On Feb. 23, 1905, Paul P. Harris, Gustavas Loehr, Silvester Schiele and Hiram Shorey gathered at Loehr’s office in downtown Chicago for the first Rotary Club meeting.
Harris moved to Chicago in 1896 and opened a law practice. Four years later, he met with fellow attorney Bob Frank for dinner on Chicago’s north side. Following the dinner, the two walked the area and Harris was impressed with the camaraderie among the businessmen of the area and wondered if there was a way to channel it.
The Rotary website, www.rotary.org quotes Harris as saying, “I was sure that there must be many other young men who had come from farms and small villages to establish themselves in Chicago. Why not bring them together?”
From a simple aspiration of camaraderie, Rotary, now known as Rotary International, was born. Today, Rotary has grown to 1.2 million members in over 200 countries. The service organization expanded to the Nebraska Panhandle on April 1, 1920. The Rotary Club of Lincoln served as the sponsor for new clubs in Alliance, Chadron and Scottsbluff.
A century later, the Alliance Rotary Club is 30 members strong and meets weekly at Newberry’s, hearing from guest speakers and organizing service work throughout the community. Jon Sperl is the current club president, the 94th president in the club’s 100-year history. The club celebrated their centennial on Tuesday, Aug. 18 at Alliance Skyview Golf Course.
“We have been planning this celebration for about a year,” said Sperl. “We have set dates about three times but have had to keep pushing it back due to the pandemic. So, I am extremely pleased that we finally get a chance to celebrate our 100th anniversary.”
On hand were several current and past members, along with spouses and friends. Special guests include District 5630 Governor Bob Taylor of Alma and past District Governor Scott McLaughlin of Kearney. Both congratulated the club on their milestone and spoke of Rotary’s impact on local communities and internationally.
Entertainment for the evening was provided by the club’s most senior members Rev. Don Mink and Larry Ring.
Mink, co-pastor of the Indian Mission Church of God, has been a member of Alliance Rotary for nearly half of the club’s existence. He served as president in 1974-75. He and wife Pat were first called to serve in Alliance in 1970.
Mink still regularly attends Rotary meetings, along with his daughter and fellow Rotarian Linda Abold. Mink has dedicated his life to service and said he is grateful for the ideals which Rotary practices including opening meetings with “The Pledge of Allegiance,” “The Four-Way Test” and prayer.
Ring, a retired grocery manager, served as the club president in 2006-07. He currently serves as the club’s historian.
“I used to think of Rotary as a club for old guys,” he joked. “Now I look around and most of the members are younger than my own children. That means we are in good hands for years to come.”
In recent years, the club has hosted chili feeds during basketball games, participated in the District’s Big Red Blowout fundraiser, provided dictionaries to Box Butte County third grade students, sponsored numerous high school students at Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), awarded scholarships to graduating seniors from Alliance and Hemingford and lent financial support to local projects such as Pillars in the Park and Alliance Rec Center’s playground project. Such efforts carry on the century-long tradition of community service.
Alliance Rotary highlights from the past 100 years:
• The first club officers were President W.R. Pate, Vice President Walter Metz, Secretary Rufus Jones and Sargeant at Arms J.J. Dixon. The first meeting place for the club was the Alliance Hotel.
• Prominent original members include Harry Gantz, Dr. Charles E. Slagle, Ed Knight, Ben J. Sallows, R.M. Hampton and Robert Graham. Gantz was a western Nebraska Lawyer who served in the legislature and was the longest living charter member. Slagle was a philanthropist who made the procurement of the Alliance Library Facility possible. The Knight family donated the Knight Museum facility, now the Knight Museum & Sandhills Center. Sallows was a prominent publisher. Hampton and Graham both served as president of the Nebraska Stock Growers.
• With the death of C.A. Newberry in 1932, his son Norman became a club member followed by his son-in-law Francis B. Girard, and later Francis’s sons Jim and Bernie. Bernie passed away on April 8, 2019 at the age of 91, completing 99 years of continuous family membership to the Alliance Rotary Club.
• In 1947 Nebraska divided into two Rotary districts with Highway 281 serving as the dividing point. All clubs on the west side became part of District 5630 except for Scottsbluff and Morrill who were part of the Wyoming and northern Colorado District.
• Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Alliance Rotary Club sponsored youth baseball teams. The club also assisted the Salvation Army fundraising effort with kettle shaking in front of Thiele Drug Store. Members still assist with kettle shaking today.
• The club moved its weekly meetings to the Drake Hotel, the first move in 44 years.
• In 1972 Harry Gantz, 86, a charter member, passed away. The Mitchell-Gantz Scholarship Foundation has benefited students in the Alliance area for many years. Billy Mitchell was Gantz’s father-in-law.
• Those who grew up in Alliance will remember visiting the Central Park playground. One of the main features of the playground was the Barrel of Fun, where children would run in place while the barrel rotated around them. Alliance Rotary purchased the Barrel for $1,235 in 1975, for the city park system.
• In March of 1984, Bob Howard terminated his 26 years of perfect attendance. Bob was the long-time club historian.
• Luella Nerland became the club’s first female member in 1992. Three years later she became the club’s first female president. In 2009, Linda Abold became the second female president in the club’s history. Her term started six consecutive years of Alliance Rotary Club under female leadership as Leah King, Nancy Reiber (twice) and Jana Osborn (twice) all served consecutive terms as president.