The 75

th Anniversary Rotarygrams,

published February 26, 1988, told the

story “How Rotary Came to

Beaumont,” when Robert Cornell,

president of the Houston Rotary Club,

and R. Stanley, Rotary International

Vice President, came to town on

February 26, 1913 and presided over

the organization of the Beaumont club

at the Crosby Hotel.

Founding members included

Charles Emmer, Beaumont Telephone

Company, Marshall Muse, Rosenthal

Dry Goods, Will Keith, Keith Drug

Company, Marshall Walker,

Beaumont Gas Company, Jim Mapes,

Beaumont Enterprise, Jim Edwards,

Insurance & Real Estate, and Ed

Emerson, Beaumont Electric Light &

Power. Emerson, born in Baltimore

and reared in Boston, worked for

Stone & Webster, a Boston holding

company that sent him to Texas in

1911 to operate Beaumont Electric

Light & Power Company. He was

elected president of the new Rotary

club and served two terms, presiding

over the Second Anniversary in 1915.

On February 24, 1915, the

Beaumont Enterprise published the

“Rotary Club Birthday” story,

reporting that the Club headed by

President Emerson would celebrate its

second anniversary on Friday night,

February 26, with a banquet at the

Crosby Hotel and a dance at the

Neches Club. The party would also

celebrate the tenth anniversary of the

first Rotary club, the one founded

February 23, 1905 in Chicago. For

the Beaumont club, a celebration

committee headed by Tom J. Lamb

and including Marshall Muse, Peter

Bihn, and Rupert Cox announced that

Emmett Lennon, a well-known

Houston singer, would perform at the

Neches Club, which was located on

the fourth floor of the Kyle Opera

House. The Enterprise noted that the

local club had grown to a membership

of 114 business men, each

representing a separate industry or

profession.

The Club was growing rapidly as

was the city. Since the spectacular

Spindletop oil discovery in 1901, the

town’s population had grown from

9,000 to well over 20,000. An

economy based on lumber, rice, and

railroads had been transformed by oil

production and refining. Now, 600

men worked in the Magnolia

Refinery, 350 in the Spindletop oil

field, 85 for Gulf Pipe Line, 265 in

iron working shops, and over 400 on

the railroads. The city boasted two

newspapers – Beaumont Enterprise

and Beaumont Journal – and four

banks – American National,

Commercial National, First National,

and Gulf National. There were ten

public schools, seven for white

children and three for colored

children; and more than thirty

churches, white and colored.

Numerous civic, cultural, and social

groups included the YMCA,

Women’s Reading Club, Shakespeare

Club, Daughters of the American

Revolution, Beaumont Musical

Society, Knights of Columbus,

Beaumont Country Club, and

Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.

Community leaders included County

Judge Robert W. Wilson, Mayor

Emmett Fletcher, and Chamber

President J. J. Nathan. The Chamber

worked hard to promote regional

economic development, praising local

business and industry – lumber, rice,

railroads, and oil -- and reporting

about a new dredging project on the

Neches River to develop Beaumont as

a deep water port. “Beaumont is the

logical … gateway for commerce

created by these industries,” the

Chamber declared, “and is surely

destined to become a great inland port

and important gateway for commerce,

not only for our immediate territory,

but for entire Southwest.”

February 26, 2013 ROTARYGRAMS Vol. 100, No. 35

Rotary Club of Beaumont: “A Progressive Organization” 100th Anniversary Rotarygrams

As Beaumont was changing, so

was the Rotary Club, growing in

membership and expanding its

mission. Like Paul Harris and the

founders of the Chicago club,

founders of the Beaumont club

probably aimed first at self-interest,

that is, to promote their own

businesses. But like Paul Harris and

his fellow Rotarians in Chicago, Ed

Emerson and Beaumont Rotarians

soon amended their program to

include ethics and public service.

Emerson, who also served as president

of the Beaumont Chamber of

Commerce and the Beaumont Country

Club, became a spokesman for service

ideals in the new Rotary Club.

“Selfishness has no place in Rotary,”

he said in 1915. We are working for

“the up building of Beaumont and its

great future,” and believe “that every

man owes an obligation to his

generation and to his community. “

Paul Harris, Ed Emerson, and

other Rotarians who founded clubs

and championed public service were

part of the Progressive Era (1890-

1917), a period of national reform

which has been covered by numerous

historians including John W.

