On March 26, 1924, 98 people gathered in a raging snowstorm to celebrate the founding of the 1,658th Rotary Club in the world.
A hundred years later — after raising millions of dollars for charities here, and in Africa and Asia; donating the Compo Beach playground and South Beach grills, and countless more good works — the Westport Rotary Club is poised to celebrate its centennial.
Much has changed. There are now over 46,000 clubs in Rotary International. Meetings are no longer mandatory (or male only). Membership is not restricted to one person per occupation. In Westport, lobster has replaced roast beef as the main fundraiser.
No Rotarian is alive to remember that first dinner, at the Westport (now Birchwood) Country Club. But the organization is excited to honor its century of service.
A gala dinner is set for March 7 — 100 years to the day since the Westport Rotary Club received its charter.
The Inn at Longshore event includes entertainment, and a multimedia look at Westport Rotary’s first century. All attendees will receive a commemorative book, written by Ron Henkoff.
Anson Leary
It’s packed with history, starting with 33-year-old Anson Leary’s dream of starting a Rotary Club. The World War I veteran had come to Westport a year earlier, to help open the fledgling YMCA.
He envisioned a men’s counterpart to the Westport Town Improvement Association (now the Westport Woman’s Club). Charter members included Leonard Gault (son of Gault Company founder Robert), mattress factory owner Austin Wakeman, Charles Kemper (whose tannery had not yet been turned into the Westport Country Playhouse), and ice dealer Edward Nash.
Rotary International was “serious and strict,” for “men from various vocations to exchange ideas and form meaningful friendships.” Meetings rotated between members’ offices (hence the name “Rotary”), and were guided by founder Paul Harris’ motto: “Service above self.”
Westport’s Rotary met every Tuesday for lunch. Attendance was mandatory. Members traveling for business or on vacation were required to attend a local meeting there — and show proof.
Westport meetings included patriotic and popular songs. There was a Rotary band. For gala dances, men wore tuxes. (Their wives, dressed in evening gowns, were called “Rotary-Annes.”)
The Westport Rotary Club’s 1928 band.
The Westport club’s first project — begun in June 1924, just 3 months after their founding — was building a playground behind then-new Bedford Elementary School (now Town Hall). Members cleared and leveled the ground, and installed equipment.
In those early years they raised money for the town’s first ambulance, paid for surgery to save a boy’s eyesight, donated funds to disabled children, equipped the Bedford Junior High fife and drum corps, sponsored twilight baseball, and started a college fund.
Their 10th anniversary celebration in 1934 was at the Open Door Inn on Jesup Road. The party lasted until 1:30 a.m.
In the summer of 1940, the Westport Rotary Orchestra played at the New York World’s Fair. After war broke out the next year members sold war bonds, and raised money for families whose members were fighting overseas. Founder Anson Leary, age 51, served in the Air Force Reserves in the Pacific. Closer to home, founding member Howard Gault was on the town’s Ration Board.
In 1994, Rick Benson gave the first Community Service Awards to Ed Mitchell (standing) and Howard Gault.
Over the years, Rotary evolved. Meetings were held in a variety of restaurants: the Mansion House, Compo Pavilion, Hidden Door, Josie’s Nook, The Townly, La Normandie, New Englander, Andy and Mary Barna’s, 3 Bears, Canterbury, The Inn at Longshore and Bertucci’s.
Most recently they met at Christ & Holy Trinity Church, and now Green’s Farms Church. One thing never changed, though: They’re still on Tuesdays.
President Ed Mitchell — founder of the eponymous clothing store — initiated Roast Beef Dinners as a fundraiser. Those paid for the Compo grills, a pavilion at Camp Mahackeno, a pool at Easton’s Camp Aspetuck, dugouts at Gault Field, and the education of Sam Luciano’s 3 children, after the police chief died suddenly.
Rotary’s 50th anniversary celebration drew 95 members. Founding Rotarian Chot Kemper was still alive. Fifth-year member Bruce Knowles was there too — and remained a Rotarian for another 45 years.
Chot Kemper (left) and Bruce Knowles were both 50-year Westport Rotary Club members.
