What is Rotary?

A blue and yellow rotary logo is shown.

History of the Franklin Noon Rotary Club

The Franklin Noon Rotary Club was chartered on January 13, 1948 by Judge Jim Warren. Among the founding members were Dr. Harry Guffee, Rev. Henry Moberly, and Bill Miller. Sometime during the winter of 1948, the new Rotary Club began looking for a fundraising project and the “Rotary Wheel” started spinning for the Franklin Rodeo. After much work and prayer, the first Rodeo was held in May of 1949 and it was a great success. Every member of The Franklin Noon Rotary Club has an assigned job and a key task in the production of the Rodeo. Now celebrating seven decades of service, the Franklin Noon Rotary Club has been instrumental in distributing over $4 million to local charities and programs during its long history, answering Rotary’s call to “Service Above Self.

To learn more about the Franklin Noon Rotary Club, visit our website at www.FranklinNoonRotary.com

About Rotary International

“Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be known by the results it achieves.” Paul P. Harris

Our 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man, Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.

Our ongoing commitment

Rotarians have not only been present for major events in history, we’ve been a part of them. From the beginning, three key traits have remained strong throughout Rotary:

We’re truly international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents. Today we’re working together from around the globe both digitally and in-person to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.

We persevere in tough times. During WWII, Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Japan were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.

Our commitment to service is ongoing. We began our fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. By 2012, only three countries remain polio-endemic, down from 125 in 1988.