Dear John, 

Now back to our beloved Rotary. 

1.     The past: Paul Harris became a legend, which is bad, because legends tend to fade from memory. Even worse, some people still want to make him a sort of a saint. “But nothing would have been further from his sincerest desire” (Ruggles, The Rotarian, March 1952). Paul Harris should be kept alive as the agreeable human being he was, who “just naturally liked people” and “treasured and enjoyed his friends”.

2.     The present: You probably know the attached article of Paul Harris. A “Rotary Philosophy” (Rational Rotarianism?), easily understood by everybody, would help today's Rotarians. Paul Harris wrote a lot about philosophy, and there was even a Committee on Philosophy and Education as early as 1915, but this will be an “opus major”.

3.     The Future:

“Rotary is based on three great principles: brotherly love, relief, and truth. Over the years, brotherly love and relief have been so stressed that Rotary is in serious danger of becoming primarily a social and charitable organization. Truth, the most difficult principle to recognize and thus the most difficult to archive, has long been neglected. […] that the alpha and omega of Rotary is not the repetition of the ritual nor the safeguarding of secrets, but the regeneration of Rotarians.
This book* implores the reader to learn to see in Rotary something more than a parochial system enjoining elementary morality, performing perfunctory and insignificant rites, and serving as an agreeable accessory to social life. The greater system of spiritual doctrine contained in Rotary is strongly emphasized”.

*Walter L. Wilmhurst, 1867 “The Meaning of Masonry”. This was simple: I only exchanged “Masonry” with “Rotary”. We should make some effort in the future, to “emphasize the greater system of spiritual doctrine contained in Rotary”, or Rotary will continue to be not more than “an agreeable accessory to social life”.

Sincerely, Wolfgang 1 February 2005

• The Philosophy of Rotary

  • 1915 Conference speech in Chicago by Paul Harris (7 February 2005)

  • Harris challenges Ches Perry to write the philosophy

  • Paul Harris' 10th Anniversary Message

  • Paul Harris' 12th Anniversary Message

  • Charles E. Barker