Rotary Club of Manila

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The Rotary Club of Manila is the first and oldest Rotary Club in Asia. After its establishment, the Rotary Club of Manila sponsored other organizations, including the Rotary Club of Cebu (1932), the Rotary Club of Iloilo (1933), the Community Chest Foundation, the Philippine Band of Mercy (1937), the Philippine Safety Council, and the Boy Scouts of America Philippine Islands Council (1923).

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Founding

In 1919, Manila businessman Leon J. Lambert sent communication to the Rotary Club in Chicago about the possibility of organizing Rotary in the Philippines. In response to Lambert's proposal, Rotary sent Roger D. Pinneo of the Seattle Rotary Club to the Philippines to help set up a club in Manila. On 12 January 1919, Pinneo and Lambert held a luncheon meeting with four of Manila's prominent businessmen (Alfa Walter Beam, Fred Neal Berry, Edwin Emil Elser, and James Geary) to form an organizing committee. Another meeting later resulted in the formation of a Manila Rotary Club. The 38 charter members were men heavily involved in the sociopoliticoeconomic life of the country and active in many socio-civic endeavors. They included 35 Americans, 2 Filipinos, and 1 Chinese. Elected as officers were President Leon Lambert, Vice President Alfonso Sy Cip, Secretary Edwin Emil Elser, Treasurer Alfa Walter Beam, and Directors Fred Neal Berry, Gregorio Morente Nieva, and James Geary.

The Rotary Club of Manila subsequently informed Rotary International in Chicago that the Manila Club had been formally organised. In June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila heard from what became Rotary International, recognizing the Manila club with Charter 478.

Founding officers

Notes

  1. Alfa Walter Beam married Lydia Hart McKee (1 Oct 1881, Kansas–18 Oct 1934, Los Angeles, California) on 12 Jun 1913 in Leavenworth, Kansas. They had a son, Alfa Walter Beam, Jr. (born 14 Oct 1916, Manila), and a daughter, Eugenia Beam Reynolds (8 Dec 1920, Manila–25 Oct 1945, Washington DC).
  2. Cf: Schisgall, Oscar, 1985, Blick Nach Vorn, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 1985, p 210.
  3. During WW2, Berry would be incarcerated by the Japanese at Santo Tomas Internment Camp, while his wife Mary M. Leadbetter Berry (1885–1953) would be living with Gladys Becker Slaughter Savary (1893–1985). (Cf: Savary, Gladys, Outside the Walls, New York: Vantage, 1954. Cf: Kaminski, Theresa, Angels of the Underground, Oxford, 2015.)
  4. Photo of Fred Berry with other internees at Santo Tomas Internment Camp here

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