Paul Harris

Inspired by the simple idea of combining fellowship and service, Paul Harris pioneered the service club movement with the founding of Rotary International. Rotary fulfilled his dream of a worldwide organization of business and professional people serving their communities and promoting international understanding. Rotary continues to expand global horizons through its educational programs and offers hope through its humanitarian efforts and public health campaigns.

"Service above self."

— Paul P. Harris

Born: April 19, 1868 Racine, Wisconsin
Died: January 27, 1947 Chicago, Illinois

In 1905, Paul P. Harris started a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. Today, that "club", known as Rotary International, has 1.2 million members worldwide who lend their time, expertise and resources to vocational programs and community and international service projects. Rotary International runs the world's largest privately funded international scholarship program with approximately 1,300 scholarships awarded annually through its Foundation's Ambassadorial Scholarship Program. Harris' initial idea has grown into a worldwide organization supporting global educational and humanitarian programs for the international understanding of peace. Through its 31,000 clubs across the globe, Rotary International's community development programs address many of today's most critical issues - health, hunger, the environment, and literacy, while promoting high ethical standards in the workplace and helping both young and old to be productive members of society.

Today, the largest Rotary program is "PolioPlus", an initiative that has made great strides toward its goal of eradicating polio throughout the world. Rotary is working with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, supplying funding for vaccine purchases and manpower for polio immunization campaigns in polio-endemic counties. Rotary's crusade is the largest and most successful public health campaign ever undertaken by a volunteer group.

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, on April 19, 1868, Harris was the second of six children of George N. Harris and Cornelia Bryan Harris. At age three he moved to Wallingford, Vermont, where he grew up in the care of his paternal grandparents. Harris later credited the friendliness and tolerance he found in Vermont as his inspiration for the creation of Rotary.

After his graduation from law school in 1891, Harris did not immediately begin practicing law. Instead, he spent the next five years traveling widely, supporting himself with a great variety of jobs. He worked as a reporter in San Francisco, a teacher at a business college in Los Angeles, a cowboy in Colorado, a desk clerk in Jacksonville, Florida, a tender of cattle on a freighter to England, and a traveling salesman for a granite company, covering both the U.S. and Europe.

Harris settled in Chicago in 1896 and began to practice law. In 1900, after dinner with a lawyer in a residential section of Chicago, Harris was impressed by the fact that his friend stopped at several stores and shops in the neighborhood and introduced him to the proprietors, who were his friends. This experience caused Harris to wonder why he could not make social friends out of at least some of his law clients; he resolved to organize a club which would band together a group of representative business and professional men in friendship and fellowship.

On February 23, 1905, Paul Harris formed the first club with three of his law clients - Silvester Schiele, a coal merchant, Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer, and Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor. Because the groups meeting locations rotated from one member's place of business to the next, Harris christened his new club "Rotary."

As the club's agenda progressed, a sense of responsibility grew within Harris - Rotary must go forward, and it must have something substantial to offer. When Harris became president of Rotary in the third year he had a number of distinct ambitions - first, to advance the growth of the Chicago club; second, to extend the movement to other cities; third, to add community service to the club's objectives.

The second Rotary club was founded in San Francisco in 1908. In August 1910, when there were 16 clubs, the National Association of Rotary Clubs was organized. By 1921, the organization was represented on every continent, and in 1922, they adopted the name Rotary International.

The spirit of the early days of Rotary has frequently been described as one of friendship and fellowship. One of Harris' greatest pleasures was entertaining loyal and devoted Rotarians from around the globe. As Harris said, "The best thing in life has been the enjoyment of friendships. How ridiculous to assume that friendship can be confined by national boundary lines, religious faiths or political affiliations; friendship is not anemic; it over-rides such considerations; it is one thing of which there can never be too much; it is the ever faithful hand maiden of happiness, and it broadens and sweetens life."

That spirit of friendship and service evolved into a focus of promoting goodwill and peace in the world. In a later year, Harris explained, "Rotarians respect each other's opinions and are tolerant and friendly at all times. Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, Jews, and Buddhists break bread together at Rotary." A statement adopted by Rotary International in 1933 recognized that activities and customs that are legal and accepted in some countries may seem strange and contrary to the accepted standards in other countries. It urged tolerance of such differences in these words: "Rotarians in all countries should recognize these differences, and there should be thoughtful avoidance of criticism of the laws and customs of one country by the Rotarians of another country."

Paul Harris served as the first president of both the National and International Associations of Rotary Clubs. He spent much of his life traveling the world as a Rotary Club ambassador and promoter. He further promoted Rotary by writing a number of books about the organization and his experiences as a Rotarian.

While Harris continued to devote much of his time to Rotary, he extended the ideals of Rotary into his own civic and professional work. He was the first chairman of the board of the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults in the USA and the International Society of Crippled Children. He was a member of the board of managers of the Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association's representative at the International Congress of Law at the Hague, and a committee member of the American Bar Association.

Paul Harris' dream, the Rotary Club, has continued to grow and expand over the years. The burgeoning movement in Asia, and the over 220 clubs in Eastern Europe, are extending Paul Harris' ideals of friendship, community service, education and peace across the world.

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