Chambers, II, author of The Tyranny

of Change: America in the

Progressive Era, 1900-1917 (1980).

Americans all across the nation

strived to solve problems arising from

industrialization, immigration, and

urbanization, problems including

corruption in business and

government, crime, poverty,

overcrowding, disease, child labor,

prostitution, and alcoholism.

Chicago, the birth place of Rotary,

was notorious for crime, corruption,

and prostitution, as depicted by

muckraker Upton Sinclair in his

novel, The Jungle (1906), which

described the filth and terrible

working conditions in a Chicago meat

packing plant, and as portrayed by the

poet Carl Sandburg in his poem

Chicago (1914), when he pointed to

the “painted women … luring the

farm boys,” the gunmen who “kill and

go free to kill again,” and the faces of

“women and children” who suffer

from “wanton hunger.” At the same

time, Sandburg praised the energy and

power of Chicago, “half–naked,

sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player

with Railroads and Freight Handler to

the Nation.”

During the Progressive Era,

Americans were optimistic. They

believed in a better world and the

ability of people to achieve it.

Energized with collective action, they

worked to solve problems and reform

the nation. Political officials, business

people, professionals, and volunteers

attacked myriad problems. Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard

Taft, and Woodrow Wilson initiated

anti-trust litigation against

corporations, expanded national parks,

and supported legislation for

regulation of business and industry.

Congress passed laws requiring safety

in food and drugs, outlawing interstate

transportation of prostitutes,

regulating the banking and monetary

systems, prohibiting unfair trade

practices, providing federal funds for

state highways, limiting medicinal use

of narcotics, and restricting child

labor. American voters approved

constitutional amendments for a

federal income tax, direct election of

senators, women’s suffrage, and

prohibition of alcohol. States initiated

workers compensation programs and

adopted democratic reforms for the

initiative, referendum, and recall.

Doctors organized the American

Medical Association, teachers the

National Education Association,

workers the International Brotherhood

of Teamsters, farmers the National

Farm Bureau Federation, social

workers the National Federation of

Settlements, black and white people

the National Association for

Advancement of Colored People,

businessmen the U. S. Chamber of

Commerce, and women the National

Consumers League, Women’s Trade

Union League, and National Child

Labor Committee. Volunteers

organized the Anti-Saloon League,

YMCA, YWCA, Camp Fire Girls,

Boy Scouts of America, and

settlement houses for immigrant

families, such as Jane Addams’ Hull

House in Chicago.

Chambers and other historians do

not mention Rotary as a manifestation

of the Progressive Era, but probably

the organization does qualify, as it

was founded “center stage” in

Chicago in 1905, and was an energetic

fellowship of businessmen who soon

adopted a progressive agenda of

public service. Not long after its

founding, Rotary developed numerous

clubs across the nation, having more

than 70 by 1913 when the Beaumont

club was organized. In 1907 Chicago

Rotarians led a campaign to install

public restrooms on city streets, and

later, many clubs sponsored public

service projects in their communities.

Rotarians in Beaumont helped

develop Central Park, donated dental

equipment to a charity hospital, and in

1919 provided leadership for the

organization of the Trinity-Neches

Council for the Boy Scouts of

America program. Here, in a

community service partnership,

Beaumont Rotarians led by member J.

Cooke Wilson helped advance the

Boy Scout program with its

progressive ideals of character,

citizenship, and personal fitness.

In March 1922, Beaumont

Rotarians answered a call for

community service. They rallied to

support fellow Rotarian B. A.

Steinhagen, mayor of the city, when

Beaumont suffered an outbreak of

violence by the Ku Klux Klan, when

Klan members beat, tarred, and

feathered two men, one white and one

black, and threatened to dynamite

Blessed Sacrament, a black Catholic

Church. Mayor Steinhagen

denounced the mob action and

Rotarians followed suit. At their

regular meeting in the Crosby Hotel

on Wednesday, March 22nd

, Rotarians

passed a resolution condemning the

Klan violence, and the next day joined

other business and professional men

to sign a petition demanding

enforcement of the law and protection

of the constitutional rights of all

citizens. Signers of the petition

included Rotarians Judge Stuart

Smith, T. V. Smelker, J. Cooke

Wilson, and L. Paul Tullos, along

with other civic leaders such as J. H.

