History of North Harlingen Club

North Harlingen Rotary Club was chartered on January 26, 1972., becoming Harling's second Rotary Club.

Under the rules of Rotary International, a club must be organized to serve a specific "locality" or clearly identified territory in which there are enough business or professional persons of good character engaged in proprietary or management positions. A minimum of 40 potential classifications must exist in the locality of the proposed new club, and from that list a permanent initial membership of at least 25 members must be enrolled. Occasionally an existing club will cedea portion or its territory or will share the same territory with a new club.

In July 1971, shortly after taking office as District Governor, Gene McCollough, (a member of Harlingen Rotary Club), McCollough approached Brad Crockett, President of Harling Rotary Club, about that club sponsoring a second Rotary club for Harlingen. In August 1971, McCollough appointed T. Howard Anderson, a member and past-president of the Harlingen Rotary Club, as his special representative to organize the new club, with instructions to pick the members of his committee.M. H. Connelly, Elliott Pulver, and Henry P. Griffin, Jr., all past presidents of the Harlingen Club, agreed to serve on Anderson's committee. The committee met with local business and professional men and soon verified that sufficent interest in forming the new club existed. On November 12, 1971 the Harlingen Rotary Club voted to sponsor a second club in Harlingen, but agreed to share only its territory north of Harrison Avenue with the new club. By December 27, 1971, over 25 men had committed to be members of the new club, and the committee scheduled the first organizational meeting of the "proposed North Harlingen Rotary Club" for Tuesday, January 4, 1972.

On January 4, 1972, the first organizational meeting of the Rotary Club of North Harlingen was held. District Governor Gene McCollough appointed Jack P. Tate as acting Secretary to serve until the election of club officers. McCollough also appointed a nominations committee composed of Elliot Pulver, M. H. Connelly, a prospective members J. Gordon Nix, Jr., S. Ralph Jennings, Sr., and Fred Parce. It was also decided tha the new club would meet each Tuesday at noon. Dan Hightower, Executive Secretary of Harlingen Rotary Club, volunteered to seras Executive Secretary of the new club. Under Rotary rules, a club is considered provisonal until its charter is approved by the Board of Rotary International.

On January 18, the membership group voted to accept the standard Rotary Club By-Laws and Constitution, and elected James R. Hand, Jr., President Jack P. Tate, Secretary-Treasurer, and Ralph Jennings, Sr., Fred Parce, Ben Percival, and George Hart, Jr., Directors, and J. B. Brady, Classification Committee Chairman, to serve through the end of the current Rotary year. At the January 18 meeting, the application for membership in Rotary International was signed with 35 charter members:

James R. Adams, Jr.	Parker Knapp
J. B. Brady	David Lykes
C. L. Brady	Dwight T. Lyon
Ross Burney	Clint W. McCarley
M. F. Conner	James Louis McMillan
Curtiss R. Conrad	Tony Martinez
Donald G. Czeschin	King Moss
Ben A. Davis	John Gordon Nix, Jr.
David Q. Day	Frederick Donald Parce
Leland Duckworth	Joel M. Pearson
Dr. John A. Ferris, Jr., M.D.	Ben Percival
A. D. Forrest	Archie Rosales
James R. Hand, Jr.	L. G. Stowe
George A. Hart, Jr.	Jack Preston Tate
William F. Havey	Ben Tucker
James G. Inness	John W. Tuttle
S. Ralph Jennings, Sr.	W. L Wadley
Bert R. Keyes, Jr.

The Harlingen Rotary Club paid the $100 charter fee. The Board of Rotary International approved the charter application on January 26, 1972. The Charter was officially presented at ta joint meeting of the North Harlingen Rotary Club and Harlingen Roatary Club held the evening of February 25, 1972, at the Harlingen Country Club. At the meeting, the Rotary Bell was presented by the Brownsville Rotary Club, a United States Flag was presented by the La Feria Rotary Club (now Harlingen Sunrise), the official Club Banner was presented by the Weslaco Rotary Club, a podium was presented by the McAllen Rotary Club, and box of song books was presented by the Raymondville Rotary Club. The Harlingen Rotary Club presented the President's Lapel Pin to worn by each president of the Club. "Chater Member" lapel pins and the book ADVENTURES IN SERVICE were given to each member. Wives of the Club members were given a gold oak leak pin bearing the Rotary insignia; the pin given to Leona Hand has been passed down to each spouse of the Club's President.

North Harlingen has always met on Tuesday at noon, first at the Ramada Inn (January 1972), and subsequently at Richard's Restaurant (January 1972-July 1977), Wyatt's Cafeteria on Morgan Boulevard (July 1977-August 1985), Holiday Inn (September 1985-July 1987), Harlingen Country Club (August 1987-May 1990), the Lone Star Restaurant (June 1990 to February 2000), and the Harlingen Country Club (March 2000-Present). The Harlingen Rotary Club subsequently removed the geographical restriction and the territory of North Harlingen Rotary is presently co-extensive with that of Harlingen Rotary Club.

When North Harlingen received its charter the Constitution and Bylaws of Rotary International restricted membership to males only. On May 4, 1987, the United States Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that the exclusion of females by Rotary International was unlawful under a California civil rights law which prohibited discrimination of any form in business establishments or public accommodations. On November 10, 1987, North Harlingen became the first club in Harlingen to admit women when it inducted Verna Young. Rotary International eliminated the "male only" provision for all of Rotary in 1989.

The Rotary world is divided in districts. The North Harlingen Rotary Club is in District 5930. There are 51 Rotary clubs in the district, which is divided into eight areas; North Harlingen Rotary Club is in Area 6. The district boundaries are in the Rio Grande Valley up to Laredo, through Three Rivers to Ganado, back to Port Lavaca and Corpus Christi. On July 1, 1995, Leland M. "Pappy" Martin became the first member of North Harlingen Rotary Club to serve as District Governor.

The current President is: Emily Reyes
North Harlingen Rotary Presidents:

1972-1973	Jim Hand	-	1994-1995	Quentin Anderson*
1973-1974	Don Czeschin	-	1995-1996	Michael Buck*
1974-1975	David Q. Day*	-	1996-1997	Steve Robinson
1975-1976	Jack Tate	-	1997-1998	William L. Youngblood
1976-1977	Archie Rosales	-	1998-1999	Buddy R. Dossett*
1977-1978	A. J. Woehl	-	1999-2000	Daniel Hinojosa
1978-1979	James McMillan	-	2000-2001	Richard Brewer
1979-1980	Tom Moseley*	-	2001-2002	James Simmons
1980-1981	George Bowman, Jr.	-	2002-2003	**Minerva Simpson*
1981-1982	Rob Youker	-	2003-2004	Donald R. Wright*
1982-1983	Howard Cummings	-	2004-2005	John Kutzenburger*
1983-1984	James O'Mara	-	2005-2006	Carl Leatherman*
1984-1985	Don Nowakowski	-	2006-2007	William "Bill" Csabi*
1985-1986	Bruce Hurley	-	2007-2008	Butch Cooley*
1986-1987	Alex Huddleston	-	2008-2009	Emily Reyes
1987-1988	Alan Johnson	-	2009-2010	P-E
1988-1989	Warren Kininmonth	-
1989-1990	Allan Brumley*	-
1990-1991	Gene Campos	-
1991-1992	Larry Wade	-
1992-1993	Leland M. Martin	-
1993-1994	Terry Traylor	-

* Still current members of Club
**First Female President of North Harlingen Rotary
The North Harlingen Rotary Club has 32 members as of 07/2/08.