Brief histories of the
"First 100" Clubs
Rotary
Club of Duluth 25
Rotary
International District 5580
Rotary Became International at the
1912 Rotary Convention in
Duluth
Help support the "First 100 Banners" project of
Duluth 25
http://www.duluthrotary.org/projects/banners/banners.htm
Rotary held its Third Annual
Convention in Duluth in 1912. At that time, the Constitution was revised,
changing the Rotary name from the National Association of Rotary Clubs to
the International Association of Rotary Clubs.
Thus in 1912, Rotary became
international and was comprised of 46 U.S. clubs and clubs in Winnipeg,
Canada; London, England; and Belfast and Dublin, Ireland… 50 clubs in all.
Two members of Rotary Club of
Duluth have served as directors of Rotary International:
| 1911-1913…………Edward J. Filiatrault |
| 1913-1914………………Frank E. Randall |
Duluth Rotarians Helped Design the
Rotary Wheel,
the Emblem of Rotary
The first Rotarians chose a
buggy wheel as their emblem. Within a few years there were as many designs
as there were clubs.
National headquarters invited
clubs to submit a new design. At the
1912 Convention in Duluth the gear
wheel in royal blue and gold was adopted as Rotary’s official emblem. But
even it was to survive for only eight years.
Engineers complained that
wheel was as designed mechanically unsound and could do no work. So a two
man committee, Rotarians Oscar Bjorge and Charles H. Macintosh of Chicago (a
former Duluth Rotarian), was appointed to make the necessary corrections.
Their design was adopted and announced in 1920, and has been used through
the years… with one exception. Because a gear wheel without a keyway is only
an idler incapable of transmitting power to or from a shaft, the keyway was
added in 1923. The power, thus applied, has kept the wheel of Rotary turning
ever since.
See
Rotary's 3rd Convention
Duluth Women's Rotary
Club in 1911
