A HISTORY OF THE BAD AXE ROTARY CLUB
Founding of the Club
The Bad Axe Rotary Club was founded in 1924. The Club's charter is dated May 27, 1924.
The ceremony awarding the charter was held on Saturday, June 7, 1924.
The charter members of the Club were Robert P. Buckley, James L. Burgess, John J. Campbell,
Archie J. Clark, Father Courtney, Dr. Charles I. Herrington, Dr. C.B. Morden, Joseph N.
Rankin, Lew Rice, Alfred R. Thomas, C. D. Thompson, Leo Thourlby, Max Weinberg, George
L. Whitney, Paul Woodworth and Fred L. Wright. The Club's first President was C.B.
Morden.1 The following gentlemen were not charter members, but joined during the Club's
first year: Glenn Carpenter, Dr. A. W. Hogan, W. A. Markle, Harold Matteson, Stanley
McDonall, Charles McFadden, Warren Slack, and Ben VandenBelt.
The June 13, 1924 issue of The Huron County Tribune contained a lengthy account of the
original meeting of the Bad Axe Rotary Club, portions of which are quoted below:
NEW ROTARY CLUB GETS A GOOD START
The new Bad Axe Rotary Club got a flying start last Saturday night when the
charter presentation ceremony took place at the Morrow house, following a
banquet attended by the charter members and visitors, numbering 60 in all.
The ceremonies were in charge of the Flint Rotary, which has been the sponsor
for the Bad Axe organization. Prominent Rotarians were present from Flint,
Detroit, Lapeer, Saginaw, Port Huron and Bay City. . . . Elwood Andrews, a
1 In what appear to be notes prepared for a talk at a Bad Axe Rotary function in February of 1943, Rotary Club member
Forrest Ridgely described the beginnings of the Club as follows.
Our club was founded or chartered in April 1924. Harbor Beach, Caro and Croswell in '25, Cass City in '30, with
Elkton, Sebewaing and Pigeon following some years later, so you see we have something to be proud of in being the
first in the Thumb to get-under-way.
In April of 1923 a few men got together and after thouroughly [sic] canvassing the prospective Timber for Rorarians
[sic] in Bad Axe got a list of 36 Representative men in the Community, and after the Missionary work had been done
and the smoke had abated, they had 19 good and true Rotarians "in the rough". Then Dist. Gov. Paul H. King came
up and made it official.
After identifying the Club members and its Presidents through 1943, Mr. Ridgely continued:
The writer got quite a kick from a letter C.D. Thompson received from his good friend Henry Zimmerman Pres. of
Detroit Rotary Club dated Sept 21st 1916 in which he said that he didn't think that Rotary could function in a town of
less than 50,000 people because of the restrictions on memberships and here we are going strong with nearly 40
members and in a town of less than 3000, while our neighbor Cass City has a dandy club and don't have half the
population we do, just goes to show that we sometimes could be mistaken.
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former Bad Axe boy, prominent in Flint business and fraternity circles, presided
at the meeting. . . .
Among the good talkers called on by toastmaster Andrews were—James McKay
of Bay City, H. Haynes of Lapeer, Thomas Marston of Detroit, Wm. Otto of
Flint, Rev. Ralph Kerns, Flint, and Russel Thayer of Saginaw. . . . The
presentation of the charter was by Paul King of Detroit, Rotary Governor for
Michigan. . . . . The president elect of the new organization, Dr. C. B. Morden,
was called away from the meeting and the charter was received, by the treasurer,
C. D. Thompson. . . . Mr. Thompson expressed the pleasure of the new members
in their being able to connect up with the great and growing Rotary International,
which now practically circles the civilized world. . . . The officers selected for
the Bad Axe Rotary are: President, C. B. Morden; Vice President, Paul
Woodworth; Secretary, James L. Burgess; Treasurer, C. D. Thompson.
History of the Club Up to 1954
The Bad Axe Club's program for Rotary International's Golden Anniversary in 1955 provides a
brief year-by-year history of the Club from its founding through approximately June of 1954.
Although the quantity and quality of information provided differs by year, the reader
nevertheless gets a good feeling of what it was like to be a Bad Axe Rotarian during the Club's
first 31 years and learns great deal about some of the Club's activities through those years.