Phelan, B. R. Norvell, Marrs

McClean, J. E. Broussard, Leo Ney,

W. F. Keith, W. D. Gordon, and J. S.

Maida.

From the beginning, the Beaumont

Rotary Club prospered, growing in

membership, benefitting by strong

leadership, and carrying out numerous

community service projects. Having

more than 100 members in 1915, club

membership reached 200 in 1937, and

350 in 1973, when the club qualified

for “large club” status. Beginning

with founding President Ed Emerson,

the club has been led by one hundred

presidents, men and women, diverse

in culture and religion, prominent in

business and profession, and notable

for civic leadership. They include oil

investors, real estate owners, retailers,

agents, brokers, auto dealers, printers,

contractors, publishers, ministers,

rabbis, architects, lawyers,

accountants, professors, corporate

officials, plant managers,

manufacturers, city officials, and

bankers. Especially noteworthy was

banker and civic leader John E. Gray,

who served as Rotary president for

1952-1953.

First Club Trading Banner

Over the years, the Rotary Club

sponsored numerous community

service projects including a Back to

School Program, Student Loan Fund,

Babe Zaharias Women’s Professional

Golf Tournament, and Arbor Day, a

beautification program planting oak

trees in city parks and the Lamar

University campus. The Club

supported development of the Family

Violence Center, a jogging tract and

playground equipment at Babe

Zaharias Park, wheelchair ramps in

downtown Beaumont, Jacob’s

neighborhood park, Wuthering

Heights Park, Tyrrell Historical

Library, and a greenhouse for patients

at Schlesinger’s Geriatric Center. For

a number of years, the Club sponsored

Camp Enterprise, a three day retreat

where Rotarians and high school

students discussed the ideals and

realities of the Free Enterprise system.

In a major project to celebrate the

historic role of Beaumont in the Texas

oil industry, the Club joined with the

Lucas Gusher Association, city of

Beaumont, Lamar University, and the

Chiles-Western Company Oil

Museum of Fort Worth to develop the

Texas Energy Museum in downtown

Beaumont. And, to help fund

community service projects, President

Ken Ruddy and other club members

created the Beaumont Rotary

Foundation in 1973, an account that

reached almost $200,000 by 1988, and

currently over $400,000. With these

projects and others such as

Nicaraguan layettes for newborns and

mothers, an expansive literacy project

providing a personalized book for

every first grade student in Beaumont

for many years, a generous college

scholarship program for multiple

recipients, and the necessary

Foundation funding, the Club strives

to fulfill its mission of service to the

community.

Ed Emerson, a spokesman for

Progressive and Rotary ideals, died

not long after completing his two

terms as club president, and did not

have the pleasure of seeing the

national and international

development of Rotary. Now Rotary

International has more than 33,000

clubs and 1.2 million members

worldwide, as well as a variety of

national and international service

programs including Interact, Polio

Plus, Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary

Youth Leadership, Rotary Centers for

International Studies, Rotary Literacy

Programs, RYLA, Rotaract, and

Rotary Community Corps.

Nor did Emerson live to see the

official adoption of Rotary ideals

about business ethics and community

service, including “the four objects of

Rotary – acquaintance as an

opportunity for service, high ethical

standards in business and professions,

service ideals in personal, business,

and community life; and a world

fellowship in business and professions

for advancement of international

understanding, goodwill, and peace.”

He also missed seeing the publication

of Rotary’s pledges of “Service above

self” and the “Four Way Test: Is it

the truth? Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better

friendships? Will it be beneficial to

all concerned? “Here, in business

ethics and human relations, Rotary

reached for high ideals: “Do unto

others as you would have them do

unto you” and “Love your neighbor as

yourself.”

