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GEORGE R. MEANS
General Secretary George Means placing a wreath at the grave of Rotary Founder Paul Harris at Mount Hope Cemetery (From Walsh's "The First Rotarian")
Bloomington native George Means '30 graduated from Illinois State Normal University (ISNU) with a bachelor's degree in geography and a master's in geography from Clark University.
He was a self-employed mapmaker and served as a cartographer in World War II, reaching the rank of commander.
Hired by Rotary International in 1935, he served in several capacities and in 1953, was elected general secretary, becoming only the third top professional officer in the Rotary's history.
George guided Rotary to tremendous growth both nationally and abroad, including a triumphant return to Japan in 1949, a decade after the country had severed ties with the organization.

Martha Means also worked for Rotary International, which is where she met her spouse.
She was active in every community they lived in, including Greenwood, Indiana where they lived with George's sister Margaret Means after they retired.
Margaret coincidentally taught Peter Whitmer, a former gift office in the Illinois State Development Office who worked with the Means as they considered a gift to the University. br>
Whitmer recalls that while he believed the Means' intention was always to choose Illinois State, they wanted to ensure the funds would be allocated to a worthy cause.
In addition, they also established three geography funds and one scholarship in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at Illinois State.
Former College of Business Dean Dixie Mills and Robert Corbett, former chair of the Geography-Geology Department, also had a wonderful relationship with the Means.
"(The Means) looked forward to seeing us, and we felt the same way." said Whitmer.

As a witness to their giving nature, Charles Koehler, longtime advisor, confidant, and executor of their estate, recalls his friends and clients fondly.
"They were very humble people. They wanted to use the bounty of their good fortune to give others an opportunity."

The George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies was established through a planned gift of the late George and Martha Means.
The goal of the new center is twofold: to enhance academic and business experiences for students and to serve as a research and consulting resource for local businesses.

The Means celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000, just weeks before George's passing. Martha passed away in 2008. They were each 93.

The following obituary extracted from the Chicago Tribune, 3 September 2000.
 George R. Means, 93, a mapmaker who traveled the world and served as the general secretary for Rotary International for almost two decades, died Wednesday, Aug. 30, at Greenwood Village South Pavilion in Greenwood, Ind., of cancer.
Mr. Means opened a cartography studio after attending Illinois State University and Clark University in Worcester, Mass. During World War II, he served as a commander in the Navy, where he was involved in making military maps, such as target maps and photographic maps.
His wife, Martha, said the detailed work that mapmaking required appealed to her husband. "He was a very precise person," she said.
"He liked doing things that required skill, doing things correctly."

For 37 years, Mr. Means worked for Rotary International, which employed him until he retired in 1972.
The job led him to travel across the world as an ambassador of Rotary, promoting its humanitarian projects in foreign countries.
He also served for a time as the head of Rotary's Middle Asia office in Bombay, India.
For his work in international relations, he won honors from many governments, such as the Chilean Order of Merit, the French Legion of Honor, the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.

"He believed in the outreach of Rotary very much," his wife said.
In 1972, the Geographic Society of Chicago recognized him with its distinguished service award.
acknowledgements to George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and to the Chicago Tribune
researched and posted by RGHF webmaster Greg Barlow, Malaysia. November 2011.
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