Fort Myers Rotary South turns 40

The charter members of the Fort Myers Rotary Club South on March 1, 1969. It was an inauspicious beginning 40 years ago for a group of new Rotarians in South Fort Myers. Their first official meeting was held in the ladies locker room of the old Fort Myers Country Club.

"We were integrated with the females before they were even allowed to join," joked Paul Page, the only remaining active member of the organization's 21 original charter members.

Today, Fort Myers Rotary South proudly counts as members 135 of the community's most influential business leaders.

"It's been a fantastic time of being in the club," said Mr. Page, 79, who was in the ready-mix concrete business. "What we do in the community makes it very rewarding."

The Rotarians' motto, "Service Over Self," is known worldwide. Indeed, there are 32,000 Rotary clubs and 1.2 million members in more than 170 countries.

Rotary International has taken up causes such a polio vaccinations and is largely responsible for wiping out the disease. Fort Myers Rotary South has also created its own programs, including an athletic scholarship program that awards $5,000 every year to two of the top student athletes nominated by schools in Lee County.

Rotary South is like a fraternity of local industry, representing almost every enterprise in Southwest Florida: medicine, newspaper publishing, nonprofits, legal services, grocery stores, education, trucking, television broadcasting and many more.

"If you need to get something done in the community, you have the Rotarians," said member Gary Trippe, president of Oswald Trippe and Company. "They can pull together and get it done."

Rotary South members are involved in the community in myriad ways. They pick up trash along College Parkway as part of the Adopt-A-Road program. They provide scholarships for exchange students and work in partnership with United Way and the Boy Scouts. They donate dictionaries to third-graders at Heights Elementary School.

"Dear Rotary Club members, thank you for my dictionary," began a thankyou letter one of the third-graders sent to club President Bo Turbeville recently. "I've read so much of it. I even found the word acorn. I've never had my own dictionary. It will be good for me to look up things and it's also very stylish."

Members are both veteran and relatively new. Mr. Trippe, for instance, hasn't missed a meeting in 26 years, and Mr. Turbeville, the club's 41st president, joined Rotary South seven years ago. He's vice president of Accent Business Products and chairman of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp.

"Never did I think I'd be in charge of a club that has truly the biggest social and civic peers within our community," he said. "I'm truly humbled." He's also made friendships and business connections that will last a lifetime.

Although the goal is helping the community, there is an unwritten rule that Rotarians do business with other Rotarians.

"We certainly do take care of each other and look out for each other," said Mr. Trippe. "That's a side benefit of being in Rotary. You're with people you trust. You're with people you like. You're with people who share the same values."

But he added, "The person who joins the club strictly for business purposes probably will not stay a member of the club."

Although there's no secret handshake, Rotary members are accepted at meetings anywhere they travel in the world.

"We go to dinner, play golf together, have happy hour drinks," Mr. Turbeville said. "It's a commitment. It's a lot like a marriage. You have to work at it and keep understanding it."

Jack Chancellor, a former CEO for the American Lung Association and the 20th president of Rotary South, is hosting a banquet to celebrate the organization's 40 years at the Royal Palm Yacht Club on Friday, March 13. "This celebration is really honoring the leadership of the past 40 years," he said, adding the club's stability and impact on the community is due to those who have been involved over the years.

Rotary South is "fairly young as far as Rotary clubs go," he said. "We have a lot of young, energetic folks as opposed to people who are retired and sort of at the end of their careers. Ours is more of an outcropping of new leaders who have come into the community.

"We have an awful lot of fun and camaraderie."

Mr. Chancellor noted that 32 of the 35 past presidents who are still living will attend the banquet. The organization's first secretary, former Sen. Connie Mack III, will be there.

"It's just amazing to me that people are still that committed to their friends and experiences in Rotary South even after all these years," Mr. Chancellor said.