The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. |
Rotary Milestones more>>> |
| 1905 |
First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| 1908 |
Second club formed in San Francisco, California, USA |
| 1910 |
First Rotary convention held in Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| 1912 |
The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.) |
| 1917 |
Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established |
| A Brief History of the Rotary Club of Laguna Phuket more>>> |
It was sheer serendipity – a chance meeting between two people at a social gathering – that led to the birth of the Rotary Club of Laguna Phuket.
The two people were Jan Verduyn, General Manager of Dusit Laguna Resort and Hari Bedi, a former oil company executive and a resident of Laguna Homes. They had hardly met when they discovered their mutual desire to start a Rotary club in Laguna. |
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