Category Archives: History

Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our Club’s History – National Attention in 1952

Posted on October 22, 2012 by joannamartinez | 1 comment

As part of our celebration to mark the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the Rotary Club of Madison, Jerry Thain and Rich Leffler will be publishing original documents from the Club’s archives and other sources. We hope that these documents will recall for you the rich history of the Club and the times during this momentous century.

This week, Rich Leffler provides the following history piece:

The Rotary Club of Madison has, from its early days, sought members from a cross-section of the community, including faculty members at the University and leaders in the Wisconsin Historical Society. The Club took great pride in 1952 when Newsweek and Time, the two great newsweeklies, printed stories about two Madison Rotarians, Professor Mac McCarty and Society Director Cliff Lord. Mac was one of the leading figures in the University’s effort to create a state broadcasting network and a television station. He served as Club president in 1975–76. Cliff Lord had been Director of the Society for six years in 1952. The Society is one of the greatest libraries in the world for the study of American History (I should know: my life’s work has depended on the Society’s great research collection).

Continuing in this tradition of broad-based membership, today the Club has as members Mike Crane of Wisconsin Public Radio, who joined on October 3, and Society Director Ellsworth Brown, a member since 2005, in addition to new-member Diane Nixa, co-director of the Wisconsin Historical Foundation. (Ron Bornstein, director of Wisconsin Public Television, was president of the Club in 1992–93; Malcolm Brett, director of Broadcasting at UW-Extension and General Manager of WHA-TV, was a longtime member; Dick Erney and Nick Muller were also members when they were directors of the Society.) Ellsworth, by the way, has corrected one of the few mistakes Cliff Lord made: he has restored the Reading Room to its original state, down to the reading lamps, as it was before the “modernization” done in the mid-1950s. The Reading Room is now an architectural masterpiece. You should take a look.

The October 25, 1952, issue of The Rotary News contained the following report by secretary Brud Hunter.

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Posted in 5. Members, Centennial Celebration, History

Tagged Centennial Celebration, Membership, Networking, Rotary Club of Madison

Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our History Continued

Posted on October 4, 2012 by joannamartinez | 1 comment

THIS WEEK IN DOWNTOWN ROTARY HISTORY

The October 3, 1939, Rotary News summarized remarks made to the Club by Henry Noll, a native of Germany who had been a Madison newspaperman for 36 years, about getting back to the United States after being in Germany in the summer of 1939 and in Vienna when World War II began. He also noted his personal assessment of the political climate in Germany just prior to the war. The Rotary News caption “Interesting Experience” seems quite the understatement.
–submitted by Jerry Thain

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Posted in Centennial Celebration, History

Tagged Centennial Celebration, Rotarians, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary News

Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our History

Posted on September 20, 2012 by joannamartinez | 3 comments

THIS MONTH IN DOWNTOWN ROTARY HISTORY
As part of our celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Rotary Club of Madison, Jerry Thain and Rich Leffler are today beginning a series in which we will publish original documents from the Club’s archives. We hope that these documents will recall for you the rich history of the Club and the times during this momentous century.

Here is our first posting for the series:

Paul F. Hunter, Sr.

On September 1, 1939, the German Army and Air Force attacked Poland. After diplomatic efforts failed to end the invasion, on September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. For the second time in a generation, the lights were going out all over Europe. The essay, almost certainly written by Paul F. Hunter, Sr., the longtime Club secretary and the editor of The Rotary News, appeared in the News issue of September 12, 1939 (volume XXIV, no. 18, p. 3).
The essay is beautifully, lyrically written and also suggests the broad international connections our Club had at the time. It presciently fears “what may be the worst war in the history of the world.” Even that understated the horrors that were to come. It also speaks of a halcyon America, which was perhaps a rose-colored vision of the reality of 1939. But it may have been true of Madison, Wisconsin. Even then, in the last days of the Depression, Madison was a special place.

–submitted by Rich Leffler

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Centennial Celebration, History

Tagged Fellowship, History, Membership, Rotary, Rotary Club of Madison

Commitment to Service

Posted on July 11, 2012 by joannamartinez | 3 comments

You know, there is nothing like the joy of helping others. This year marks 100 years of dedication to the ideals of “Service Above Self” for the Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin.

Many years ago, during my undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., embarked on a journey to establish a food drive for needy citizens in the Madison area. We stood outside of the Copps and Sentry grocery stores at Hilldale and Park Street and collected canned goods to be donated to local food pantries. During the winter month of November, we stood in the cold, laughed, joked, collected cans, and froze, but it was great fun. I still look back on those days with many fond memories. I remember thinking of how much more effective we could be if we just had a few more members. We could cover more ground in less time. We would have a greater presence at the grocery stores and the exiting shoppers would be more willing to donate more food. More members would increase our overall enjoyment and camaraderie.

