Historical Notes
Last Update: August 2005
Rotary, a world fellowship of business and professional members who accept the motto “Service above Self” was founded by a young attorney, Paul P. Harris, in 1905. It wasn’t long before clubs sprang up all over the country. Within 10 years, Rotary had gone international and had chartered 200 clubs. When Rotary celebrated its silver anniversary, there were 150,000 Rotarians. In 1955, Rotary International celebrated is golden anniversary in Chicago. There were then 8,776 Rotary Clubs with 414,000 members in 64 countries. Today, Rotary, enjoys a worldwide members of 1,200,000 people, 30,000 clubs, in over 160 countries.
Rotary’s International Convention met in Los Angeles in 1923. This meeting inspired many in the area to take action. Rotarian W. J. Ellery having arrived from Miami to accept a local position with Security Bank, pondered “why not a club in Huntington Beach?” Several men were interested and with he help from the Santa Ana Club, Gus Daly as liaison man and Mac Robbins in charge of operations, the club finally received its charter in July 1923 with 18 members. The first official meeting of record was held in the high school cafeteria on August 3, 1923, with Mac Robbins as speaker, first President Jack Whitney presiding and 12 members in attendance.
Over the years the club has met in the Huntington Beach High School cafeteria, the Golden Bear Club, Sheraton Beach Inn, Seacliff Country Club, Francois’ Restaurant, Huntington Beach Inn, Noelle’s Restaurant, Pepper’s Restaurant, and the Elk’s Lodge on Talbert Ave., where we’ve congregated since 1991, with a short interruption in 2001 at the New Orleans Café.
Rotarians are noted to “sing” ad Wilma Pothoff was our first pianist. Margaret Colvin served as accompanist from 1927 to 1972. Julie Frink has served in that capacity since then, which means she’s, heard us sing “Smile” about 1500 times…
Our 50th anniversary party was held in 1973 when Dale Dunn was president. The highlight of that year was the hypertension screening project for our community. Over 20,000 citizens were tested for high blood pressure in the “Operation Lil’Beep” campaign.
We were blessed with the presidency of Harry Selling during our 75th anniversary and though he may have been “making whoopee” most of the year, our participation in the mentor program with Ocean View Business Academy students reigned paramount.
Over the years members of our club were instrumental in helping establish other Rotary clubs. The Westminster-Midway Club was set up in 1947 when our President J. R. Peterson was in office. The Garden Grove Club was organized under Dr. Phil Sheehan’s presidency in 1951-52. President Art Achy sponsored the North Huntington Beach club in 1964, and more recently, under the guidance of President Don Pankhard in 1983-84, the Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley Sunrise clubs were formed.
The past 10 years have been eventful years for our club. With the advent of women into Rotary came new vigor and fresh ideas. Betty Jones became our first lady president and Carol Kelly and Pat Demars following several years later and Marleen Meyers presiding during the Rotary centennial year. We built a chuck wagon which helped us raise money for the Huntington Beach Library expansion. Our annual auction became more spirited and costly. The Klingensmiths, Frinks, Magdalenos and Nerios continued to host a variety of our functions.
Our club strengthened its ties with Anjo, our sister city in Japan through mutual visits and gift giving. We established a partnership with the Apatzingan, Mexico Rotary Club.
The education of students (high school mentoring, Business Academy awards, Reading by 9) became a prime objective. Seniors and the young handicapped also received our efforts.
Maintaining membership levels became a problem both at the local and district levels. However, the past year has seen a dramatic reversal. Our club’s membership is once again on the rise.
Regrettably, we lost past presidents Ralph Kiser, Dick Nerio and Erik Lundquist.