a positive way," he says. "And Rotary allows that."

Colvard should know. Even in his 90s, he too is a member of the Rotary Club of Charlotte.

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By Vanessa N. Glavinskas
The Rotarian, March 2006