1900
Paul Percy Harris
“The Rotary Seed is Planted.”
The founder of the organization to be known as Rotary International
was Paul Percy Harris. He was born of humble beginnings on April 9, 1868
in Racine, Wisconsin.
Paul spent most of his childhood with his grandparents in Wallingford,
Vermont and was educated at Vermont Military Academy, The University of
Vermont, and eventually at prestigious Princeton University. He began law school
in 1889 at the University of Iowa in Des Moines, where he earned his law
degree in 1891 and was the keynote speaker of his graduating class. Thus began
one of he most exciting and transforming periods in Paul Harris’s life.
By 1896 Paul was settled in Chicago where he practiced law and was a
member of the Chicago Association of Commerce. He was adversely affected by
the commercial exploitation, social unrest and political corruption that
characterized the business and political melting pot of Chicago in the early
1900’s (and beyond).
In the autumn of 1900 Paul was invited to dinner by attorney Robert
Frank. After the dinner they strolled through Rogers Park, a Chicago
neighborhood, where they stopped and spoke with store and shop owners. The
friendliness and trust of the owners and proprietors
differed
from
the
indifference and, at times, rudeness of the downtown community leaders.
This was the oasis from which came the first seed of Paul's idea for a social and
business organization where strangers could bond together in commerce and
friendship. On that day in 1900, the first seed was planted for the birth of the
organization that would be known as Rotary.