Rotary's First Hundred Years
An Inspiring Record
"Our first hundred years will
stand as an inspiring record of men and women of all races,
religions, nationalities and political creeds who have made
significant contributions to creating a more peaceful
world," he said. "It will be your privilege to lead
Rotarians into our next century — a century in which we will
Lend a Hand and Celebrate Rotary with even
greater fellowship and countless acts of service."
“On a cold February
evening nearly 100 years ago, four men gathered in a
Chicago mining engineer’s office. Paul Harris, Sylvester
Schiele, Gustavus Loehr and Hiram Shorey didn’t think
that one century later 31,000 clubs in 166 countries
would be meeting every week. And they certainly didn’t
think that they were launching a movement that would
capture the hearts and minds of so many. They only knew
that they needed more friends in their lives and they
took a simple action toward that goal.
We are now approaching
the 100th anniversary of their action -- a
simple meeting between four businessmen. And when we
celebrate all of the wonderful things that have happened
as a result of that action, I will ask all Rotarians to
join me as we embrace our theme in 2004-05 and CELEBRATE
ROTARY.”
Glenn Estess Sr.,
Past Rotary International President 2004-2005
From a Speech given in February 2004
RI Past President Glenn Estess’
speech at the United Nations November 6, 2004
