The Founder of Rotary
Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, was born in Racine, Wisconsin, USA, on April 19,
1868, but moved at the age of 3 to Wallingford, Vermont, to be raised by his
grandparents. In the foreword to his autobiography My Road to Rotary, he credits the
friendliness and tolerance he found in Vermont as his inspiration for the creation of
Rotary.
Trained as a lawyer, Paul gave himself five years after his graduation from law school in
1891 to see as much of the world as possible before settling down and hanging out his
shingle. During that time, he traveled 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 as a traveling salesman for a granite company, covering both
the U.S. and Europe.
Remaining true to his five-year plan, he settled in Chicago in 1896, and it was there on
the evening of February 23, 1905, that he met with three friends to discuss his idea for a
businessmen's club. This is commonly regarded as the first Rotary club meeting. Over
the next five years, the movement spread as Rotary clubs were formed in other U.S. cities.
When the National Association of Rotary Clubs held its first convention in 1910, Paul was
elected president.
After his term, and as the organization's only president-emeritus, Paul continued to
travel extensively, promoting the spread of Rotary both in the USA and abroad. A prolific
writer, Paul wrote several books about the early days of the organization and the role he
was privileged to play in it. These include The Founder of Rotary, This Rotarian Age and
the autobiographical My Road to Rotary. He also wrote several volumes of Perigrinations
detailing his many travels. He died in Chicago on January 27, 1947.