ROTARY CLUB OF WINNIPEG HISTORIC PLAQUE UNVEILED

Mounted on the very building where the first Rotary Club meeting outside of the United States was held, Winnipeg Club President Richard Whidden (left and below left) and District 5550 Governor Rick Felstead (right and below right) unveiled a plaque commemorating that event and the names of the five “Rotarians” who formed the club on November 3, 1910. As well, recognized on the plaque, is former Winnipeg Rotarian, Rev. Dr. Leslie Pidgeon, who was the first non-American Rotary International President in 1917-1918.

The plaque is located on a building on the southeast corner of Portage Avenue and Smith Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  At the time it was the Y.M.C.A. Building and is now designated as an “historic building” by the City of Winnipeg.

The organizer of the Rotary Club in Winnipeg, and, arguably the “father” of Rotary International, was a little known Canadian named P.A.C. (Pac) McIntyre.  In the summer of 1910, “Pac” was returning from a business convention in Detroit and stopped in Chicago to visit his cousin, Rotarian Will Lander.  Will arranged a luncheon with Paul Harris and Chesley Perry and “Pac”.  After lunch, Paul Harris and “Pac” went back to the former's office where “Pac” was given some literature about Rotary.  Reportedly, he came back to Winnipeg “just filled with Rotary”.  Because he was not very familiar with the City, “Pac” did as Paul Harris had done at the start, by enlarging his circle of friends through forming a Rotary Club.  This occurred on  Nov 3, 1910 when the Rotary Club of Winnipeg  became the 17th Rotary Club in the world.  A set of By-Laws obtained from the Rotary Club of Boston were modified and adopted on Nov. 15, 1910.

At a meeting on Dec. 7, 1910, in a letter from Ches Perry, the Secretary of the National Association of Rotary Clubs, he stated “It is evident that this will now have to be the International Association (of Rotary Clubs)”.  At the Oct. 11, 1911 Club meeting one dollar was collected from each member as the fee for the National Association of Rotary Clubs.  On April 13, 1912, Paul Harris signed the Charter naming Winnipeg as the 35^th Rotary Club.

On Feb. 2, 1914, the Lieutenant Governor of Province of Manitoba signed into law “An Act to incorporate The Rotary Club of Winnipeg”. This Act is still in effect.

At the third Annual Rotary Conference held in Duluth, Minnesota in Aug 1912, Winnipeg Rotary Club President W. J. Club moved that the “name of  the organization be changed from the “National Association of Rotary Clubs” to the “International  Association of Rotary Clubs”.  The motion was carried and was called that until 1921 when it was again changed to “Rotary International”.

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Contact – PDG Cam King, 130 Laurentia Bay, Winnipeg, MB R2C 0H1

Thanks to George Derwin for the photos