In its first year, the Club sponsored the local Boy Scouts and held the Club's first "Ladies
Night" at Broken Rocks. The party was reportedly attended by 100 people, including
Rotarians, Rotary Anns (i.e., Rotarian's wives) and guests.
Within the Club's first five years, it: arranged a meeting at a Boy Scout camp that it set up at
Pointe Aux Barques; held at least two additional "Rotary Ann" parties at Broken Rocks; helped
organize the Harbor Beach Rotary Club; sponsored two "inter-city" meetings at the newly-
organized Verona Hills Golf Club with Rotarians from several local clubs, including Harbor
Beach, Caro and Lapeer; held a dinner at which former Governor Albert E. Sleeper spoke;
hosted a meeting honoring a past district governor of Rotary which was attended by 100
Rotarians from 38 clubs; "played Santa" to 800 children at a community Christmas tree on the
court house lawn; and presented a Rotary Wheel to the new Caro club on its charter night. In
addition, in 1928 charter member James Burgess was the first Club member to be named a
delegate to a Rotary International convention.
The next several years saw Bad Axe Rotary joining with the Bad Axe Community Club in both
social engagements and civic matters. On one occasion the two clubs hosted well-known poet
Edgar A. Guest and the esteemed Yale University Professor William Lyon Phelps. In February
of 1928 the clubs demanded an investigation of the shot gun shooting of a ten year old girl in
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Port Austin's Gallup Park. The clubs also cooperated in asking the Bad Axe City Council to
rescind a law prohibiting the theatre from being open on Sunday. They were successful.
Meetings among local Rotary clubs were popular in those days. In 1929, local Rotarians and
Rotary Anns held a dance with Caro Rotarians at Murray Hall, and Harbor Beach Rotarians
were guests of the Bad Axe club at a dinner at the high school. On that occasion, the meal was
served by the Home Economics class, Pariseau's orchestra played, and entertainment was
provided by a high school quartet. Another inter-city meeting was held at Verona Hills with
150 Rotarians attending from Harbor Beach, Croswell, Caro, Cass City and Bad Axe. In
November of that year the club sponsored a free clinic for crippled children. Dr. Willet
Herrington of Bad Axe and Dr. Armitage of Harbor Beach conducted the clinic with Bad Axe
Rotarians picking up the children from all over the county and returning them home.
Also in 1929, the Rotary Club, in conjunction with the Community Club, put on a comedy at
the Bad Axe High School Auditorium called "The Womanless Wedding." Over 80 community
members appeared in the play.
In 1935, the Club started publishing a weekly newsletter called "Rotary Chips," the "chips"
representing the pieces of wood remaining after use of the "Bad Axe." That publication was
reportedly still being issued in 1955. Rotary Chips was essentially an extended meeting
agenda which reported items of interest, birthdays and the like. Also in 1935, the Club
provided support to the proposed Port Austin small craft harbor and backed efforts to complete
the paving of M-53. The Club also donated money to various causes, provided a daily milk
supply to school children, and sponsored a community Christmas tree celebration with candy
for 400 youngsters.
That same year, the Bad Axe Club began assisting the Goodfellows, a Detroit charity. Club
members exchanged gifts at the Club's Christmas program and then donated the gifts to the
Goodfellows. Rotarians also collected and repaired old toys which were then turned over to
the Goodfellows for Christmas presents for needy children. More than 100 boys and girls
participated in a Rotary-sponsored drama contest.
The Club was active in several community events in the following years. Rotary sponsored a
garden contest, a Halloween party and parade, a pancake breakfast, and a bird house project.
The Club also sponsored ongoing work on Rogers Dam on the Pinnebog River and was
involved with initial discussions regarding a Bad Axe airport.
The Club's president beginning July 1, 1937, Leon L. Bateman, describes how during his term
the Club purchased important equipment for the Bad Axe hospital:
A chance conversation with Miss Hoyle, superintendent of the Hubbard Memorial
Hospital, brought out the fact they needed an oxygen tent. They were new and had
just proven their value as a life saver in hospital use. We raised the funds thru
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donations and a Drama Contest. Dr. C. B. Morden, our first club president,
headed the list of donators. Boy Scouts, hospital auxiliary and other groups helped
in the Drama contest and netted $42.65. I still have the copy of the donation list
and the original purchase receipt for $344.72. Later, after the equipment came
into common use, the club had the thrill of receiving several thank-you letters
from patients who gave credit to it for saving their lives.
