History of SLC Rotary

Club 24 Beginnings

The Rotary Club of Salt Lake City began in January 1911, little more than five years after the first Rotary Club was organized in Chicago in 1905. It grew out of a conversation in Chicago between Wesley King of the National Copper Bank of Salt Lake and his Spanish-American war buddy, Chesley Perry, secretary of the Chicago Rotary Club and the “Sparkplug” of Rotary’s expansion to San Francisco in 1908, and to fourteen other Clubs by 1910. After his return, Wesley discussed the idea with several prominent Salt Lake men. Then, assuming this was the way to get a group started, Wes and Joy Johnson, president of the Salt Lake Commercial Club, chose a group of fifteen to become charter members. They then wrote to the “Mother Club’ in Chicago for instructions. The answer was troubling–there were two rules that the group could not meet. First the host city had to have a population of 100,000, and according to the 1910 census, Salt Lake fell short by 7,500. Wesley and Joy finally persuaded Salt Lake’s mayor, John S. Bransford, to sign an affidavit that the city’s population was continuing to grow and at the time of writing was easily more than 100,000.

Overcoming

The second condition was that three existing clubs had to endorse the application. This proved to be impossible. Rotary then had only twenty-three Clubs; the nearest three were on the Pacific Coast. Two of the three Clubs (San Francisco and Oakland), refused approval! For many years Salt Lake City had included two communities—a community of Latter-day Saints and a community of non–Latter-day Saints. Each group distrusted the other and strove for dominance. The members of the two clubs felt this did not bode well for the bond of brotherhood required by Rotary. The two Clubs demanded that the Salt Lake Club be formed entirely of Mormons or non-Mormons. “Those were the days,” wrote Wes King, “when the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News made faces at each other every day. Most everyday, the editorial writer for the Tribune chewed up a Mormon and spit him out the window, and that evening the Deseret News massacred a Gentile....”

Melt the Ice Barrier

At this juncture, Joy Johnson, president of the Commercial Club, took steps to “melt the ice barrier” by inviting the owner of each newspaper and magazine in Salt Lake, church leaders, bankers, business and professional men, and civic leaders to be his lunch guests at the Commercial Club. The situation was explained to the group. Wesley King later described what Joy Johnson then did: He boldly locked the dining room doors and announced that he would “only unlock them when an agreement was reached looking toward a condition of amity in this community.” That started the melting of the ice. It took the vitriol out of future newspaper editorials. Armed with proof of these facts, Joy went to the West Coast and came back with the letters of approval for the organization of the new club. Filled with excitement, they held the first meeting the evening of January 31, 1911.

1911 Charter

That first meeting was held in Room 508 of the Boston Building, then part of the office of Gustin, Gillette, Davis & Brayton. Only three days after the first meeting, a committee was appointed to draft by-laws. Since no forms were available from the head office in 1911 the Salt Lake Club drafted its own, which provided for control from the floor, rather than by a board of directors. Within a year of founding, the membership had grown to sixty-three. They were pretty choosy that first year; about half of those proposed for membership were rejected. In April of 1912 the Salt Lake Club began to hold weekly luncheons and monthly dinners at the Hotel Utah.

When the Club received its charter in 1911, it was the only club between Chicago and the West Coast. From then until the Tenth Annual Rotary Convention held in Salt Lake City, June 1919. A number of new Clubs in the area were organized. Attendees were from Billings, Montana; Butte, Montana, Great Falls, Montana; Helena, Montana; Missoula, Montana; Boise, Idaho; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Pocatello, Idaho; Logan, Utah; and Ogden, Utah. All of these Clubs had been organized by, or with the help of the Salt Lake Club and were then in the 20th District. The district consisted of Montana, Idaho, Utah and Western Wyoming.

The 10th Annual Convention

This Tenth Annual Rotary Convention was the high point of the club’s early days. The registration showed 395 Rotarians and ladies from Salt Lake City and 2,643 visiting Rotarians and their ladies, a grand total of 3,038. Incidentally, our own Richard L. Evans, past president, attended this Convention as a boy scout on duty. Between his ushering and other jobs, he was pushing the pushcarts brought to Salt Lake by Atlantic City Rotarians as a bid to the next convention! His duties made him think of Rotary as something different and significant; that thought continued with him all his days.

Rotary Park

While the original aim of the club was promoting the business interests of its members, Rotary soon turned its attention to other projects which would better the community and state in general. Perhaps the biggest impact Club 24 had on Utah came from the Club’s work in the cause of road building and improvement. One of these projects, in city Creek Canyon, led to another Rotary service project, Rotary Park. Rotarians built bridges, cleared picnic and parking areas, built benches and tables, a fireplace, fountain, and covered bandstand between 1922 and 1927. The park was donated to Salt Lake City as a gift and served as a favorite picnic spot until 1952 when the canyon was closed to the public by the health department because of the importance as a city watershed. Rotary Park was reopened in 1967. The tornado of 1999 devastated much of Memory Grove and Rotary Park. The Club and the Foundation have pledged many thousands of dollars toward the restoration project. Another Rotary Park project is the Rotary Glen in the mouth of Emigration Canyon, completed in 1952.

Rotary Training Center

In 1962, Rotary passed a resolution to buy from the Utah State Road Commission the Wandamere LDS Ward property for the sum of $18,614. This was then presented to the Salt Lake County Association for Retarded Children. The building became the Rotary Training Center and although the program has since been moved, this facility was an important key to its development.

Rotary’s community service project in 1978 was a donation to equip the Salt Lake Art Center School just north of the Salt Palace.

Richard L. Evans Foundation

In 1977 the Club organized its own foundation, the Richard L. Evans Foundation, to fund large community charitable projects. The first was a large donation to the YMCA in 1985 to help build and equip a gymnasium. In the year 2000, the Salt Lake Rotary Foundation contributed about $85,000 to community projects.

1987 Inclusion of Women

Women have held membership in Club 24 since 1987 following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that Rotary International must drop its men only requirement. Since that time the Salt Lake Rotary has welcomed women into its Club. Today approximately 15% of Club 24 membership is women. Vicki Jackson became the first woman president of the Club in 2001.

Service Projects

Over the years, Club 24 has organized and/or funded many programs locally, nationally and internationally, including: The Youth Foreign Exchange Program; The Youth Scholarship Program, Salt Lake City; The Polio Eradication Project; The Andean Children’s Foundation, La Paz, Bolivia; KIDS Adolescent Drug Treatment Center, Salt Lake City; The Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, University of Utah; School for Mentally Retarded and emotionally disturbed Children, Poona, India; The Adult Education committee; The Utah DARE Program; Boy Scouts of America, Salt Lake City; Operation Warm, annual winter wear clothing drive; The Rotary Service Award, given to students in recognition of outstanding citizenship and service; Annual Police Awards; as well as many others. In considering such projects, the fact that our Constitution requires that the Club members themselves must authorize the project, rather than just a Board or Committee, has helped the selection of those projects that will be permanent and worthwhile.

Honored Rotarians

Through the years, the Salt Lake Club has furnished its full share of District Governor’s the first being George O. Relf, elected soon after the 1919 annual meeting. Later he became an International Director. Then in 1956 came Richard L Evans who became President of Rotary International in 1966.

Rotary Today

Today, the Rotary Club of Salt Lake’s meetings are conducted every Tuesday, usually at the downtown Marriott Hotel. Our members number about 500, making us one of the largest Clubs in the entire Rotary organization.