Please take the time to read this story all the way to the end.
San Francisco is vying for the opportunity to host another Rotary International Convention. The RI Convention Visiting Team was in San Francisco in early September and will announce its decision in January 2024. Meanwhile, in mid-September 2023, Charlotte Harris of the Rotary Club of Tucson contacted our Club, because she had been organizing a storage area of historically significant items from her Club's 102-year history. Charlotte found proceedings books from 1938, 1947, and 1977 when the RI Convention was held in San Francisco and sent these books to me.
Upon receipt, I began reading these proceedings to discover the history. I now share the Welcome Address by Arch Monson, Jr. who was President of the Rotary Club of San Francisco in 1976-1977. President Monson delivered the following at the 1977 Rotary International Convention:
"Thank you, President Bob. (President Munson was referring to Robert A. Manchester II from Youngstown, Ohio who was the RI President then.)
Chairman Kyozo, fellow Rotarians and our lovely ladies of Rotary, our guests.
Rotary Club No. 2 is indeed proud of the opportunity to welcome all of you to San Francisco, the City by the Golden Gate, which for the next several days will, in the words of President Bob, be truly a 'Gateway to Service through Rotary.'
We want you to be happy, to be comfortable, and to be rewarded by your visit here, and we hope that you will just have a great time in our city so that when you do return to your own homes, you will join that ever-increasing crowd who say when they hear the word San Francisco, [they think] 'That's my favorite city.'
Our club is proud to be No. 2 in the world of Rotary—proud to have had as our founding president the late Homer Wood who not only sparked the founding of our club in 1908 but also was a great motivator in bringing Rotary to Oakland, No. 3; Seattle, No. 4; Los Angeles, No. 5; and, of course, made many, many contributions to Rotary throughout his long, productive life.
We are proud to have given Rotary International three presidents: the late Al Roth, 1930-31; the late, great Hugh Brunnier, whom so many of you knew in 1952-53; and our senior active member, Charlie Wheeler, still active in our club, who was your president in 1943-44.
We are proud, as has been said, to be hosting our fourth Rotary International convention. And speaking of hosting, I, too, want to thank and tell you something about our club's host committee. It is chaired by Andy Berwick and co-chaired by Ray Hackett. It involves some 200 clubs in central and northern California from Districts 513, 516, and 517 and portions of Districts 519 and 522.
Now, we have the finest group of committee chairmen and subchairmen. I know well the hazards of talking about one of these committees and leaving out the rest, and yet, Home Hospitality must be singled out. Rotarians from Salinas on the south, Cloverdale on the north, and Sacramento on the east have opened their homes and their hearts to our visitors from around the world. Over 6,200 invitations have been extended, and I must say if you have not signed up, go to the Home Hospitality Booth in Brooks Hall and you will find Ray Winther and his great group anxious to assist you. This activity involves Rotarians from 109 clubs; and on Tuesday afternoon they will put in motion 113 buses and 4 ferry boats. 2,000 visitors will be picked up in private cars. If this isn't going to be a grand traffic jam, I don't know what is.
But they, like all of our committees, have worked long and hard, and it has been a joy to watch the work that they have been doing. Our host committee, 1,100 strong, is ready to help you in every way they can. Look for the blue blazers, yellow ties, yellow scarves on the ladies, and yellow armbands on all.
(omitted the paragraphs concerning RI President Bob Manchester's and Rotary Club of San Francisco President Munson's involvement in the Boy Scouts of America)
I would like to make just one more announcement. We would have loved to have had the opportunity to have every Rotarian do a meeting make-up at our club in the Palace Hotel. While the Hotel is large, it would have been impossible to allow every Rotarian attending this International Convention to do a make-up. So, we do hope, though, when you come back to San Francisco in smaller groups, you will make up at San Francisco Rotary No. 2 at the Palace Hotel where we have been for 62 years.
I want to share the changing times that we went through in the Palace Hotel after moving from Techau's Tavern in 1915. Our club was 150 strong in that year, but the Tavern was not large enough. So, we went to the Palace Hotel. The record will show that there were some complaints because the price of the luncheon had to be raised from 35 cents to 50 cents. For the benefit of the Sheraton Palace, I will not tell you what a luncheon costs today.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, have a good time in San Francisco, and we do hope that you will leave your heart with us."
