Paulding Rotary Present Brian Stover called the Rotary meeting for June the 21st to order. This is the last official meeting for Mr. Stover as president. He will be succeeded by Travis Miller as the new Paulding County Rotary Club President-elect. Our special guest today was Miss Presley Stover. Her attendance today with her father was to share with us her school report about Rotary founder Paul Harris.
The Rotary Club started when Paul Harris called together a meeting of three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago in 1905. The members shows the name Rotary because initially they rotated subsequent weekly club meetings to each other's offices. Within a year, however the club became so large that they had to adopt the practice of a regular meeting place.
Born in Racine Wisconsin on April 19, 1868 Paul Harris began a humble life do the hardship of the times. Mr. has went to live with his grandparents in Vermont and ultimately attended University of Vermont and then Princeton University. He studied law at the University of Iowa and received a bachelor's degree in 1891. He became a jack of all trades however for the next five years as he worked various jobs.
Harris began his law practice in 1896 in Chicago's main business district. He would be active in this practice for the next forty years. After establishing his law practice, Harris began to consider the benefits of formation a social organization for local professionals. In 1905, Harris organized the first Rotary Club "in fellowship and friendship" with three clients and local businessmen, Silvester Schele, Gustavus Loehr, and Hiram Shorey. His initial goal was solely to create a club of professional and business men for friendship and fellowship. Soon, Harris realized that Rotary needed a greater purpose.
The local Rotary Clubs and Rotary International are a service organization whose human rights mission is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to promote humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. The motto of the Rotary club is "Service above Self." The Rotary club is best known for its work in the eradication of polio. Providing water and promoting peace control regions also has been the driving goals by the Rotary international.
In his later life, Harris reduced his involvement in both the Rotary Club and his legal practice, but continued to write. He died on 27 January 1947 At the age of 78. By the time of Harris' death, Rotary International had grown to more than 200,000 members in 75 countries. Primary goal of the Rotary both local and international is to focus on community service projects. The Rotary currently has approximately 1.2 million members worldwide.
Mr. Harris's name lives on, as individuals who contribute more than $1000 to the Annual Program Fund, the Polio Plus Fund or the humanitarian grants program of the Rotary foundation are recognized as Paul Harris Fellows. Additionally, the Paul Harris Society is a special program administered by Rotary districts for those who contribute thousand dollars each year to the Annual Program Fund.

Photo: Miss Presley Stover and father Brian Stover.

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