35 Years of Rotary in Las Vegas, 1923-1958

35 Years of Rotary in Las Vegas A History of the «/ • Las Vegas Rotary Club 1923 » 1958 THE LAS VEGAS ROTARY CLUB The Las Vegas Rotary Club was chartered April 5, 1923, Club number 1401, its charter signed by Raymond M. Havens, President, Rotary International. The Charter members and their classifications were: Les Saunders Chamber of Commerce Dr. Wm. S. Park Dentist Al Hinman - Lawyer Walter Bracken Water Service C. E. " P e m " Pembroke Confectionary Harry Blanding Meats, Retail Wm. H. " B i l l " Pike Theater W. E. " B i l l " Perron Drugs, Retail W. C. German Express Agent Cyril S. " C y " Wengert Banking James Cashman Automobiles, Retail Dr. Roy Martin Medicine M. Jack Heaton Railroad Agent Wm. " B i l l " Beckley Men's Clothing, Retail Ed W. Clark Groceries, Wholesale Sam J. Lawson Power Service O. K. Adcock Ladies Clothing, Retail Mel Riley Real Estate The first Board of Directors were: LES SAUNDERS President DR. WM. S. PARK Vice President AL H I N M A N Secretary WALTER BRACKEN Treasurer C. E. PEMBROKE Sgt. Arms HARRY BLANDING Director BILL PIKE Director W. E. " B I L L " FERRON Director Past Presidents of Las Vegas Rotary Club 1923 Les Saunders Moved to Los Angeles Oct. 11, and office taken by Bill Ferron. 1923 *Bill Ferron 1924 Bill Ferron 1925 A1 Hinman 1926 Frosty Mildren 1927 Fred Hesse 1928 Dr. F. M. Ferguson 1929 Dr. Wm. S. Park 1930 Charlie Dimock 1931 *Leo McNamee 1932 *A1 Cahlan 1933 Douglas Dashiel 1934 *Marion Earl 1935 Dr. Roy Martin 1936 K. 0. Knudsen 1937 Frank Gusewelle 1938 Tom Connolly 1939 * Archie Grant 1940 *Otto Underhill 1941 *Bryan Bunker 1942 *Cyril S. Wengert 1943 Fred O'Donnell 1944 Frank Case 1945 Victor Shurtliff 1946 *Max Kelch 1947 *Ed Ciliax 1948 *Lorin Ronnow 1949 * Leonard Fayle 1950 *Allye Lawson 1951 * Harry Allen 1952 *Les Edwards 1953 *Wayne Kirch 1954 *George Boman 1955 * Spencer Butterfield 1956 * Walter S. Hunsaker 1957 *Ted H. Brandt * Club Member, April 1, 1958 Thirty Five Years of Rotary in Las Vegas It was February 23, 1923 when the Las Vegas Rotary Club was formed and they met in The Chocolate Shop, located at 203 Fremont St., which is now one half of the White Cross Drug Store. After a few weeks of meeting, the club was officially chartered April 5, 1923 and designated club number 1401. The first baby Rotarian inducted into the club was C. P. Squires, affectionately known today and for many, many years as "Pop". Pop was then the Postmaster of Las Vegas later a publisher of the Las Vegas Age newspaper. A loyal Rotarian, Pop edited the weekly publication of the club known as "The Wheel" for 30 years. Pop is in his nineties now and an honorary member of the club for outstanding and unselfish service to the club and the community. The Las Vegas Club won its first honor and distinction by attending three District Assemblies 100 per cent in attend-ance. In 1924, San Jose; 1925, Fresno; and in 1926 in San Diego. A trophy was presented each year for this feat and should a club win the cup three times, it became a permanent trophy to that club. Not long after the club was in existence, the Chocolate Shop closed and the club found a new meeting place at the Railroad Station. This became known as the "Beanery" and the club met there for many years until the station was torn down to make way for a new and modern Railroad station. In 1938, the meeting place moved to the Kiva Club in the base-ment of the Apache Hotel. Then, when the new El Rancho Hotel opened on what is now called the "Strip", in 1941, the club moved and held their meetings there. Later, in 1944, the club again moved its meeting place to The Last Frontier Hotel where they met until 1957. During the period of thirty five years the club has been in five districts. Las Vegas was in District 2 during 1923 and was placed in District 107 during 1937. Then in 1949 the district was divided and we were assigned to district 160 and a few years later in 1953, District 160 was divided in three districts and we were placed in 160-C. In 1956 we again were changed to- district 530 under the rezoning of districts through-out the world, and we have remained in District 530. In 1923, Las Vegas was a small town of about two thou-sand population and remained so until the advent of the build-ing of Hoover Dam, when the first town within many miles appeared to be founded. The town was called Boulder City after the canyon in which the dam