Rotary Club of LaGrange, Georgia: A Brief History

by Forrest Clark Johnson, III

Rotary International reached its 100th birthday, in February of 2005.   September 27th, 2003 was the 80th birthday of the Rotary Club of LaGrange, Georgia.  On the 75th anniversary of the local club, there was a special banquet and, to mark the occasion, publication of a club history, production of an award wining display at the District Conference, and creation of the LaGrange Rotary Club-Walter Y. Murphy Scholarship Fund at LaGrange College.  The goal was to raise $75,000.  The first third was contributed by Callaway Foundation, and the goal was surpassed with an initial sum of over $110,000.  

Rotary began in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, started by Paul Percy Harris, a 37 year old attorney.  Four men, at first seeking to develop friendships, “rotated” having the meetings at each other’s offices – that’s where Paul Harris came up with idea for the name.  Soon, similar clubs were formed in other towns and it became an organization.  Membership was based on vocations and partisan politics and denominationalism were “outlawed” from the start.

The first club in Georgia was in 1913 in Atlanta.  It was inspired by Ivan Allen, after he attended a club in Maryland.  At the International Convention held in Atlanta in 1917, the idea for a foundation to finance the organization’s worldwide missions was conceived.  A $1,000 contribution creates a Paul Harris Fellow, which can honor the donor or someone else. 

A Rotary Club for LaGrange was the idea of Fuller E. Callaway, Sr.  We are not sure where he first encountered Rotary, he was a widely traveled man, but he was also a man who knew a good thing when he saw it.   He was also a man who knew how to pick the right people to get things done and so he set his son, Cason, to work on it.  Planning meetings began in May 1923 with Fuller, Cason, Chilton Coleman, Hubert Quillian, and LaGrange Mayor Sanford H. Dunson, Jr.  The first official and regular meeting was July 11, 1923.  A charter was applied for on September 14^th, it was marked “received” in Chicago at International headquarters on September 20th, and the charter was officially granted on September 27th, 1923. 

One problem for the LaGrange Club was the “two members per vocation” limit then in force because many of the LaGrange leaders had manufacturing as their vocations.  LaGrange received permission to create sub-groups within vocations.  So, for manufacturing, LaGrange had categories like: Yarn, Hose, Heavy Duck, Light Duck, Sales, and, for Fuller himself, the category “Capitalist”.  The charter members were: Sam Austin, John Baugh, Hal Childs, Fuller Callaway, Cason Callaway, Chilton Coleman, Wallace Clark, Joe Dunson, Jr., Sanford Dunson, Gene Dunaway (whose wife was a Dunson), Herman Fincher, Johnny Jones, Hatton Lovejoy, Jud Milam, Talley Moncrief, Harvey Nimmons (whose wife was a Callaway), Harry Nooner, Hubert Quillian, Pete Redding, and the Rev. A. B. Vaughan.

A grand chartering banquet held on Oct 11th, with 100’s of people and dignitaries from as far away as Orlando...including Rotary International Past President, Albert S. Adams, the keynote speaker.   It was held at the Dallis Street Y.M.C.A. building.  The Troup County Archives houses the club’s historic photographs and papers, including bulletins dating back to 1923.

On Nov. 12, 1923, the club first published its bulletin which included the remark “This is our first assault with intent to issue a bulletin.  If we get by with this one, we’re liable to do this every week.”  The bulletin motto was “Published Every Tuesday – Regardless”.  It seems the bulletin editors have always had a sense of humor, as the current bulletin motto is “All the Rotary News That Fits, We Print”.   Most members now receive theirs through email.   Members used to sing at every meeting and the club song was “Prairie Flower”.  A tradition of Annual Banquets began in December, 1923, called “Ladies’ Night” until 1992 when women were admitted, locally. 

Rotary has accomplished much in the last 80 years.  Anything to promote the town has had Rotary’s hand in it….scouting, education, health, recreation, the arts.  A connection with LaGrange College is famous. The club has met there, often.  Most of the buildings are named for Rotarians; there has been a Rotaract Club since 1977; there have been over 50 Georgia Rotary Student Scholars there, and every college president since 1929 has been a member of the club.  Two of them: Waights G. Henry, Jr. and Walter Y. Murphy, have been District Governors of Rotary.  There exists a Hubert T. Quillian Book Fund at the college, started by Rotary.  The club created the Walter Murphy Scholarship Fund, to which a contribution of $1,000 creates a Walter Murphy Fellow, just like a $1,000 contribution to the Georgia Rotary Student Fund creates a Will Watt Fellow, and a $1,000 contribution to the Rotary Foundation creates a Paul Harris Fellow. 

Rotary Club of LaGrange raised the money, in one month, to build the first permanent public library when the Woman’s Club donated the land in 1925.  They also raised the money to build the facilities for Camp Viola when Miss Viola Burks donated the land for it, furnished the playground equipment in 1949, and got a $10,000 Rotary Grant to build the Frankie Fling Newman facility.  LaGrange Rotary has sponsored Little League teams for 50 years and been the local sponsor of the Georgia Star Student Program since its beginning in 1959.  Today, it is the only original sponsor still active in the program.  Rotarians hosted two French Rotary Clubs for a week in 2001 for the 25th anniversary rededication of LaFayette’s statue.  The club was a leader in the Habitat for Humanity and Jimmy Carter Work Project in 2003. 

Fellowship remains an integral part of the club’s purpose and special programs and speakers at the weekly meeting are part of that.  Special events from the past included   bringing John Phillip Sousa to town; having Franklin D. Roosevelt speak to us, and World War I’s most decorated soldier, Sgt. Alvin York, in 1932.

The LaGrange Rotary Club held an annual Health Fair for the community for 25 years, and in 2002-3 produced an AIDS Awareness video for local schools.  Support for The Boys and Girls Club is a special club project.  Character Education in the schools and workplace receive special attention from Rotary.  The club used to furnish several “charity” beds at Dunson Hospital (LaGrange’s first public hospital, forerunner of West Georgia Medical Center).  When Rotary International undertook the PolioPlus Campaign, to eliminate polio from the world by 2005, the assigned quota for LaGrange was $17,808.  Campaign leaders, Charles Hudson and Gardner Newman, set our goal at $20,000…but when the campaign ended, LaGrange had raised $42,835.  Currently, our club has contributed over $120,000 towards this world community project.  An additional commitment has been made for $12,000 and one fourth of that was raised at the club’s first, community fund raising event, a benefit performance of the LaGrange Ballet.  These are just highlights of the Rotary Club of LaGrange, an organization devoted to “Service Above Self”, fellowship, promotion of our local community, and promotion of health, peace, and understanding throughout the world.  

LaGrange Rotary Presidents