Harry Ruggles

Harry Ruggles, being the “printer” he created the first printed emblem. Since they called themselves “Rotary,” Harry used a wagon wheel with “Rotary Club” above it.

But Harry Ruggles’ single great contribution had nothing to do with his trade.  Here is what really happened when “Rotary started to sing!”

Harry Ruggles was at the second meeting of Rotary and Paul Harris had suggested him as the printer for the organization. The sixth meeting took place at Harry’s printing shop.

Ruggles was one of only two people Harris discussed his idea with from 1900 to 1905. How Singing came to Rotary, and Off-Color Jokes did not!  Almost everyone who is a member of a Rotary club for more than a year knows that Rotary member No.5, Chicago printer Harry Ruggles, brought singing to Rotary meeting. What almost no one knows is – why and how important Singing was to the life of Rotary.

Harry Ruggles was a very moral man. He detested off-color language, malicious innuendo and classless humor. He argued in club meetings for clean language. Little more than a year after Rotary had been formed, at an evening meeting in 1906, the guest speaker began a story. Having heard it before, Harry also had heard the off-color ending, and felt it was inappropriate for the club, so he jumped up in the middle of the joke and yelled, “Come on boys, let’s sing!” He then led the club in the singing of “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”

By his surprising actions at this evening meeting, Harry demonstrated that demeaning activities and off-color stories were not welcome at Rotary gatherings. “It was reported at the time that the would-be speaker was embarrassed and sore,” and so Harry Ruggles apologized, but the club backed him up. Right then and there, it was decided that all subsequent Rotary meetings should be conducted so that any woman could attend without being embarrassed. This has been the unwritten rule ever since, just as the tradition of singing has endured.

History has proven that it was, and is, good magic for clubs anywhere, for families anywhere, for groups of people anywhere. “After all, clubs are simply families; when they move in divergent paths, group singing often is the best way to reassemble them. The whole service club Rotary, is indebted to Harry Ruggles for this great feat. One of Rotary’s best known song leaders advances the four following reasons for the inclusion of group singing, in Rotary: first- it promotes fellowship, second- it recreates, third- it stimulates interest in music, and fourth- if songs are selected which fit in with the purposes for which the meeting is called, it serves to prepare the minds of the members for the message which is to follow. Harry’s printing company went on to print the early Rotary song books. Harry Ruggles – a pioneer veteran member of ROTARY One (Rotary Club of Chicago) was Song Leader for 54 years. He was Treasurer 1905 – 1906, Registrar 1907- 1908 and President 1909 – 1910. Born in 1868 (same year as Paul Harris), Died in 1959 (12 years after Paul Harris).