Arch Klumph, Founder of Foundation

 

 

Arch Klumph was born in the small town of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, USA in 1869. When he was a child, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he would become a founding member of the Rotary Club of Cleveland in 1911 (at age 42). As club president in 1913, he advocated for the club to build a reserve that would ensure its means to do future good work.

 

Five years after he became a Rotarian, at age 48, Klumph was elected to serve as Rotary’s president for 1916-17. Near the end of his term, at the 1917 Rotary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, he reminded Rotarians that “Rotary is at the present time entering a new era, demanding improved methods in administrative machinery, with which to carry out the splendid principles which have been laid down heretofore.” 

One of those improvements was to become The Rotary Foundation, which became a way for Rotarians around the world to pool their resources to tackle projects that were bigger than a single Rotary Club could handle.  Its first major charitable project was an award of $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children in 1930. 

 

Klumph remained an active supporter of The Rotary Foundation until his death in 1951, setting the groundwork for its long-term future. 

 

Since 1965, the Foundation has been pooling contributions from Rotarians around the world to support club and district projects with various types of matching grants. A portion of your personal and club contributions to the Foundation’s Annual Fund are returned to our District to magnify the size of projects that our clubs are carrying out here in Australia and around the world. 

 

November is Rotary Foundation Month, which makes it a great time to recognize the leadership of Arch Klumph in planting the seeds for our Foundation.  Please consider planting your own seeds by way of becoming a Centurion with a donation of $100 to the Annual Fund this month.

 

For more information, please contact David or Haran (see below for details)