Notes from the Editor: Our Club was chartered in 1908 and will celebrate its 115th birthday in November 2023. This story revealed how our Club was in 1977 and what efforts were needed to host an RI Convention. Our fingers are crossed that San Francisco will be selected once again to host an RI Convention.
Chairman Kyozo, fellow Rotarians and our lovely ladies of Rotary, our guests.
Rotary Club No. 2 is indeed proud of the opportunity to welcome all of you to San Francisco, the City by the Golden Gate, which for the next several days will, in the words of President Bob, be truly a 'Gateway to Service through Rotary.'
We want you to be happy, to be comfortable, and to be rewarded by your visit here, and we hope that you will just have a great time in our city so that when you do return to your own homes, you will join that ever-increasing crowd who say when they hear the word San Francisco, [they think] 'That's my favorite city.'
Our club is proud to be No. 2 in the world of Rotary—proud to have had as our founding president the late Homer Wood who not only sparked the founding of our club in 1908 but also was a great motivator in bringing Rotary to Oakland, No. 3; Seattle, No. 4; Los Angeles, No. 5; and, of course, made many, many contributions to Rotary throughout his long, productive life.
We are proud to have given Rotary International three presidents: the late Al Roth, 1930-31; the late, great Hugh Brunnier, whom so many of you knew in 1952-53; and our senior active member, Charlie Wheeler, still active in our club, who was your president in 1943-44.
We are proud, as has been said, to be hosting our fourth Rotary International convention. And speaking of hosting, I, too, want to thank and tell you something about our club's host committee. It is chaired by Andy Berwick and co-chaired by Ray Hackett. It involves some 200 clubs in central and northern California from Districts 513, 516, and 517 and portions of Districts 519 and 522.
Now, we have the finest group of committee chairmen and subchairmen. I know well the hazards of talking about one of these committees and leaving out the rest, and yet, Home Hospitality must be singled out. Rotarians from Salinas on the south, Cloverdale on the north, and Sacramento on the east have opened their homes and their hearts to our visitors from around the world. Over 6,200 invitations have been extended, and I must say if you have not signed up, go to the Home Hospitality Booth in Brooks Hall and you will find Ray Winther and his great group anxious to assist you. This activity involves Rotarians from 109 clubs; and on Tuesday afternoon they will put in motion 113 buses and 4 ferry boats. 2,000 visitors will be picked up in private cars. If this isn't going to be a grand traffic jam, I don't know what is.
But they, like all of our committees, have worked long and hard, and it has been a joy to watch the work that they have been doing. Our host committee, 1,100 strong, is ready to help you in every way they can. Look for the blue blazers, yellow ties, yellow scarves on the ladies, and yellow armbands on all.
(omitted the paragraphs concerning RI President Bob Manchester's and Rotary Club of San Francisco President Munson's involvement in the Boy Scouts of America)
I would like to make just one more announcement. We would have loved to have had the opportunity to have every Rotarian do a meeting make-up at our club in the Palace Hotel. While the Hotel is large, it would have been impossible to allow every Rotarian attending this International Convention to do a make-up. So, we do hope, though, when you come back to San Francisco in smaller groups, you will make up at San Francisco Rotary No. 2 at the Palace Hotel where we have been for 62 years.
I want to share the changing times that we went through in the Palace Hotel after moving from Techau's Tavern in 1915. Our club was 150 strong in that year, but the Tavern was not large enough. So, we went to the Palace Hotel. The record will show that there were some complaints because the price of the luncheon had to be raised from 35 cents to 50 cents. For the benefit of the Sheraton Palace, I will not tell you what a luncheon costs today.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, have a good time in San Francisco, and we do hope that you will leave your heart with us."
Notes from the Editor: Our Club was chartered in 1908 and will celebrate its 115th birthday in November 2023. This story revealed how our Club was in 1977 and what efforts were needed to host an RI Convention. Our fingers are crossed that San Francisco will be selected once again to host an RI Convention.