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Expanding into 5170
The Rotary Club of Oakland’s
Family Tree
By
Linda Hamilton (An RGHF
Member)
Rotary Club of Oakland
Historian
A part
of The Rotary Club of Oakland’s
history that touches many Rotarians takes us back to 1913, when the
Oakland club embraced Paul Harris’ vision of Rotary expansion.
Oakland became a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and
great-great grandmother very quickly to more than 120 clubs. This
honorable brood started with the Sacramento club—co-sponsored by San
Francisco--and the Stockton Club that year.
In
1914, the newest club was the Rotary Club of
San Jose. The announcement
about this exciting charter in Oakland was followed by a series of
talks of great interest entitled, “How I Made My First Dollar.” This
was a rousing meeting.
In
1915, club President V. O. Lawrence visited Honolulu and helped
organize the first Rotary Club in the Hawaiian Islands. He did the
same in Milan, Italy and in a town in Germany. A more recent child
in 1992 was the Rotary Club of
Nahodka, Russia. For four years, members of Oakland Rotary also took Camp
Enterprise to Nahodka, teaching contemporary U.S. business practices
to Russian students and business people alike.
It’s
original brethren when Rotary Club of Oakland began as the Tri-City
Club (Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda) in 1909, Oakland sponsored
Berkeley in 1916 and Alameda in 1920, enjoying inter-city fun on
Neptune Beach, hosted by the brand new Alameda Club that same year.
Then
came a cherry of a club, Oakland sponsored the Rotary Club of San
Leandro in 1926. In their first year, the San Leandro Club came up
with a solution to a new and increasing problem: it created a
traffic safety council to deal with the growing number of injuries
to motorists and pedestrians.
In
1947, Oakland became the first of the three original Rotary Clubs to
charter new clubs within city limits: They celebrated East Oakland’s
charter at the Leamington Hotel in 1947, gave not only a charter but
a gavel to North Oakland in 1951, and enjoyed great waffles and
coffee while bringing in Piedmont, now Piedmont/Montclair in 1959.
Shortly after, the four Oakland Rotary Clubs
joined forces to create a Planetarium for the renowned Chabot
Observatory, and then presented the Newark Rotary Club with its
charter.
Oakland No. 3 is proud of its role in expanding
Rotary throughout Northern California and beyond!
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