Many Beaumont Rotarians,

including banker John Gray, strived to

fulfill the community service ideals of

Rotary. Former president of Lamar

College, Gray served as president and

CEO of First National Bank in

Beaumont during 1959-1972. As

president of the largest bank, a locally

owned institution, Gray became the

town’s number one civic leader. He

exemplified the Rotary objective

about “development of acquaintance

as an opportunity for service,” when

his memberships in Rotary and the

Chamber of Commerce provided

networks of friends and associates

with whom he worked on numerous

civic projects. Also, extremely

valuable as a network of

acquaintances was the Board of

Directors at First National Bank, a

group of twenty-eight persons who

owned the bank and had much

influence and power in the town.

In1960, the twenty-eight bank

directors included eighteen Rotarians,

men with whom he shared business

and civic interests and who he saw

every Wednesday at Rotary. These

Rotarians included H. E. Dishman, Oil

Operator; Lum C. Edwards, J. S.

Edwards & Co.; Roy Maness, Gulf

Supply; L. W. Pitts, Architect; D. C.

Procter, Jefferson Drug; A. E.

Shepherd, Shepherd Laundries; E.

Harvey Steinhagen, Investments;

Ewell Strong, Attorney; L. E.

Cranston, manager of the Mobil Oil

refinery; and Roy C. Nelson, president

of Gulf States Utilities, the only New

York stock exchange company

headquartered in Beaumont.

With these remarkable networks

of acquaintances – Rotary, Chamber

of Commerce, and First National

Bank board -- Gray worked to build

the bank and advance the financial

and civic interests of his customers

and associates. But also, he strived to

fulfill Rotary’s “ideal of service” to

his community, and to answer the Ed

Emerson’s challenge that “every man

owes an obligation to his generation

and to his community.” Over the

years, Gray provided critical

leadership for United Appeals,

Beaumont Port Commission, St.

Elizabeth Hospital, McFaddin- Ward

House Museum, Trinity-Neches Boy

Scouts Council, Neches River

Festival, Babe Zaharias Memorial,

YMCA, U. S. Savings Bonds,

Beaumont Roughnecks, Lamar

College, and Jefferson County

Navigation District; he also served

four years as chairman of the very

important state-wide Coordinating

Board for Texas colleges and

universities. While many applauded

Gray’s leadership on numerous public

service projects, some Beaumonters

also credited him with high ideals.

Lawyer Robert Keith once remarked,

“I doubt 5% of Gray’s efforts were

motivated by personal gain.”

Likewise for lawyer Jerry Nathan,

former Rotary president who served

on the First National board,

remembers Gray as “a very humble

man” who “had no hidden personal

agenda and was genuinely interested

in improving every facet of

community life.” In Nathan’s eyes,

Gray personified the Rotary motto:

“Service above self.”

In terms of Rotary ideals, and in

response to the evolution of civil

rights in America, the Beaumont

Rotary Club amended its membership

practices with respect to race and

gender. In 1972 the Club welcomed

its first African American members,

Joe E. Bryant, Jr., principal of Odom

Junior High School, and Elmo R.

Willard III, civil rights attorney; and

in 1987, the Club admitted its first

female member, Margaret Cherb,

longtime executive director of the

Club. Numerous African Americans

and women have been members of the

Club and have served in various

leadership positions. Kevin J. Roy

was elected president in 2009, Lois

Ann Stanton in 1997, Maurine Gray,

2004, Angela Baker, 2007, Roberta

Applegate, 2010, and Becky Mason,

2012. President Mason is working

hard to carry out a two-fold mission:

celebrate the Centennial of the Club

and answer the call of President

Emerson to “help with the up building

of Beaumont and its great future.”

Moving Around by Jay Johnson (1988)

Each week when the members of

Beaumont Rotary gather for their

meeting in the Beaumont Hilton, it

seem so natural to greet fellow

members in front of the button boards

before going into the International

Ballroom for luncheon, fellowship

and program. Even the newest red-

buttoned members emerges from his

or her orientation session

understanding that each week Rotary

meets on Wednesday noon at the

Hilton.

But it has always not been so in

our seventy-five year history, we have

moved five times always seeking

comfortable meeting places for our

growing membership.