was constructed, or rather where the original dam was to have been built. The dam was finally built in Black Canyon. The Las Vegas Rotary Club realized the possibility and prospect of sponsoring a Rotary Club in the new community and a survey was made under the able direction of our Club President K. O. Knudsen who car-ried through the sponsorship and founding of the Boulder City Rotary Club. Another sponsorship of a new Rotary Club was completed in 1953 under the Presidency of L. W. "Les" Edwards, in sponsoring and bringing into being the Rotary Club of Hen-derson, Nevada, eleven miles to the east of Las Vegas in the spring of 1953. Both Boulder City, Nevada and Henderson, Nevada Rotary Clubs have been fine examples of Rotary, its aims and objects. The first project of the Las Vegas Rotary Club was the assistance to a farming family in Overton, Nevada. Overton is some seventy five road miles from Las Vegas to the north. A sad and unfortunate accident occurred when a mower cut off the feet of a four year old boy. Emergency action saved the boys life and then the problem of how this boy was to walk. Lack of funds prevented his parents to provide artificial feet and it is here the Rotary Club came to the parents, offer-ing their assistance in helping this young boy of four years old. Since the fittings and limbs had to be made in Los An- geles, it was necessary to take him to Los Angeles by train and have the proper treatment for satisfactory results. This was done and as the boy grew year after year, new limbs had to be made and fitted, again the Rotary Club taking care of the bill. This continued for many years and today this man is a resident of Las Vegas, in business, adjusted to life which I am sure would not have been the same had not the Rotary Club lent a helping hand and purse. In 1942, the Boy Scouts were granted some land in the City Park for scouting purposes and the Rotary Club con-structed some of the huts used by the Boy Scouts. It was also about this time that lighting was provided by the Rotary Club for the local High School Football Field. Youth has always been one of the highlights of the club activities. In the early forties, a large fireplace was construct-ed in the recreational building of the Lee's Canyon Scout camp, which both boys and girls used alternately during the summer months in their camping programs. During the regime of President Spencer Butterfield, a cooking shelter, costing twenty five hundred dollars was do-nated to the Girl Scouts, who now have constructed their own camp in Foxtail Canyon, adjacent to Lee's Canyon. President Maxwell Kelch, 1946-1947, hosted the second conference to be held in Las Vegas. Twelve hundred regis-trants flooded the town, and housing became quite a problem which was finally answered by placing Rotarians in private homes. Only three major hotels were in existence then and President Max and the club are to be congratulated in han-dling a registration of 1200. Part of the Conference took place on top of Boulder Dam and a meeting was actually held on the top of the dam which was attended by two State Gov-ernors. Dr. Lloyd C. Douglas gave the opening speech. The major project of 1947 was providing a Mobile Camp-ing Truck for the Boy Scouts. This was an extremely ex- pensive project, nevertheless, the project was completed much to the elation of the Boy Scouts. 1948 found the club hard at work raising money for the Library Fund. The final outcome was a total contribution of $8,300.00 or over One Hundred Dollars per member. In 1949 the Library was completed and today stands partly due to the interest and community spirit of Rotary. Rotary created the first park in the city other than the City Park, providing a small area of shade and grass for pic-nics, rest and beauty. We are now in the process of creating a large Rotary Park in the west end of the city, adjacent to a new Junior High School, with playground facilities, fireplaces, and later make improvements such as a pavilon and other necessities to complete the park. In 1950, two projects were started in the same year which have become more or less a traditional project. One of the projects was to award students of the local high school for outstanding work in various crafts such as, woodworking, sewing, cooking, architecture, leather craft, art, metal craft, etc., The Rotary Club honored the winners by having them to the weekly luncheon where they are given an