THE FOUNDER OF ROTARY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 5

THE FOUNDER OF ROTARY

* Mr Paul Harris Here To-morrow arrangements made for reception

Mr Paul P. Harris, of Chicago, founder and president emeritus of Rotary International, will arrive iu Cluis - church to-morrow morning to meet Rotarians in this city. He will be accompanied by the District Governor of Rotary in New Zealand, Mr J. M. A. Ilott, and he will be welcomed at the Lyttelton wharf on his arrival by the president of the Christchurch Club, Mr Denys Hoare, and by members of the club. At 11 a.m. Mr Harris will be given a civic reception at thvCouncil Chambers, and at 12.30 p.m. he will be entertained at luncheon. He and Mr Ilott will leave for Dunedin on Wednesday morning. Rotarians have been looking forward to meeting Mr Karris as it will give them a rare opportunity of coming in contact with the founder of their world-wide organisation. Mr Harris is visiting the Dominion after attending the all-Australia Rotary Conference and the Pacific Hol.aiy Conference at Manila, in the Philippine Islands. He was expected to arrive at Wellington to-day from Sydncy, and lie w<is to bo cntci u"iinoci there bv members of the Wellington, Blenheim, Nelson, and Masterton Rotary Clubs. He will leave for the South Island this evening, and after visiting Christchurch he will spend Easter at Dunedin. Mr Harris will return to the North Island without breaking his journey, and he hopes to be back in the United States some time in May.

A Varied Career Mr Harris has had a varied career, having been a reporter, cowboy, orange picker, and marble and granite dealer, besides making the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean twice on cattle chips. These pursuits have been followed in an endeavour to know his fellow-men, and Hie experience gained in travelling round the world for a period of five years had more than a small bearing on the birth of Rotarv which, from a small begmmn:', rapidly became a world-wide movement. Born at. Racine, Wisconsin, on April 1!), 186S, he was educated in the public schools and academies m Vermont, the University of Vermont and Princeton University. He tool; his law course at the University of lowa, graduated in 1391, and was admitted to the practice of law in lowa the same year. He received his Illinois license as an attorney and counsellor at law in 1806. and since then he has been engaged continuously in the practice of his profession in Chicago. On Juiy 2, 1910, he married Miss Jean Thompson. a native of Edinburgh. Five Year:; of Travel After completing his law course in 1891, he spent the next five years in seeing the world and learning to know his fellows by actual ' contact with them under all sorts of conditions. He worked as a reporter on daily newspapers in San Francisco and Denver, rode the range in the cow country, picked oranges in southern Louisiana, sold marble and granite, crossed the Atlantic twice on cattle ships, and made a third trip to Europe on business. In 1396 he felt he had gamed sufficient practical knowledge to be of service to his clients and opened a law office in Chicago. He had neither friends nor relatives in Chicago. His first years as a lawyer were marked by the discouragements and struggles which are typical of beginners in his profession. He had much time for reflection and pondered much on conditions of life and business in a large city. In 1905, through his study and reflections, Mr Harris had formulated a definite philosophy of business relations. Rotary International Founded ' Calling together three of his friends, each of whom was engaged in a different line of business, he expounded his theory to them. This group was the nucleus of the Rotary Club of Chicago. Through the propaganda of Mr Harris, this novel organisation soon had counterparts in other cities in the United States. In this extension _ work the acquaintances Paul Harris had made in the five years that he knocked round the country were of material assistance to him in the establishment of new clubs. After a few years the necessity for some organisation to bind these different clubs together became apparent. Thereupon Paul Harris, Chesley R. Perry, and others, organised the National Association of Rotary Clubs in America in 1910. Later, through the extension of the movement into Canada and Great Britain, the International Association of Rotary Clubs was formed. This later was renamed Rotary International. Mr Harris was third president of the Rotary Club of Chicago, the first president of the National Association, and the first president of the International Association of Rotary Clubs, and is presidentemeritus of Rotary International.