Club History

Back in the late 80's a small Rotary club in Duarte, Cal which is located about 25 miles East of Pasadena near a town called Azusa. They were losing members, so they decided to invite women who were owners or managers including professional women, to join Rotary. Rotary International discovered the action and brought suit against the Duarte Rotary club. The action ended up in the US Supreme Court. In 1987 The United States Supreme Court ruled that women must be allowed as members of service clubs. This club, I am proud to say, was the first in Southern Oregon to add women to our membership in the year 1987. That year we added 5 girls; Lindsay Berryman, classification Bakery goods Retail, Beverly Jackson, Newspaper Publishing, Sue Naumes, Fruit Packing, April Sevick, Collection Service, and Patsy Smullin, Television Broadcasting. Patsy is the only remaining member of the original 5, and we cherish her membership. As a matter of note, 3 ladies have served as Presidents of this club. Gail Schoenberg 2007-2008, Mary Holbrook, 2009-2010, and Katie Shepard, 2011-2012. (from remarks made in 2013)

Sometime in the 70s, we changed our clubs office which was located above Johnston’s Shoe store which is now Pacific Diamond. Somehow one of the file cabinets was emptied and we lost most of our records including all of the rosters as well as our original Charter. Sometime later I asked the membership if anyone had copies of the rosters. I had a great response and managed to collect them from 1946 to the current date. The charter was replaced in 1998 from RI. Sadly the The charter was replaced in 1998 from Rotary International. Sadly the original could not be replaced so our new charter though dated May 15, 1923, was signed by the President of Rotary International in 1998.