Category: History

  • May 27: Memorial Day Program with El Ahlwardt

    May 27: Memorial Day Program with El Ahlwardt

    Join us Tuesday for our annual Memorial Day Program, organized by our History Committee.

    We are honored to welcome Commander El Ahlwardt as our speaker. Though he originally planned a career in business management, El shifted course after his junior year of college and joined the U.S. Navy. Over the next 21 years, he and his family served in 13 different locations before settling in Fishers. His final military assignment brought him here, where he served as the officer in charge during a joint post at the Department of Defense Information School at Fort Harrison. He retired in 1994, the same year Fort Harrison was decommissioned.

    Since then, Commander Ahlwardt has continued to serve—this time by honoring others through his active involvement in the City of Fishers ceremonies commemorating military service.

    We encourage you to invite a service member or guest to attend, and please remember to wear your RED, WHITE, and BLUE as we come together to honor and remember.

    All are welcome at Rotary programs. If attending in-person at The Rathskeller, reservations and prepayment are appreciated, but not required. Register on Square at https://rotary-club-of-indianapolis.square.site/. If registering on site we accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

    Lunch and networking start at 11:45 a.m. and the program runs 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.

    To join our meeting via Zoom starting at 12:15 p.m. go to https://zoom.us/j/710170874?pwd=bFE4ejJTc29IMlNzVmx1Wlg4MTA1UT09. While our Tuesday programs via Zoom are free to attend a suggested donation of $3 – $5 is appreciated in lieu of the typical room fee. These contributions help defray the cost of our hybrid meetings. Please note that donations to the Rotary Club of Indianapolis are not tax deductible. You can support our hybrid meetings at https://rotary-club-of-indianapolis.square.site/.

    Meeting ID: 710 170 874
    Password: 821795

    If joining via a mobile phone for audio only click one of the following numbers:
    +13126266799,,710170874#,,#,821795# US (Chicago)
    +19292056099,,710170874#,,#,821795# US (New York)

    You can also join us from a landline phone.
    +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
    +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

    Meeting ID: 710 170 874
    Password: 821795

  • October 20: Rotary Club of Indianapolis History Tour

    October 20: Rotary Club of Indianapolis History Tour

    Join fellow Rotarians for an up-close-and-person tour of our Club’s history during this private tour, arranged for by our History Committee. Join us early for lunch at the on-site cafe at 12 p.m. if you can.

    Friday, October 20 at 1 PM – 3 PM, Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, Indiana 46202

  • From the Archives

    Click to Enlarge

    The first known letterhead for the Indianapolis Rotary Club circa 1913. Some members of the Rotary Club of Indianapolis can trace their heritage to these founders. Current member, Janet Harris has a great uncle (Lucien King) listed on this early letterhead.

  • Rotary Club of Indianapolis Original Letterhead- Banner Quilt Project

    Rotary Club of Indianapolis Original Letterhead- Banner Quilt Project

    The attached image is a copy of the first known letterhead for the Indianapolis Rotary Club circa 1913. Some members of our club can trace their heritage to these founders. Janet Harris has a great uncle listed on this early letterhead.

    Club banners soon followed the start of Indianapolis Rotary. Resources at Rotary International sent us information concerning banners and facts about Rotary graphic memorabilia.
    Our History Committee would like to adopt this letterhead image for our committee publications.

    The History Committee is also creating two banner quilts. Suggested themes for banner quilts include banners from clubs throughout Indiana and banners across the United States.

    Our club has over a 1000 banners in storage that seldom see the light of day. The banner project will allow us to better display these rich tapestries of Rotary History.

    We wish to publicly thank Phyllis Geeslin and Thomas Mason for their generous contribution of time and skill implementing the banner project.

  • Did You Know? A Sports Moment in Rotary History, Charles Buschmann.

    Excerpt from Gregg Doyel, gregg.doyel@indystar.com, IndyStar, August 8, 2015

    buschmanDoyel: ‘Jim Thorpe of Indiana’ worth remembering
    Before (Rotarian) Charles Buschmann was done — he died in 1964 at age 96, the oldest member of the city’s Rotary Club — he had won state medals in gymnastics, helped found the Indianapolis Athletic Club, carried a bowling average in the 170s into his 70s and was described in a 1947 newspaper story as “the Jim Thorpe of Indiana.”