I guess, in some ways, I’ve always been searching for an experience like the Rotary Club of Madison. Chartered on June 2, 1913, our Downtown Club is pretty special. Not only are we considered a large Club with a size that measures within the 10^th largest Rotary Clubs in the world, but we truly have a lot of helping hands and warm hearts. I had the right idea, during my fraternity’s food drive; it’s great to be part of a group with so many community advocates and business leaders. It has been a busy season, getting ready for a new Rotary year. I’m especially proud of our Club because we really care about this community and making the City of Madison a great place to live. We have over 40 Club committees totally consisting of volunteers. What a group! As President, it will be my pleasure to spend an hour a week with so many of you that truly appreciate the joys of helping others.

Yours In Service,
Wes Sparkman
Club President

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Posted in 1. President's Messages, 4. Fellowship Groups, 5. Members, History

Tagged Fellowship, Membership, Rotary Club of Madison

20th Annual Vocational Fellowship Luncheon Day

Posted on June 26, 2012 by joannamartinez | Leave a comment

Brent Lindell, Mike Franzen, Tim Muldowney & Gerry Ring at UW Foundation Luncheon

On June 20, members and guests participated in our 20^th Annual Vocational Fellowship Luncheon Day. Instead of our regular meeting at the Inn on the Park, members enjoyed this opportunity to get to known one another better in a small group setting as they learned more about various members’ businesses.

Mike Knetter of UW Foundation with Rotarian Londa Dewey

The idea behind this luncheon dates back to the founding of the organization in 1905 when Paul Harris met with three friends to discuss an idea that he was developing. From this discussion came the concept of a business club to promote fellowship and, by rotating weekly meetings at their various places of business, become better acquainted with one another’s vocations. This practice of rotating meeting is how Rotary got its name.

Ken Monteleone of Fromagination

We thank the following hosts for their hospitality last week:

BadgerBOTS Education Center (Maggie Peterman host)
Fromagination (Ken Monteleone host)
Madison Children’s Museum (Ruth Shelly host)
Mid-West Family Broadcasting (Ted Waldbillig host)
Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries (Joe Xanthopoulos host)
Placon Corporation (Tom Mohs host)
St. Mary’s Hospital (Frank Byrne host)
University of Wisconsin Foundation (Walt Keough host)
Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, The Morgridge Institute for
Research & WARF (Steve Mixtacki, host)
Wisconsin Legislative Council (Terry Anderson host)

: Ruth Shelly leads the tour at Madison Children’s Museum

John Bonsett-Veal and Lin Rohr

Cathy Durham

We extend a special thanks to Rico Goedjen, chair of our Vocational Opportunities Committee and his committee for organizing this year’s Fellowship Luncheon Day.

The luncheon held at the Wisconsin Legislative Council warranted the following comments from two of our members:

“We enjoyed a tasty lunch and a very interesting, informative overview of the nonpartisan LRB by Sen. Joan Ballweg of Markesan. Afterwards, the group was treated to a climb to the topmost reaches of the Capitol, at the foot of lady Forward.” –Rick Kiley

Donna Beestman, Lynn Phelps and Philip Petrowski

“Terry–You literally took the site visit program to new heights. It was fantastic. Thank you for organizing this. I learned a lot from you and Joan and I will never look out my office window with the view of the Capitol the same way again. What a rare and wonderful treat to trot to the top (well, not exactly trot!)”
–Joan Collins

Paul Karch

Rick Kiley, John Faust and Nancy Young

Rotary Club of Madison Board’s Year-End Party

Posted on June 20, 2012 by joannamartinez | 1 comment

On Monday, June 4, it was picture-perfect weather for the Rotary Club of Madison Board of Directors year-end party held at the home of Karl and Mary Janet Wellensiek.

For this last board meeting of the Rotary year, spouses/significant others were also invited, and there were 45 people in attendance. The board meeting was shortened for this month to give members and guests an opportunity to enjoy some fellowship time together.

President Paul Riehemann gave special thanks to outgoing board members Juli Aulik, Ted Ballweg, Bryan Chan, Jim Christensen, Neil Fauerbach, Patty Franson, and Larry Zanoni as well as outgoing Sgt.-at-Arms Tim Stadelman. Thanks to these members for their service to Rotary!

Our Kitchen Committee served a picnic style meal with all the fixin’s in the beautiful backyard of the Wellensiek’s. A good time was had by all!

We extend our thanks to Karl and Mary Janet for hosting the group, to Kevin Hoffman and A to Z Rentall for supplying the tables and chairs, and to the Kitchen Committee for preparing another terrific meal.