Rotary History in Brazil

"Slowly, we seek to serve others, believing that history will encourage membership retention."

HISTORY●GLOBAL●DISTRICT●CLUB●MISSING●LIBRARY●HARRIS●PEACE●TRF●PHILOSOPHY●PRESIDENTS●CONVENTIONS●NEW●COMMITTEE●JOIN●email●FORUM●SEARCH●RGHF RGHF is not responsible for Google translation errors

History of Rotary in BRAZIL

A Part of our History of Rotary in South America

Rotary first came to Brazil as a result of meetings between several of Rotary's more influential and hard working Ambassadors. Chesley R.Perry, Richard Paul Momsen, Herbert P.Coates and James H. Roth. Perry was the effervescent Secretary; Momsen was the prestigious and well-connected U.S. Consul in Rio de Janeiro; Coates was an English businessman based in Montevideo, who was known to his associates all over South America as "Heriberto".

In 1921 Perry rejected an application for membership because founding members were composed mostly of Americans, with the minimum participation of Brazilians, and Perry wanted the opposite.
Finally in 1923, the Rotary Club of Rio de Janeiro was allocated club number 1362 and with this, Brazil became the 26th country to represent Rotary.

The Rotary Club of Rio de Janeiro was chartered on 28 February 1923 and was followed by a huge and rapid expansion.

With his ability to speak Portugese, Spanish, German and several other languages, James Roth was indirectly responsible for assisting in the formation of approximately 82 clubs throughout the country. as well as more than 80 other clubs in other countries.

Brazil has honoured Rotary International with three (3) Presidents :-

Armando de Arruda Pereira from the Rotary Club of São Paulo, was President during the 1940/41 year;

Ernesto Imbassahy de Mello from the Rotary Club of Rio de Janeiro was President during the year 1975/76; and

Paulo V. C. Costa from the Rotary Club of Santos, São Paulo was President during the year 1990/91.

See also "Roth in Brazil" for the early Brazilian clubs created with the assistance of James Roth

Visit all the histories of Districts in Brazil.

District 4540 has the most concise history of Brazilian districts, extracted from a book by Érika Yoshino Muniz, author of "Paul Harris e o Rotary"

The Rotary Roundabout in Sao Paulo

Under Construction September 2008

History researched and posted by RGHF Webmaster, Greg Barlow

The contents of this website, our electronic features and newsletters have been researched, collected, compiled, and written by Rotarians.

RGHF Mission: As an effort to serve others, RGHF accumulates and preserves the complete history, values and philosophy of the Rotary movement, as well as encourages others to do the same at every level of the Rotary movement, and publishes those histories, values and philosophies on the internet, as well as other forms of media as expedient. 17 March 2003, amended 20 December 2007, Rotary Global History Fellowship Board of Directors.

This fellowship is not an agency of, or controlled by, Rotary International, but is affiliated with individual Rotary districts, clubs, other Rotary organizations and enjoys the support of Rotarians, clubs, districts, and zones world-wide. The views and opinions expressed on this website are not necessarily the collective views and opinions of Rotary International or all Rotarians. Rotary International is not responsible for any content and accepts no liability therefore. © 2000-2008 RGHF (Rotary Global History Fellowship)