Paul Harris

Paul Percy Harris was a young attorney in a large and impersonal city. He missed the sense of community he had known growing up, and wanted, in his words, "a club of professional and business men for friendship and fellowship."

On 23 February 1905 he gathered three acquaintances — Silvester Schiele, a coal merchant; Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer; and Hiram Shorey, a tailor — at Loehr's office in the Unity Building in downtown Chicago. That meeting is now taken as the founding of Rotary.

The name came from the arrangement itself: the members rotated their weekly meetings between one another's offices. Within a year the Chicago club had grown too large for that, and settled on a regular meeting place — as clubs have done ever since.

Fellowship turned into service quickly. In 1907, under Harris as its third president, the Chicago club took on its first community project: building public toilets in the city. It is a modest thing to be remembered for, and exactly the point — Rotary became the world's first service club by attending to something ordinary that nobody else would.

Harris had an unsettled start. Sent at three to live with his grandparents in rural Vermont, he was expelled from more than one school, drifted through the University of Vermont and Princeton, and finally took his law degree at the University of Iowa in 1891. He then spent five years deliberately seeing the world — reporter, farm hand, actor, cowboy, and crew on cattle ships crossing to Europe — before opening a law practice in Chicago in 1896.

In 1910 he married Jean Thomson, a Scotswoman he met at a Chicago nature club. They lived in Morgan Park in a house they called Comly Bank, after her childhood home in Edinburgh. Jean travelled widely for Rotary and argued for women to be admitted to membership — a change Rotary would not make until 1989, long after both had died.

1. 1868

   Born on 19 April in Racine, Wisconsin, to George and Cornelia Harris.
2. 1871

   Sent at the age of three to live with his paternal grandparents, Howard and Pamela Harris, in Wallingford, Vermont, after his family runs into financial difficulty.
3. 1886

   Studies at the University of Vermont, then Princeton, before completing his law degree at the University of Iowa in June 1891.
4. 1891

   Spends five years seeing the world before settling down — newspaper reporter, farm hand, actor, cowboy, and crew on cattle ships to Europe.
5. 1896

   Begins practising law in Chicago.
6. 1905

   On 23 February, meets three business acquaintances — Silvester Schiele, Gustavus Loehr and Hiram Shorey — at Loehr's office in the Unity Building on Dearborn Street. The first Rotary club is formed.
7. 1907

   Elected third president of the Chicago club, which takes on its first public service project: building public toilets in the city. Rotary becomes the world's first service club.
8. 1910

   Serves as president of Rotary International until 1912. On 2 July he marries Jean Thomson, a Scotswoman he met at a Chicago nature club. They settle in Morgan Park, in a house they name Comly Bank after her childhood home in Edinburgh.
9. 1947

   Dies on 27 January in Chicago, aged 78, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery. By then Rotary has more than 200,000 members across 75 countries. His autobiography, My Road to Rotary, is published the following year.