When the seven original members

first met at the Crosby House in

February of 1913, the meeting room

was not given any special name. By

the end of the decade, however, it was

the Pershing Room which hosted the

weekly meetings of Rotary even as the

members resolved to urge the city to

build a larger hotel. But for almost ten

years regular Rotary meetings were

held in the Crosby House, the premier

hotel of the boom and post-boom days

in Beaumont. But it could get

crowded, when, even after the Great

War in 1919, one meeting had to be

put off so the Savings Stamp

Committee could meet on important

“war time” business. While in the

happy days before the war Rotary met

with a rather loose commitment to the

word regular, special arrangements

put summer night meetings on a river

excursion with music and dancing, or

on other festive moments as in the

summer of 1914 the meeting moved to

the Country Club and was followed by

two innings of baseball. That must

have been a great summer, because

the very next week the club meeting

moved to the Imperial Theater for a

box lunch and movie. While Germany

was moving to march on Russia, it did

not seem to bother Rotary. Any visitor

trying to find the meeting place the

following week would have to go

down to the river when the club

members and their wives went fishing

and ended the evening with a

barbecue and watermelon feast. In

retrospect this was America’s last

summer of innocence and the young

Rotary Club of Beaumont was in the

spirit of the day.

Perhaps it is in the nature of

younger clubs, or a characteristic

derived from the informality of their

small number and closer fellowship,

but in the earliest years it was often a

question of “if” more than “where”

meetings were held. In May of 1915

meetings were not held for two weeks

so members could prepare for the

minstrel show. A year later the

meeting was suspended in respect for

the death of the club’s first president,

Ed Emerson. Even the city closed

down Rotary meetings, along with

movies, war worker meetings, and the

Chamber of Commerce, during the

Influenza Ban which was lifted on

November 3, 1918.

Peace, prosperity and normalcy

turned the corner when the quarter-

million dollar hotel, that Rotary

supported by resolution in 1916,

opened in the Hotel Beaumont opened

in 1922. The beautiful Rose Room of

the hotel, in the very heart of the city

was the meeting place for Beaumont

Rotary from that opening day in 1922

to the sad departure in August, 1966.

For forty-four years Rotary and the

Rose Room of the Hotel Beaumont

lived together – through a second oil

boom with Frank Yount – through

depression days that gave birth to the

club’s unique whistle tradition –

through a second world war, local riot

and martial law, the atomic age and

Korea. It all seemed so permanent.

Only after the commercial life of

the expanded city moved to the new

shopping centers beyond the drive-in

movies, only then Rotary moved the

“down town club” north to the new

Ridgewood Motor Hotel on the city’s

super highway IH-10. Now here

indeed was the comfort of driving

access and convenient parking. Why

there were even tables equipped with

special receivers for older members

with a hearing problem. Other

members were not lucky enough to

not have to hear everything the

speakers wanted to say about

inflation, and socialism’s path to

communism. The club had visited the

Rose Room for a great Sixtieth

Anniversary program and birthday

cake in February of 1973 but the

move to the Ridgewood on August 24,

1966, lasted until September 1, 1971.

When the Beaumont Rotary Club

moved to the Red Carpet Inn, the

progress of IH-10 led the way west

and there was even room to drive

“General Ken Ruddy’s Swan Song

jeep” right through the double doors at

the service entry end of the expanded

dining room (at this point nearly

asphyxiating the entire club).

Ironically this fourth Rotary

“home” was subject to change on Ash

Wednesday – March 24, 1982. The

Red carpet had burned; the Rotary

Office had burned.

Photographs of all the past

presidents were destroyed along with

much of the club’s records. Rotarians

and Margaret recovered the wet and

smoking remains and moved them to

the Petroleum Building where

President Joe Bob Kinsel, Jr. arranged

new offices. It was the first and only

time since 1936 when President Fuzzy

Roane opened our first office in Hotel

Beaumont, that our Rotary office was

not located in the hotel where we held

our weekly meetings.

In the meantime, Rotarians, like

victims of the hurricanes, took refuge

in the most available public facility. In

this case the city had recently built a

new Civic Center and for a brief three

months with catered meals, the club

“camped out” three blocks from the

old Rose Room while leadership

negotiated with the management of

the recently opened Sheraton Hotel.

When the Rotary Club moved into

the Sheraton Hotel, it was June 30,

1982. After two years and five months

the club moved out.

