Rotary Club of Kirkland History
The earliest reference to a Rotary Club in Kirkland is found in the files of Rotary International at Evanston, Illinois. In October, 1934, District Governor Percy Scurrah of Victoria, B.C., wrote to the R.I. Extension Committee chairman that Rotarian Ed Tindolph of the Seattle club was investigating the possibilities of a Rotary Club in Kirkland.
In 1935, District Governor Stanley Long of Seattle appointed Leslie Knight of the Rotary Club of Seattle to make a survey of Kirkland, Knight having been raised there. Rotarian Knight did considerable work on the survey.
Those early efforts began to bear fruit in 1936. The following paragraph is quoted from the historical binder in the files of Rotary International:
“Later, Bill Bilger, one of the pioneer members of the Rotary Club of Seattle, was asked to contine the work at Kirkland. Bill did a lot of very hard work in organizing this club. After months of continued effort, Bill saw his work fruitful in that it was possible to organize a club. Bill Bilger was assisted by Ed Tindolph of the Seattle Club.”
When the initial work had been done, a group of some thirty-odd business and professional men were invited to a dinner at the American Legion clubhouse in Kirkland one evening in July, 1937. After the meal, Bill Bilger and other Seattle club spokesmen unfolded their plans for a new Rotary Club in Kirkland, and proposed that those present become its charter members. Weekly meetings followed, with programs devoted to the group learning the principles of Rotary.
On August 23, 1937, The Rotary Club of Kirkland was admitted to membership in Rotary International and on September 20 the charter presentation banquet was held in the Kirkland High School. The club constitution defined its territorial limits in the general terms of “the East Side of Lake Washington.”
From “A History of the Kirkland Rotary Club,” John Paul Jones, May 1956