Who is that wearing a Rotary pin?
I love British television. I recently subscribed to Acorn TV so I could get my British TV fix. One of my favorite shows is “Midsomer Murders”, which has been on the air in the UK for over 20 years. The show stars John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, who solves murder cases in the fictional Midsomer area of Britain.
Why is this in the newsletter, you ask? Well, if you look closely in every episode you’ll notice that Tom Barnaby wears conservative, well-tailored suits, and his only visible adornment is a Rotary pin! That’s right; Tom Barnaby is a Rotarian. That got me to thinking about other famous Rotarians. Here is a (by no means complete) with some names you may recognize.
BUSINESS LEADERS
Max Cointreau - Owner, Cointreau liquor enterprise - Rotary Club of Paris, France
Raymond F. Firestone - Chairman and CEO, Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. - Rotary Club of Akron, OH
Joyce C. Hall - Founder of Hallmark Cards - Rotary Club of Kansas City, MO
Dr. Charles H. Mayo - Co-founder of Mayo Clinic - Rotary Club of Rochester, MN
Heinrich Nordhoff - President of Volkswagen - Rotary Club of Braunschweig, Germany
J.C. Penney - Founder of J.C. Penney stores - Rotary Club of New York, NY
Leopoldo Pirelli - President of Pirelli Tire Co. - Rotary Club of Milano, Italy
'Colonel' Harland Sanders - Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken - Rotary Club of Jeffersonville, ID
Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. - Chairman of the board of the Walgreen Drug Company - Rotary Club of Chicago, IL
Sam Walton - Founder of Wal-Mart - Rotary Club of Bentonville, AR
EXPLORERS
Roald Amundsen - First person to reach the South Pole in 1911 - Rotary Club of Oslo, Norway
Neil Armstrong - Astronaut & first man to walk on the moon - Rotary Club of Wapakoneta, OH
Frank Borman - U.S. astronaut - Rotary Club of Space Center, Houston, TX
Richard E. Byrd - Arctic explorer - Rotary Club of Winchester, VA
Gordon Cooper - U.S. astronaut - Rotary Club of Space Center, Houston, TX
Sir Edmund Hillary - Mountaineer, explorer, philanthropist and the first person to reach the top of Mt. Everest - Rotary Club of Auckland, New Zealand
Charles Lindberg - American aviator - Rotary Club of Edinburgh, Scotland
INVENTORS
Thomas A. Edison – Inventor - Rotary Club of Orange, NJ
Guglielmo Marconi - Inventor of the wireless, 1909 Nobel Prize recipient for physics - Rotary Club of Bologna, Italy
Orville Wright - Co-inventor of the first airplane - Rotary Club of Dayton, OH
ROYALTY
Prince Axel - Prince of Denmark - Rotary Club of Copenhagen, Denmark
Prince Bernhard - Prince of the Netherlands - Rotary Club of Amsterdam, Netherlands
HRH Prince Charles - Prince of England - Rotary Club of Banchory-Ternan
HRH Prince Phillip - Prince of England - Rotary Club of Edinburgh
Prince Rainier III - Prince of Monaco - Rotary Club of Monaco
LEADERS
Sir Winston Churchill - Prime Minister, England & Leader of UK during WWII - Rotary Club of London
Diane Feinstein - U.S. Senator from California - Rotary Club of San Francisco, CA
Gerald R. Ford - President, USA - Rotary Club of Grand Rapids, MI
J. William Fulbright - U.S. Senator from Arkansas - Rotary Club of Fayetteville, AR
Warren G. Harding - President, USA - Rotary Club of Washington, DC
John F. Kennedy - President, USA - Rotary Club of Hyannis, MA
Franklin D. Roosevelt - President, USA - Rotary Club of Albany, NY
Adlai E. Stevenson - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Governor of Illinois - Rotary Club of Springfield, IL
Woodrow Wilson - President, USA - Rotary Club of Birmingham, AL
ARTISTS, COMPOSERS, AND AUTHORS
Cecil B. De Mille - Motion picture director - Rotary Club of Hollywood, CA
Walt Disney - Filmmaker - Rotary Club of Palm Springs, CA
Edgar A. Guest - American journalist and poet - Rotary Club of Detroit, MI
Thomas Mann - German novelist and 1929 Nobel Prize recipient for literature - Rotary Club of Munich, Germany
Norman Vincent Peale - American author and minister - Rotary Club of New York, NY
OTHER
Pope Francis - Pope - Rotary Club of Buenos Aires
Duke Kahanamoku - Olympic gold medalist, "Father of Surfing" - Rotary Club of Honolulu, HI
Connie Mack - Baseball Hall of Fame manager and team owner - Rotary Club of Fort Myers, FL
Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao - World champion professional boxer & politician - Rotary Club of Manila, Philippines
Luciano Pavarotti - Italian opera singer - Rotary Club of Modena
Tris Speaker - Baseball Hall of Fame player - Rotary Club of Cleveland, OH
