Rotary Club of San Diego
President: Wayne Goodermote (currently); Jo Dee Jacob (beginning July 1).
No. of members: 550.
Headquarters: Downtown San Diego.
Year founded: 1911.
Mission of organization: Helping members of the military, students, the elderly and nonprofits in San Diego.
It was a very special gathering when several hundred members of the downtown Rotary Club of San Diego met for their weekly lunch Nov. 3 in the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Mission Valley.
The event marked the centennial of one of the oldest and largest Rotary clubs in the U.S.
The service club, designated Rotary Club 33 because it was the 33rd club to be chartered by the organization, got its start in November 1911 as Rotary was expanding from its original group in Chicago.
A century later, Club 33 is one of the 613 clubs in San Diego and Imperial counties and one of the 33,000 clubs worldwide. With 550 members, it is the fifth largest in the world.
And even though the club’s roster reads like a who’s who in the pantheon of San Diego’s business and civic leaders, members eschew the misperception that it’s an exclusive group of glad-handing cronies.
“We’re all about service above self,” said Joe Craver, who heads the local chapter of the American Red Cross and is one of the directors of the club.
He’s a decorated Vietnam veteran who’s been a Rotarian since 1978.
“We do things for our community,” he said. “That’s what we’re all about.”
In the past decade alone, members have contributed more than $1 million in directed funding and donated more than 100,000 hours to its service projects, he said.
Helping Others
Craver said none of the members is concerned about exact totals.
“The dollar amount is not that important,” said Craver. “As a Rotary team member, I know I am helping others, and that’s the most important part of what we do.”
The projects include mentoring students in the San Diego Unified School District and at the county’s Monarch School for homeless students.
Other club projects include the work of the Mercy Outreach Surgical Team, co-founded in 1988 with a group of nurses and doctors at Scripps Mercy Hospital. The team has treated more than 800 indigent patients in the past 23 years.
Club 33 is also part of the Rotary partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeking to eradicate polio worldwide.
San Diego members have raised close to $118,000 this year for the annual World Polio Day, when volunteers fan out all over the globe to conduct mass inoculations.
“It’s a monumental program,” said Craver. “Very few organizations can say that they are a big, big part of that happening.”
It appears to be close to meeting its goal, as fewer than 500 polio cases have been reported this year.
“Membership in the club is an opportunity to give back to the community,” said Wayne Goodermote, current president of the club and a Rotarian for the past 20 years. The retired U.S. Navy captain and construction management executive said he views his elected position in the club “as a privilege.”
Influential Group
While club members play down their powerhouse reputation, they’re obviously an influential group.
For example, the weekly speaker program provides a must-appear venue for visiting dignitaries, from the arts to the sciences.
Recent speakers have included oil magnate and part-time Del Mar resident T. Boone Pickens, composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch and actor Richard Dreyfuss.
Past political speakers include former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, not to mention some former U.S. presidents, such as George H.W. Bush in 1993.
The roster of notable members in the past includes U.S. Grant Jr., son of U.S. President and Civil War Gen. U.S. Grant, who built the US Grant Hotel on Broadway, as well as D.C. Collier, chairman of the 1914 Balboa Park exposition, and U.S. Rep. William “Bill” Kettner, responsible for steering the Navy to a permanent berth in San Diego.
Others include Roscoe E. Hazard, an early developer for whom Hazard Center is named; John D. Spreckels, the sugar magnate who built the Hotel del Coronado; and Claude R. Ryan, the aeronautical pioneer that built the famed Spirit of St. Louis for Charles Lindbergh.
Former California Gov. and San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson is an honorary member, as are current Mayor Jerry Sanders and former Mayor Dick Murphy.
Looking Ahead
But the club, while proud of its past, is clearly focused on the present — and future.
Jo Dee Jacob, who is CEO of Girl Scouts San Diego and set to start as president of the club July 1, said she plans to refocus attention on those weekly meetings as well as efforts to diversify membership.
“The meeting is the once a week opportunity for members to connect and to learn something, so I would like to make sure the meeting is a very, very high priority.”
The club has set an ambitious goal of bringing in two new members a week as it seeks to maintain membership while lowering the average age of the membership to better represent the up-and-coming generation of business and civic leaders.
Reid Carr, president and CEO of digital marketing firm Red Door Interactive Inc., became the youngest member of Club 33 when he joined the club at age 29 five years ago. He remains one of the youngest members in the club today at age 35.
“A lot of people recognize the club as having an older demographic, but it appealed to me as someone who wanted to get involved but doesn’t necessarily have the time to find something to get involved in,” said Carr. “The club just has so many things going on all the time. The club’s various committees have ready-made projects to jump into, and start getting involved.”
As a result of his participation Rotary, Carr said that he’s joined the board of United Way of San Diego County.
“The Rotary gave me a preview of all the options that were out there and helping me to find my way a little bit,” said Carr.
Tom York is a contributing editor for the San Diego Business Journal.