A 7-0 Supreme Court ruling in 1987 opened the Rotary door to female members across the US. A straw poll at the Westport club showed 24 in favor — but 32 against.
Five months later, Pat Harrington and Carol Way became the local organization’s first women Rotarians. Five men quit in protest.
The 1989 Westport Rotary Club photo included just 5 female members.
But by 1995 superintendent of schools Judy Rovins was chosen as the first female Westport Rotary president. The story of women in Westport Rotary ever since has been one of tremendous numbers, and tremendous contributions.
Meanwhile, past president Lou Weinstein supported the idea of a second Rotary Club here, for people who could not attend lunch meetings.
Some members opposed the idea — they thought it would be confusing, and make it harder to raise funds — but the Sunrise Rotary Club was chartered on November 22, 1988.
Today, both clubs flourish. There are about 140 members overall. Nearly half are women.
In fact, Westport has more Rotarians per capita than any other town in Zone 32 (encompassing 9 states, parts of Canada, and Bermuda).
1988 also was the year that Westport Rotary led a project to build a playground at Compo Beach. It was led by Jim Bennet. Rick Benson, whose name turns up often over the club’s past 40 years, provided strong support. Benson also worked with Paul Spiekermann to get Westport Rotary involved in overseas projects, in underserved areas of Africa and Asia.
Paul Spiekermann (left) and Rick Benson
The local club now allocates 25% of its funds to international projects. They’ve aided victims of Cambodian land mines, helped battle dengue fever in Indonesia, and contributed to projects in Lithuania, Haiti, Benin, Swaziland, Tanzania and Thailand. Westport Rotary has donated to 27 countries overall.
Rick Benson, Lyla Steenbergen and Leslie Roberts, with local officials, at the dedication of a hospital ICU unit in Uganda.
In 1994, when Connecticut welcomed the World Special Olympics Games, Rotarianns hosted athletes from Cameroon and Panama. They outfitted one athlete with a prosthetic leg.
Five years later, for their 75th anniversary, Westport Rotary led an $82,000 effort to restore the Compo Beach cannons. They also joined with other organizations to give the Westport Fire Department a mobile classroom, to teach children about safety.
The LobsterFest fundraiser began in 2012, under president Julia Broder. (An earlier clambake ended when the price of seafood soared.) Last year’s event brought in $280,000. Overall, LobsterFest has raised over $1.5 million, for local projects like scholarships, meals at the Gillespie Center and Habitat for Humanity houses in Bridgeport, and many more overseas.
(Save the date: LobsterFest 2024 is September 21!)
LobsterFest: One of the best parties in town.
That’s just the first 100 years. As Westport Rotary looks to the next 100, they’ve earmarked $100,000 to join with the Westport Young Woman’s League in renovating the Compo playground they helped build in 1989.
Though no one is alive to remember, it hearkens back to that very first project, in 1924: the Bedford Elementary School playground.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Happy 100th birthday, Westport Rotary Club. Here’s to 100 more, helping Westport — and the world.
(Tickets to Westport Rotary’s March 7 centennial gala are $100. (Venmo @Thomas-Carey-73046, or mail checks to Westport Rotary PO Box 743, Westport, CT 06881). Email: rsvp.WestportRotary@gmail.com.)
FUN WESTPORT ROTARY CLUB FACTS: 8 Westport Rotarians have served as 1st selectperson: E.C. Nash, Austin Wakeman, Herb Baldwin, Bill Seiden, Joe Arcudi, Dianne Farrell, Gordon Joseloff, Jim Marpe and Jen Tooker (Sunrise Rotary member).
(“06880” is nowhere near 100 years old. But we’re part of Westport too. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The selectwomen also accepted a $10,000 Ruegg Grant from the Westport Woman’s Club, for Club203. The previously unfunded organization — a social group for adults with disabilities — is run entirely by volunteers, in partnership with Human Services and Westport’s Commission on People with Disabilities.
Organized in 1977 for the “enlightenment, fellowship and community service” of retired or semi-retired men who live in either town — or once did — the group now includes over 450 members.
Two members of the East Hampton Rotary Club have donated a 50-foot semi-truck, and a 26-foot box truck, to transport collected materials.