That brought the club’s last, or at

least most recent, move to the

Beaumont Hilton’s International

Ballroom. The Rotary Office was

moved to the mezzanine of the hotel

where new and recently expanded

offices had space enough for an

assistant to Margaret, a position ably

filled by Mrs. J Culbertson.

On Friday evening, February 26,

1988, when Rotarians gather at the

Hilton to celebrate their 75th

birthday

they will need to be alert. Perhaps,

just perhaps, lurking in the shadows of

the ballroom will be Rotarians from

earlier days, old friends who just came

from the Crosby or the Hotel

Beaumont, or the Ridgewood, Red

Carpet, or Sheraton, former comrades

of Rotary who come to wish us well.

… and for the rest of the

story: The biggest change in the last

quarter century, as far as the location

of Rotary meetings and office

locations, related to the change of

name syndrome – an economic and

social phenomenon that touched many

banks, many times, with some

deletions and a few additions.

Regarding the Beaumont Hilton, the

name changed to MCM Elegante'

Hotel. There, through the remainder

of the Club’s first century, remained

the location of weekly meetings and

the club offices.

Beaumont Rotary

Foundation by S.L. Greenberg (2013)

The Beaumont Rotary Foundation

was organized in 1973 and was the

result of efforts of then Rotarians Ken

Ruddy, Peter Wells, Tom Lamb, Elvis

Mason, Mark Steinhagen and Robert

Robertson. All of these men were past

presidents of the Club and recognized

the need for and the benefits that

would derive from the creation of the

foundation. One of the primary

reasons for establishing the

Foundation was to develop a reliable

method of funding local community

projects. It has become, in four

decades, the Beaumont Rotary Club’s

main source of funds for community

service projects.

On February 21, 1973, sixty years

after the first meeting of Beaumont

Rotary, Ken Ruddy met with Peter

Wells to propose the idea of a

foundation. Two days later, Wells

submitted proposed articles of

incorporation for the new

organization. During the following

summer of 1973 Ken Ruddy was

named the first president of the

Beaumont Rotary Foundation and

after bylaws were composed by

Ruddy, Steinhagen, Robertson and

Wells. Then thereafter, Peter Wells

was able to report to the Board that

the Internal Revenue Service had

approved the Foundation as a

qualified charitable organization. The

IRS application and various other

legal matters were handled by Well’s

associate, John Quigley, a young

lawyer who in five years joined the

Rotary Club and in the next quarter

century would be elected president of

the Club.

In the beginning years of the

Foundation (1972-73), Bill Deevy was

Projects Committee Chairman and he

suggested the Club needed more

continuity in its community service

projects. Bill’s fund raising project

that year was a tennis tournament at

the Beaumont Country Club. A golf

tournament was then added and this

produced the Rotary Sports

Invitational event, a pay-and-play

affair with the proceeds going to the

Foundation. This first fund raising

event netted approximately $$5,000

for the Foundation. More recently

contribution to the Foundation’s

“Service Above Self” campaigns and

the Club’s Flag Project have provided

significantly to the Foundation. From

its modest beginnings and the vision

of its Rotarian founders the

Foundation has grown through

projects and event, regular donations

and memorial contributions or special

gifts with assets of over $400,000.

The Foundation has already

exceeded the dreams of its founders,

having funded numerous community

projects over the years. Our latest

project, The Centennial Playground

Project will have significant financial

support from the Foundation. At the

same time, the Foundation’s policy of

transferring income realized on

investments to the Club while

maintaining and preserving the

Foundation’s principal should insure

that the Beaumont Rotary Foundation

will continue to be in a strong position

to support the Club’s service to the

community well into its second

century.

Club Service by

Like the memory of an over active

child, the history of the realities of

“Club Service” in the first ten years of

the Rotary Club of Beaumont, are lost

in vague hints of what must have been

and the evidence from later years. The

oldest living members of the club

were not yet born when the first seven

members of the Club met in what

would be, by the end of the decade,

the Pershing Room of the Crosby

House, Beaumont’s quality hotel near

the Railroad Station. You may visit

the location when you go the Rotary

Fountain which the Club established

in 1988.