    Along the way he became business partners with Henry Severin, who built the Omni Severin in 1913. Charles Buschmann named his son after his business partner, and that son — Severin Buschmann Sr. — took the family into weird and wonderful directions. Read full story.

  • Renovated Rotary Building dedicated on IU School of Medicine campus

    Renovated Rotary Building dedicated on IU School of Medicine campus

    One of the oldest buildings on the Indiana University School of Medicine campus has been both transformed and preserved with a $10 million renovation, and university leaders will gather Friday afternoon for a dedication of the newly restored historic Rotary Building. (Direct Link to Article – credit: IU Newsroom)

    At the north end of Ball Gardens on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus between Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health and the Sidney and Lois Eskenzai Hospital, the Rotary Building dates to 1931, when much of the current campus did not yet exist.

    The building served initially as a children’s convalescent unit associated with Riley Hospital, which had opened in 1924. Members of Rotary clubs across Indiana raised $276,000 to pay for the new facility.

    The Rotary Building has served a variety of purposes over the decades, most recently as the home of the IU School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology until the opening of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute in 2011.

    The subsequent $10 million renovation project was overseen by Schmidt Associates, working with IU architects and facility planners. The goal was to restore the building’s original beauty while modernizing the structure to meet the needs of the future.

    The renovation has produced 40,000 gross square feet of office and academic space, now housing the IU-Kenya Partnership, the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology, the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and offices of the Department of Surgery.

    Led by IU President Michael A. McRobbie, IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz and IU School of Medicine Dean Jay L. Hess, the dedication program will begin at 1 p.m. Friday in the Ruth Lilly Learning Center Auditorium of the Riley Hospital Outpatient Center.

  • Phyllis Geeslin – The Five Things I Love

    Phyllis GeeslinThe Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is celebrating 125 years since the inauguration of Harrison as the 23rd president. Rotarian Phyllis Geeslin, the site’s president and CEO, says issues that were important to Harrison were the opening of Ellis Island, a sense of history and a good diet of fish, beef and fresh vegetables. Click here to see some of Geeslin’s favorite places to eat.

  • Rotarian Phyllis Geeslin Receives Lifetime Achievement Award!

    Rotarian Phyllis Geeslin Receives Lifetime Achievement Award!

    Since 1993, Phyllis Geeslin has been leading the Harrison Site onward and upward. In that time, she has accomplished much that has enriched our shared community, enhanced the guest experience and preserved Benjamin Harrison’s legacy.

    In recognition of those years of service, dedication and contributions to the field of history, Phyllis will receive the 2013 Eli Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Indiana Historical Society (IHS).

    She will receive her award during IHS’s annual Founders Day event on Monday, December 2, at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis.

    Rotarian Phyllis Geeslin has also served as a Club Director, is a Paul Harris Fellow and the current History Committee Chairwoman.

  • “The Dream 50 Years Later – What Does It Mean?”

    “The Dream 50 Years Later – What Does It Mean?”

    The 50th Anniversary Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech

    Monday, August 26, 2013 at the Indiana Historical Society, 7:00 p.m. Download Flyer.

    Panel Discussion

    Moderator: Erika Smith, metro columnist, The Indianapolis Star

    Rufus Burrow, Jr., Indiana Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of Theological Social Ethics at Christian Theological Seminary,; author of God and Human Dignity: The Personalism, Theology, and Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006) and Martin Luther King Jr. for Armchair Theologians (Westminster John Knox, 2009)

    Monroe H. Little, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, , published in Afro-Amercian Studies and American Education; and teaches “African-American History”

    Kevin Brown, Richard S. Melvin Professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law – Bloomington; author of over 50 writings on race, education and law including Race, Law and Education in the Post-Desegregation Era (Carolina Academic Press 2005) and Because of Our Success: The Changing Racial and Ethnic Ancestry of Blacks on Affirmative Action (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2014)

    August 28 – Anniversary March. Download Poster.

    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, 5:30 p.m.

    August 28 – Celebration Event Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Download Poster.

    Delivery of King speech by specially chosen IPS student, 6:00 p.m.

  • An Historic Moment

    In 1947, longtime Rotarian and IU graduate Danny Danielson coached the IU Baseball team. Danny left his position of alumni field secretary to fill the shoes of Paul (Pooch) Harrell.