opportunity to show their work to the membership. They are given a certificate and their name is engraved on a plaque which is placed on a large plaque in the main hall of the high school. This program has continued since 1950, and we now have a second high school in the city where the program will also be instigated in May of 1958. The other project started in 1950 was the Foreign Stu-dent Program, originated by The American Field Service in cooperation of the State Dept., whereby students of high school age are sponsored, housed and brought to the United States for a school year, living in the home of an American. The Las Vegas Rotary Club accepted the sponsorship of its first stu-dent in 1950 and in the past eight years have sponsored seven students. Four of the students have been from four sections of Germany, one from Sweden, one from Belgium and one from Italy. The student is made an honorary member of the club and participates in the weekly meetings. Each student has been housed in the home of a Rotarian during his stay in Las Vegas. We are continuing the program for the year 1958-1959 having committed ourselves for the 8th sponsorship for the coming year. Every club has traditional projects and certainly the Las Vegas Rotary Club is no exception. For many, many years the club has provided camper-ships to Boy's and Girl's as well as other organizations. To name a few, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls, Y.M.C.A., Salvation Army have benefitted from the program. Boy's State has been a traditional project in sending Boys from the area to the State Capitol each year. Swim tickets to the City Pool was a program a few years ago and was maintained for many years, however, this program is no longer necessary. The Club originated the first Toys for Tots Christmas project in Las Vegas which was later taken over by the Fire Department personnel when we provided power tools and equipment to repair used toys. The club each year honors Youth groups such as scouting, sportsman in the High School and has for many years made the Student Body President of the High School an honorary member who attends the weekly meetings. He is valuable in keeping contact with the activities of the school so that various committees may have the opportunity to be of service to youth in the school. Club visitations have become traditional with visits to Needles, Tonopah and Caliente almost every year to each of these clubs. In years past, the old timers will recall the Tri- State visitation in Needles of Nevada, Arizona and California clubs. About the most traditional of all is the Demotion party and meeting the last Thursday evening of the Rotary year in June each year. A gala time is had by all in demoting the out-going president and the ladies enjoy the fellowship and fun. Such happenings as being thrown in a swimming pool is not uncommon and once a mock hanging almost turned out to be the real thing. Humorous skits are presented, generally mocking the out going President for his misdeeds of the year. It all ends in a fun filled evening of fellowship with the ladies in attendance and even providing help and participation in putting on the skits. To miss the demotion party is missing one of the biggest events of the Rotary year activity. From a small club of eighteen charter members we have grown in thirty-five years to 135 members in 1958, upholding the ethics of the classification manuel, striving to obtain the best possible representative of that classification. Our attendance, generally speaking, ranges between 90 and 93 per cent throughout the years. Realizing the effort it takes to make up with only two others clubs in the vicinity shows the spirit of the club in their effort to keep up their attendance record, and their interest in Rotary. What you have read is an accounting of 35 years of Rotary in Las Vegas. Actually, it is a story of what can be done in service to youth, community, vocation and world through the efforts of a band of men thinking in the same trend of service. What it does not tell is the fellowship and life long friendships the club has made through the years, helping make living brighter with the ever extended hand of help and friendship among its members and others, to not only make a better world in which to live but to live better in a world, which begins in your heart and mind. Written by Ted H. Brandt with the help of many members. April - 1958