District 5690 - The History of District 5690

It all began right here in Wichita. In the summer of 1911, Harry W. Stanley was attending a convention of the Equitable Life Insurance Company in Chicago where a fellow agent told him about a new organization that he had joined in Des Moines, Iowa. The enthusiasm of that colleague and a chance meeting with Rotary’s founder, Paul P. Harris, with whom he visited, convinced Stanley that Rotary would be good for Wichita.

After returning to Wichita, Stanley called a meeting of 11 other businessmen on September 2, 1911. these men organized a Club and by late September 51 additional members had been added to their number. The club was admitted to The International Association of Rotary Clubs on November 18, 1911 and received its charter as the 30th club in the world and Number 1 in Kansas on June 2, 1913. Their charter is signed by Glenn c. Mead, the second president of Rotary and Chesley R. Perry, the first general secretary of Rotary who served that position for 32 years. Perry was often referred to as “the builder of Rotary.” Harry W. Stanley served the Wichita Club as President two terms and during his second year as club president he was also a Vice President of Rotary International. And so Rotary came to Kansas!

At the time the Wichita club was born it was a part of what then was called the Western District. Over the years what is now Rotary district 5690 has been a part of 9 different districts. Our district, as it is today, was established in 1957 when we became District 569. the “0” was added in 1990 making it 5690, but our boundaries remained unchanged.

For the next four years Wichita was the only place you could find a Rotary club in Kansas. Then in 1915 the Rotary Club of Kansas City Kansas and the Wichita club co-sponsored the second Rotary club in Kansas in Hutchinson. The next year brought us a new club in Dodge City. As I was making my Governor’s visit to the Dodge City club back in 1980, I remember well a story that an elderly member of the club told me. It seems that Dodge city had a Rotary Club before it was a Rotary Club. Several of the local businessmen had been visitors at some Rotary clubs or at least had heard about them and thought it would be a good thing for Dodge City—So…..they formed their own Rotary club and started having regular meetings. They didn’t bother to petition Rotary International for a charter either out of ignorance or didn’t want to be bothered by a national organization. You must remember, this was Dodge City not too many years removed from being the cow town where anything went. Somehow RI Headquarters found out that there was a Rotary club in Dodge City that they knew nothing about. So they sent someone from RI to check this out and sure enough he found a Rotary club meeting regularly there. He suggested that if they wanted to call themselves a Rotary club, perhaps they should petition The International Association of Rotary Clubs for membership. They did with the aid of The Rotary club of Topeka as their sponsor and was admitted in 1916 as the third club in our district.

1917 brought us clubs in Arkansas city and Newton. Then Augusta and Winfield came on board in 1918. We missed a year during 1919, but the El Dorado and Wellington clubs were chartered during 1920 and Liberal joined our ranks in 1921. 1922 brought us clubs in Larned, Garden City and Pratt.

Until 1922 each Rotary could write their own Constitution and By-laws. After 1922 all new clubs admitted were required to abide by the Standard Club Constitution and By-laws as prescribed by RI. Those clubs before 1923 could elect to use their own or the standard version recommended by RI. Our district happens to hold the dubious distinction of having the most clubs in the Rotary World that does not use Rotary’s Standard Constitution and By-laws.

We had a dry spell from 1922 until the Garden City club sponsored a new club in Syracuse in 1928. 1929 brought us the Kingman club and 1930 a new club was admitted in Stafford. Unfortunately, after 41 years the Stafford club surrendered its charter in 1971. The Stafford club did produce an outstanding governor in Ben Evans in 1939-40 and was the sponsoring club of my home club, Kinsley in 1937. After the Stafford club folded PDG Ben joined the Hutchinson Rotary Club and drove to Hutchinson from Stafford each week to attend meetings for many years, so I am told.

The Great Depression must have had an effect as we did not have a new club for six years until Cimarron and Greensburg were admitted in 1936. However, we had a great year in 1937 with new clubs in my hometown Kinsley, and Hugoton and Florence. The Florence club produced a district governor in Cecil E. Rotz in 1966-67, but regretfully surrendered its charter in 1974. PDG Cecil had moved to Topeka where he continued his Rotary membership and made an appearance at our district conference for a number of years.

New clubs were not forthcoming for the next eight years. Then in 1945 Rotary came to Southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle with new clubs in Ulysses, Boise City, Beaver, Johnson and Lakin. The Lakin club started having problems in the 1970s and Governor bob Hodges along with several other district leaders made a trip to Lakin in 1977 to help get it reorganized, but the effort failed. It is always painful for a district Governor to have to ask a club to surrender its charter, but that became my unpleasant task in 1981 when R.I. Informed me that they had not had any report from the Lakin club for three years.

Another four years went by until our next new club was chartered in Sublette in 1949. However, the next year in 1950 we added Texhoma and Guymon to our numbers. In 1952 we acquired a new club in Caldwell, but it was short lived as it ceased to function and surrendered its charter in 1961.

Then came the long drought. For the next 28 years there were no new clubs organized in our district. In those days when a club was organized RI gave it a particular area from which to draw its members from. Some of those early clubs were given quite large areas. If a new club was to be formed in an area already owned by an existing club, the club that owned the area had to relinquish some of its territory to the new club. This was sometimes difficult to accomplish. At any rate, during the late 1970 some of our district leaders thought that a new club could be organized in Derby, but the territory was owned by the Wichita club. A deal was finally worked out with the Wichita club for some of its territory and we set about organizing the new Derby club. The new Derby club received its charter in 1980 which happened to be during my watch as district governor. This was an exciting time—THE FIRST NEW CLUB IN 28 years!! R.I. Sent me a long list of things that a governor should inform the new club about during their charter celebration. I spent a lot of time preparing my remarks and when the time came I delivered the longest and most complex and detailed account, in the history of Rotary, about Rotary clubs, Rotary International, The Rotary Foundation and every other thing about Rotary I could think of to those new Rotarians and their guest. I began to realize afterwards I may have over done it when my good friend and mentor, the late PDG Bob Storbeck, did not compliment me on my remarks, but simply said, “I think you covered everything, Ray.” Thank goodness , the occasion was salvaged by featured speaker, Past Rotary International Director Gene Conklin, who gave a magnificent-but short-welcome to the new Derby Club into the world of Rotary.

With the success of the Derby club, this opened the door for four more outstanding clubs in the Wichita area. The East Wichita club in 1984—West Wichita club in 1987—West Sedgwick County Sunrise Club in 2000 and most recently the Rotary club of Andover.

Several other events worthy of notice. In 1989 we had a joint District Conference with District 5670 with Larned and Great Bend clubs being the host clubs.

Since 1997 we have joined with Districts 5670 north of us and 5710 east of us and participated in a super Presidents and Secretaries Elect Training Seminar for all the clubs in the three districts that has worked very well for everyone.

Last year during Ron Kincannon’s term our district successfully held its first every district conference outside of our district in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

And then, of course, we are making history here today with Governor Geri Appel, the first lad governor of district 5690.

And here ends the history of the first 92 years of Rotary District 5690

Thank you.