© 2003, Rotary Club of Charleston

P.O. Box 21029
Charleston, SC 29413-1029

Club secretary:
Carroll Schweers
chasrot@comcast.net

Club sponsors myriad projects in 1950s
Community benefits from work at Marion Square, more

From "Service Above Self: A History of the Rotary Club of Charleston -- 1920 - 2004," published Feb. 2005.

Read more. You can learn all about the Club's activities in the 1950s by downloading the full chapter.

The Club entered the 1950s operating for the first time officially under the standard constitution, which Rotary International had approved in 1949. In the middle part of the decade about the time the Club celebrated its 35th anniversary, District Governor David McLeod of Florence told members the Rotary Club of Charleston was the number one club in South Carolina.

At the beginning of the decade, the Club's newsletter, the Keyway, was four pages long and featured small ads from establishments such as Copleston's Klendry, Paul Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Carolina Coffee, Reeves Oil Co., Ideal White Swan Laundry, SC National Bank, Charleston Oil Co., Purity Ice Cream Co., Wecco Printers, First Federal Savings & Loan and Penney's. By the end of the decade, the Keyway featured no ads.

Membership

The Club gained 21 members over the decade and ended it with 144 members. It also hosted the District Conference in 1959.

Projects and community service

Rotarians helped the Boy Scouts organize seven new Cub Packs and attracted 140 new Cubs through calling on various institutions and securing their support. In the early part of the decade Rotary began sponsorship of the Boy Scout Merit Badge Show, and in 1955 this event netted over $2,600 for the Scouts.

Club members also donated $10,000 to a renovation project for Marion Square and led a beautification project at the Pinewood Tuberculosis Hospital. Additionally, the Charleston Club led the way for a district-wide special assessment of members to help pay for a station wagon for the Crippled Children's Society.

The Club again had the honor of having a member serve as district governor when Ralph Meadowcroft was elected to this office for the 1957-58 Rotary year.

Notable speakers

Among the notable speakers during the 1950s were:

• Admiral Phil Womble, who engineered the "hoax" of the year by signing up members for Navy duty;
  
• Adaier Baissell of the Rotary Club of Charleville, France, who thanked members for what they had done for his club during World War II;
  
• George W. Williams, who provided a history of the early Santee-Cooper project from the 1790s to the 1840s;
  
• Rotary International Vice President Halsey Knapp, who spoke to the Club during Ladies' Night.

Other speakers included Congressman Mendel Rivers and Dr. William Prioleau, President of the Medical Society of South Carolina.

-- David Abel, contributing editor