The late 1930's saw the Club active in several social activities in conjunction with other local
Rotary clubs. Inter-city meetings with up to five other clubs were apparently held in both 1938
and 1939 at Verona Hills, and many club members attended a reunion of the old 23rd Rotary
District in Royal Oak. These inter-city events were attended by up to 150 Rotarians. In 1938,
the Club sponsored a Rotary Ann Halloween party, a football banquet, and a youth parade,
bonfire and roast. In 1940, the Club sponsored the new Elkton Rotary Club. Its charter night,
on April 14th
, was attended by 200 people.
In the early 1940's, an inter-city Rotarian gathering sponsored by the Pigeon Club went on a
fishing trip on six tugboats on Wild Fowl Bay. Fred W. Kinde reportedly won the prize for
catching the most fish. Rogers Dam was completed and soon the Club started a camp for boys
at the Dam. In the 1941-42 Rotary year, the Club held a joint meeting with the Bad Axe Lions
Club at Verona Hills Golf Club and eight area Rotary Clubs installed their officers at that same
venue. The next year Rotary formed an aviation committee "to investigate the possibility of
getting a county airport." Charter member Joseph N. Rankin donated the land for the airport
and Rotarians helped with site preparation work through "brush clearing bees." (The airport
was completed and dedicated for use on July 3, 1949.) Subsequent years saw Bad Axe
Rotarians involved with Rotary International's Crippled Children's Committee and the Rotary
Invalid Fund. After Rotary International began promoting local Institutes of International
Understanding, the Bad Axe Club sponsored such an institute in Huron County which was
reportedly well received by local residents. Club records report that about that time Rotary
International added its 6,000th club, in Allepo, Syria.
Throughout the 1940s, Club activities were heavily influenced by World War II. The club
sponsored a Draftee Sendoff Committee. Weekly programs dealt with topics such as
blackouts, civilian defense, rationing and poison gases. Club members sent post cards each
week to men in the armed forces. At one weekly meeting, a "spontaneous contribution" was
taken which resulted in Club members donating a total of $219 "for Christmas cigarettes which
were sent to 200 Bad Axe servicemen stationed all over the world." Lt. James Whittaker, who
had spent three weeks downed on the Pacific, talked to students and Rotarians at a Rotary
meeting. Another speaker discussed his experiences on Guadalcanal. Joe McCarty, who had
been a prisoner of war in Germany for six months, also spoke to the Club. A letter from
Kenneth Rice, who survived the Bataan Death March and three and a half years in a Japanese
prison camp, was read at a meeting.
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Happier days came as servicemen arrived home from the war. During the 1946-47 year, there
was an "outstanding Rotary Ann party" at the Cartwheel with Edgar A. Guest the featured
speaker/poet. From December through March, most every member of the Club, many Rotary
Anns and "a fine group of townspeople" rehearsed and presented the local talent show
"Minstrel Melodies" as a benefit for the Bad Axe Girl Scouts, raising almost $1,200. Later, the
show was repeated in Pigeon for the benefit of an invalid girl.
In 1949, the Club held the ninth annual inter-city meeting at Verona Hills with eight Thumb
Rotary clubs participating. Later that year the Club celebrated its 25th anniversary with a
Rotary Ann party at the Methodist Church House "with favors for the ladies and gold Rotary
emblem paper weights presented to past presidents." Over 100 people attended the event (see
Photo 1).2 During the 1950-51 year, several hundred adults and youth from around the county
attended the "Goebel Baseball troop party" sponsored by the Club. Another successful
Goodfellow newspaper sale netted $1,362.
At meetings in 1951-52 there were programs on "Americanism (showing the American Way of
Life), Youth, Television, Roads, Boy Scouts, Aircraft Identification, Conservation,
Accomplishments in medicine and surgery, early history of Huron county and the annual
Goodfellow newspaper sale." In 1952-53, the Club started the Arthur Hartshorn Memorial
Student Loan Fund in memory of a local man "who gave his life in the armed services." On
April 23rd
and 24th
, 1953 the Club, together with the PTA, presented a minstrel show, "Burnt
Cork Melodies," at the Bad Axe Grade School Auditorium. The Club's files contain a copy of
the program for this event. Proceeds from the play benefitted the High School Band and paid
for Grade School playground improvements. In 1953-54, the Club was asked to contribute
toward furnishing a room at Hubbard Hospital. Each Rotarian contributed $10 and over $400
was collected, enough to cover the total cost of the furnishings.
