Rotary started with the vision of one man — Paul Harris. The Chicago attorney formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on 23 February 1905, so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships

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Paul P. Harris, the Founder of Rotary, was born on April 19, 1868 at Recine, Wisconsin, USA. He spent his childhood with his grandparents in New England who ensured that he has in him upright values and Scottish prudence while being kind and warm. They filled him with the zest to live a purposeful life. Paul was married to a Scottish bride, Jean Thompson Harris (1881-1963). They had no children. As a young man, he was adventurous, inquisitive with a passion to explore life, places and people. Paul worked as a newspaper reporter, a business college teacher, stock company actor and as a cowboy. He travelled extensively as a salesman for a marble and granite concern in the USA, and Europe. In 1896 he went to Chicago to practice Law. As a practitioner of Law, Paul did not find instant success. He said he went hungry and forlorn for many days. Those days were mainly instrumental for the genesis of Rotary. Lonely days of Chicago prompted him to find friends for fellowship and share mutual concerns. With Gustavus Loehr, Hiram Shorey and Silvester Schiele, the movement began and became the history. Paul and Jean helped Rotary grow. He confessed "having no children of our own, Jean and I adopted Rotary". Paul was never assertive in spite of being the founder of Rotary movement. He never sought prominence and would always take a back corner seat at the weekly meetings. Nevertheless he was a great Human being as well as a great friend. When he died on 27 January 1947, he had desired i ... Read More

Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in or- der to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals. Rotary's primary motto is "Service above Self ".

The first years Of The Club
The first Rotary Club was formed when attorney Paul P. Harris called together a meeting of three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago, at Harris' friend Gustave E. Loehr's office in the Unity Building on Dearborn Street on February 23, 1905. In addition to Harris and Loehr (a mining engineer), Silvester Schiele (a coal merchant), and Hiram E. Shorey (a tailor) were the other two who attended this first meeting. The members chose the name Rotary because initially they rotated subsequent weekly club meetings to each other's offices, although within a year, the Chicago club became so large it became necessary to adopt the now-common practice of ... Read More

Rotary came to Kodungallur in the year 1979. The club was sponsored by Rotary Club of Chalakudy in response to the then RI District 3200’s drive to in- duct more new members and clubs. Rotarian PP C M Subramanian, the District Extension Chairman and Rtn. VK Susheelan (GSR) took the initiative to form the Club. It is very heartening to know that within a short time, 24 members enlisted in the first two days and the first preliminary meeting was held at Government Rest House, Kodungallur on 13 Oct 1979.

The first weekly meeting of the provisional Rotary Club of Kodungallur was held at Samskritha Vidyut Peedom on 05Nov 1979.The first president was Rtn. Late AK Balagangadharan and secretary Rtn. Late TN Chandrashekharan. The charter was presented to our club on 24Mar 1980 and was celebrated as a family get together.

The history of our club can be perused in two parts - first part commences from 05 Nov 1979 when Rtn. AK Balagangadharan was the president to 05 July 1997 when Rtn. P. Aravindakshan was the president and the second part thereafter.

Nov 1979 to July 1997
During the rotary year 1982-83, six Rotarians from our club participated in the RI President's Goodwill Conference at Colombo. Rtn. PP. PK Sudhakaran was the team leader. This meeting gave our Rotarians a very good ... Read More