There were no badges to help

identify members or tabulate the

record of attendance. These

“administrative” essentials were the

responsibility of each member and for

at least three years the rosters, as well

as the minutes of meetings, were

maintained in a small leather bound

note book provided by the club

secretary, Marshal Muse who was the

proprietor of Rosenthal’s, a wonderful

dry goods store on Pearl Street across

from the old Post Office There must

not have been too much organization

since one of the president’s weekly

duties was to announce who of the

seven members would be the speaker

at the next meeting.

In three years, however many

things were different. For one thing

there were now over 115 members

and by the end of Club’s first century

there would be over 3200 men and

women who were members of the

Rotary Club of Beaumont, some for as

many as seventy years and one for

less than a week.

To serve such a large and growing

membership the men, and they were

only men for the first half century,

could wear a Rotary lapel pen. Until

the great fire on Ash Wednesday in

1982, the Club office had a collection

of old, and they were very large, pens.

The efforts to keep members informed

were published in the Beaumont

Enterprise in the first decade, perhaps

because Jim Mapes was one of the

original seven members and was the

business manager of the paper. The

development of a weekly bulletin of

programs and events, which we came

to call “Rotarygram” began in 1918,

according to the clever article Bill

Cable published in 1988’s collection.

However, the volume number of the

Rotarygram in 1924 claims twelve

volumes and this suggests some

publications might have started

earlier.

For years the “executive secretary”

sat at a table in the Hotel Beaumont

Rose Room. The Club had moved

from the Crosby to new quarters in

1922. Perhaps Lorice Beular Thomas

was checking attendance which was a

rather strict obligation in the first

seventy or even eighty years of the

Club’s history. By the time the Club

moved to the Ridgewood Motor Hotel

the checking of attendance was done

with three giant “button boards”

wheeled into place for each meeting.

If your button was on the board when

Margaret Cherb checked, you were

absent and by next week all the

buttons were back on their respective

boards for the next meeting.

Young Rotary members know a

different ritual as they come to the

meeting, look for their name badge in

one of four boxes and present it to the

doorman, or doorwoman, to be

scanned and recorded electronically.

A hotel staff sets the stage with flags

and banners, power-point

presentations, and laser pointers

emphasize items on two giant wall

screens after the house light dim. Yes,

the Club’s big brass bell still has to be

carried in and out and dedicated

volunteers have to put those ‘name

buttons or badges” back in place for

next week, but much of the “club

service” (helping to make the meeting

work) has been improved or at least

computerized since those first day of

Marshall Muse’s notebook.

Now in the next century, perhaps

we can train the speakers to use the

microphone on the speaker’s stand. At

least President Jerry Nathan knew to

stand on the wood box and speak into

the microphone.

Rotary Professionals by Raymond Hawa (1988)

If you have been a member of our

Club for a decade or so, you might

think Margaret Cherb, our Executive

Director-Secretary-Fellow Rotarian,

has always been in charge. No so;

before Margaret was Lorice. Lorice

Beular Thomas.

In 1954, when I was invited to join

the Club, Lorice was in charge. In

those days, things were different. We

met in the Rose Room of Hotel

Beaumont and our membership was

made up men in their late forties and

up – way up. Tobacco smoke always

hung in the Rose Room and gray

heads outnumbered all others by a

wide margin. The Executive Secretary

was much in demand as she is today.

Lorice was one of those impeccably

dressed career woman who knew

everyone in Beaumont who WAS

someone, and if you had an idea you

would like to join Rotary you had

better forget it unless you were known

to this grand lady. I’m sure there were

exceptions – but I never knew of one.

Lorice was hired in 1947 by

President Chick Dollinger on a half

time basis, but soon she was working

twelve hours a day. For twenty years

she gave it her all. For two decades

she guided the course of our Club,

monitoring all lines of service – club,

vocational, international and

community.

On Wednesdays Lorice was always

at her “second” desk at the entrance to

the Rose Room at the end of “Peacock

Alley”, the long hallway leading to

the room, by eleven thirty, making

sure all was in order – checking with

the headwaiter, Simon, placing name

cards at the head table, and taking care

of a hundred other little things. Meals

were served covered and hot and

Lorice had special plate brought in

and dined while the program was

being presented.

The Rotary Office was at 209

Hotel Beaumont on the mezzanine of

the hotel, and it was as impeccable

and organized as Lorice. I really

believed she asked Rotarian Bob

Schieble, the hotel manager, to change

the carpet every time it had the

slightest spot.

