NASHVILLE, TN – On the evening of February 22, 2014, the Rotary Club of Nashville celebrated its 100th anniversary at a cocktail supper at the Omni Hotel Nashville. Members and guests gathered to enjoy the club’s centennial birthday and to recognize its rich history, its many achievements, and its dedication to the ideals of “Service Above Self.”
Nashville Rotary’s progress over these 100 years has influenced and matched the tremendous growth of our great city and its surrounding communities. This celebrated past bodes well for an equally bright future.
Rotary International was founded in Chicago in 1905 by a young lawyer named Paul Harris and three of his friends. The group met weekly and rotated the meetings between their offices. This rotation led them to call themselves a Rotary Club. Three years later, San Francisco formed the second club, and the concept began to spread across the United States.
The Rotary Club of Nashville was organized on November 19, 1913, when thirteen businessmen of the city first gathered at the office of James A. Cayce, President of B. H. Steif Jewelry Company. Nashville became the 94th Rotary Club in a worldwide organization that now numbers more than 34,000 clubs with over 1.2 million members in nearly every country in the world.
The Nashville club meets each Monday at noon, and with outstanding speakers from leaders in business, government, education and the arts, has become the forum of Nashville.
Throughout these 100 years, members have carried out the ideal of “Service Above Self” and have provided leadership for many of our city’s important charitable organizations and many humanitarian causes.
Some tangible examples of Nashville Rotary’s early influence in our city include helping to fund the original Y.M.C.A. and a second Y.M.C.A. for African-Americans; purchase of a farm for returning war hero – Alvin C. York; purchase of the first bookmobile for Nashville; raised funds during World War II to buy a 173-foot sub-chaser for the Navy. Bond sales totaled more than $2,000,000; established the Edgehill School for the Mentally Retarded, the first such facility in the city; in 1964 the Club built a new wing for the Children’s Science Museum to mark the club’s 50th anniversary; sponsored the first annual Junior Achievement Trade Fair.
Today, Rotary focuses much of its time and resources in the Watkins Park community in North Nashville. From literacy to housing to hunger programs; Rotarians work hand in hand with local organizations to support their programming efforts.
It has been a tremendous 100 years, and the Rotary Club of Nashville, the eighth largest Club in the world, has never been stronger. With more than 550 members, the club begins its second centennial with appreciation for the past and excitement for the future.
Here’s to the next 100 years!