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Paul P. Harris  Chesley R. Perry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Harris Home • Section Home • Forward by Perry • Storm of 1893 • The Founder of Rotary (book)

FOREWORD

T HI S little book is an intimate story of an eventful life from the pen of the man who has lived it. The writer is often called the Father of Rotary. Rotarians have been demanding to know more about him. This demand constitutes his apologia for the preparation of this autobiographical matter. In response to this demand he has written:

“He in whose mind the germ of Rotary found origin, he in whose heart the ideals of Rotary have ever been nurtured and cherished, tenders this story, trusting that its readers may prove to be as patient with the shortcomings of the author as the public has been generous in its judgment of the movement he represents.”

I esteem it a high privilege to have known Paul Harris during the past twenty years, and a still greater privilege to have had the opportunity to assist him in sending Rotary around the world.

When I entered the Chicago Rotary Club I found him giving generously of his time and his thought to the success of the club and full of ideas as to the extension of Rotary to other cities of the United States. When in 1910 he became president of the united American Rotary clubs, his ideas had expanded to the extension of the movement to other countries. During the two years of his presidency, he was a driving force that inspired all of us who were associated with him.

At the end of his second term of office he suffered a serious physical breakdown from which he recovered only because of his indomitable will to do so. He has constantly retained a deep interest in the movement, to ether with a keen desire for its successful development. This narrative is the sincere and frank story of a great man—and only a great man could tell us such a story of his life as Paul has told us in the fellowship of Rotary. What may he not have to tell us at the close of another quarter century?

CHESLEY R. PERRY.

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