On February 28, 1955 the Club celebrated the 50th
anniversary of Rotary International with a
dinner at the Bad Axe High School. The program for the event includes a history of the Bad
Axe Club up until that time. Speakers included the District Governor (Fred Fenske), the
Mayor of Bad Axe (D. Crosby Clark), and the Lions Club (George Hill) and Chamber of
Commerce (Clarence Sageman) Presidents. Entertainment was provided by the Port Huron
Schubert Club and community singing was led by club member Charles Todd accompanied by
Norah Dowde on the piano.
2 This photograph was published in the Huron Daily Tribune on May 23, 1999 on the occasion of the Club's 75th anniversary.
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History of the Club after 1954
No extant document provides as thorough information for the period after 1954 as the program
for RI's 50th
anniversary does for the period before 1954. Primary sources for the post-1954
period include limited historical information found in a program for the Club's 50th
anniversary
in 1974, annual Bad Axe Club meeting schedule books, and recollections of Club members.
Clare J. Hewens, Sr. of the Bad Axe Club was the first member of the Club to serve as District
Governor, serving in 1956-57. During the 1963-64 year, the Bad Axe Club hosted the District
Conference. This Conference was the largest in attendance up to that time. The Club's Leland
Harris served as the Conference Chairman.
In 1964-65, the Club hosted a meeting which several Rotary International dignitaries attended:
Rotary International Past President Harold Thomas (1959-60) from New Zealand; Rotary
International Director Reginald Smith; Past District Governor Clare J. Hewens; District
Governor Irl Badgley; and District Governor Nominee Leland Harris of the Bad Axe Club. Mr.
Harris served as District Governor in 1966-67.
In the mid-1960s, the Club participated in the new Rotary International program to wipe out
polio by distributing the Sabin oral polio vaccine throughout Huron County. Distributions took
place on Sundays at the high schools in Bad Axe, Harbor Beach, and Pigeon. A drop of the
new vaccine was placed on a sugar cube and the school children dissolved the sugar cube in
their mouths. Club members recall that a nurse, a pharmacist and a doctor were required to be
present. Six months later, the process was repeated since it was necessary that two doses of the
vaccine be administered.
For a period during the 1960s, one meeting each year was designated "Farm Day." On that
day, each member was expected to bring a local farmer to lunch. During those years, the Club
sponsored a group of Japanese agriculturalists and took the group to visit nearby Wil-Le Farms
for a tour of that facility's dairy operations. About this time one Club program centered on the
future of farming and speculated on what agriculture would be like in the year 2000.
On November 7, 1968, a comedy referred to by the Club as "Womanless Wedding" (also
known as "the marriage of Robin Crow to Mr. Cheep Vulture, II") was presented by the Club
at the Bad Axe High School. The play was reportedly a revival of a production the Club had
put on 40 years earlier.3 William Pietscher directed and wrote additional material for the
revival. Thirty-seven Rotarians were in the cast; several cast members in costume were
pictured in the Huron Daily Tribune (see Photo 2 for an example).
3 On November 1, 1968, the Tribune published pictures and names of the cast from the 1929 production.
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About this time, the Club sponsored a bowling team that competed for several years with teams
sponsored by other local Rotary Clubs. The Club also competed with the Bad Axe Lion's Club
in golf and basketball on several occasions.
The Club produced another comedy about that time. "The Shameful, Sexy Sixties," based on
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, was presented by the Club in the Bad Axe High School
Gymnasium. The program for the play shows that 24 Rotarians were in the cast, three of
whom were pictured in the Huron Daily Tribune (see Photo 3.
The Bad Axe Club became active in the early 1970s with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
Many Bad Axe High School students had the opportunity though this program to spend one of
their high school years abroad. Over the years, many Bad Axe families welcome students from
other countries and regions, including England, France, Belgium and South America. The
Club remained active in Youth Exchange through the early 2000s.