During Lorice’s reign the

inevitable happened. She and Rotarian

John Thomas began having their

lunch together at meetings. They fell

in love and on October 28, 1964, were

married. Rotarian The Reverend

Charles Wyatt-Brown tied the knot.

Lorice kept secretarying until she

decided it was later than you think and

decided to retire … That’s when

Rotarian Jack Dahmer stepped up and

told us about his sister-in-law in

Dallas who wanted to move to

Beaumont and who might be, just

maybe, what Lorice had been to the

Club.

And so Margaret Cherb came to

Beaumont. On February 1, 1967,

President J. O. Crooke made the right

decision and we got Margaret – wide-

eyed, enthusiastic and determined to

be every bit as good –if not better –

than the only previous Executive

Secretary the Club ever had. If you

thought she was going to be on the

phone every hour asking Lorice what,

hoe, and when, you were wrong. She

was going to do it her way … and you

all know the results …WOW!

For over twenty years, Margaret

has been the heart and soul of our

Club. She has caused us to dream and

dare, to grow and prosper. With

Margaret’s help we are what we are,

the rotary Club of Beaumont, one of

the best anywhere.

And Margaret, excuse me,

Rotarian Margaret, is still a bubbly,

cooperative, and wise as the first day I

met her in the Rotary office.

Promoted to Executive Director in

1980 in the presidency of Jerry

Nathan, Margaret became our first

female member. What else could be

more right and logical. Margaret

knows more Rotary than Paul Harris

and there’s no checking the book –

it’s all from memory.

And here we are celebrating 75

years of Beaumont Rotary – and in all

those years, only 2 Executive

Secretaries. Unfortunately Lorice is

gone but thankfully Margaret is still

with us. From all of us to both of you,

we say … THANK YOU!

… and for the rest of the

story: by Jay Johnson (2013)

While the first thirty-four years of

the Club’s first century were served

and administered by the officer-

members who were elected president

or secretary, volunteer members

donated time to the recording of

minutes and retention of files for

membership and project expenses.

Then almost fifty years were served

by two ladies: Lorice Thomas for

twenty years and Margaret Cherb for

the next twenty-nine years.

The last quarter century’s

administrative service, however, saw

the Rotary Office in the hands of four

different ladies: first there was

Patricia Armentrout, her favorite

Rotary name was “Tricia” and she

held the office, after a four month

overlap of training with Margaret,

from August--1996 until November of

2001. Then the office was managed

by Alexine Boutin from November 1,

2001 to mid-January of 2008. Both of

these lady executives became

members of the club about the same

time they assumed the responsibilities

of the office.

Donna Qualls, however, was a full

member of the club for over two years

when she was selected to be Executive

Director in April of 2008. She

managed the office for the next three

years. And then the Club’s century

concluded with the advent of Jacque

Chapman who became our Executive

Director on March 28, 2011.

In last quarter century the office

retained its location on the mezzanine

of the Hilton Hotel but the name of

the hotel was changed to The MCM

Elegante’ Hotel. However, more than

the name of the hotel had changed.

The size of club membership had

increased, there were increased duties

brought to the office when

administrative functions of the District

Governor’s office were assumed, and

a different work-world was developed

as the Club went electronic,

computers arrived and paper

publications of the Rotarygrams

changed to an Internet copy that

members could read and print at home

or office on personal computers. Not

only the Rotarygrams came by e-mail

but invoices for dues were also part of

the “green” or paperless world.

Many of these changes proved to

be more economical in postage

charges or future storage of what were

shelves of bound volumes of early,

and sometimes charred and water

marked records. Part of the benefit of

the “electronic office” was reflected in

the annual operational budget which

in the mid-1990’s was over $195,000

for all club activities and at the end of

the club’s first century was almost

$279,000.

As the Club enters a second

century of service, the value of the

office staff to the successful operation

of the Rotary Club of Beaumont also

continues. The members of the Club

are most grateful to the six talented

ladies who have shared, shaped, and

served the Club in the successes of

this century of service and we repeat

in a paraphrase the salute of Raymond

Hawa:

“From all of us to all of you, we

say… THANK YOU!”