On June 24, 1974, the Club celebrated its 50th
(Golden) Anniversary with a dinner at Pointe
Aux Barques Resort. The featured speaker was Edgar A. "Bud" guest, Jr. According to the
Huron County Tribune, Bud amused the crowd with stories similar to those he told for many
years on his "Sunny Side of the Street" program on WJR, the Detroit radio station. Bud's
father, Edgar Guest, was a well-known poet who spent many of his summers in the Pointe aux
Barques area and had entertained at Bad Axe Rotary events in earlier years. The program for
the Golden Anniversary dinner includes a captioned photograph of the then 33 Rotary
members of the Club posed in front of the Huron County Building along with long-time Rotary
pianist Norah Dowde (see Photo 4).
In those years, the Club occasionally departed from its normal one hour meeting format to hear
from speakers requiring additional time. On several occasions, Neil and Jean Smith joined the
Club to present accounts of their world travels, including their trips to China and Antarctica.
Traditionally, Rotary Clubs sing several songs at each of their meetings. They might sing "The
Rotary Song" (Norris C. Morgan, 1923) (listen at https://portal.clubrunner.ca/60077/Stories/the-
rotary-song), Rotary favorites that have been collected in various songbooks, or popular songs of
the day. For over 40 years Norah Dowde (Photo 5) accompanied the Club's choral efforts as the
Club's pianist.4 After Ms. Dowde retired from playing for Rotary in the late1980s, Gladys
Hamilton and Club member Larry Salzburg took on the accompanist role for brief periods before
the Club finally decided to do away with singing a few years later.
4 Norah Dowde was born in England in 1906. She passed away in Bad Axe in 1992. Norah came to the United
States with her parents as a child. She graduated from Bad Axe High School in 1924. While in High School,
Norah was a member of the Girls' Glee Club and the Bad Axe High School Quartet. After graduation, Norah
attended Eastern Michigan University, the University of Michigan, and the Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
Norah taught vocal music for the Bad Axe Public Schools starting in 1935. She retired from the Bad Axe schools
after a 31 year career in June 1966.
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The Club, however, did not want Norah Dowde's efforts on its behalf to be forgotten. In 1980,
the Club presented a college scholarship to a graduating Bad Axe High School music student in
honor of Ms. Dowde. The Club has been presenting the Norah Dowde Scholarship every year
since and has now endowed a scholarship in her name.
The Club held its first Spaghetti Supper fundraiser in the 1980s. Initially, the event was held at
the George E. Green School. In later years, and continuing to this day, the supper is held at
Bad Axe High School.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a significant change to the Bad Axe Rotary Club and
Rotary Clubs worldwide. At its first meeting after the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision
holding that Rotary and similar clubs must allow female members, the Rotary International
Council on Legislation voted to eliminate the requirement that membership in Rotary clubs be
limited to men. The first woman member of the Bad Axe Rotary Club was Bev Gahagan.
Linda Herman was the first woman President, in 1997-98.
The Club's activities in the early 1990s were similar to what they are today. In those years, the
Club held its Spaghetti Supper and Radio Auction fundraisers, performed its twice-per-year
Adopt-A-Highway cleanup, planted shade trees free of cost for Bad Axe residents, and held its
annual summer social event. The Radio Auction, like the Spaghetti Supper, continues to be
held every year. Highway cleanup remains a biannual undertaking to date. The summer social
event, which was originally strictly social, is now combined with the annual officer induction
ceremony. Tree planting has been included in the Club's annual program book every year
since at least 1993, although fewer trees have been planted in recent years.
The Club celebrated its 75th
Anniversary on June 28, 1999 at the installation of officers
ceremony at the Verona Hills Golf Club. Ernie Paulick spoke on the Club's history and
Dominick Gagliardi, District Governor, inducted the Club's new officers.
During the late 1990s, the Club began contributing to a local food pantry, started awarding
additional scholarships to Bad Axe High School graduates, began a Youth and Sports
Committee and participated in Rotary International's Group Study Exchange program. This
program provided young professionals the opportunity to study and work abroad. In
conjunction with the Rotary Club of Middlesbough, Yorkshire, England, the Bad Axe Club
hosted a GSE Team from Yorkshire/Northumberland.
The Bad Axe Club also partnered with the Middlesbough Club, as well as with a Rotary Club
in India, to raise a total of around $20,000 for Sight Savers International. These funds were
used to treat the eyes of newborn children in India at a cost of about 50¢ per dose.
About this time the Club also began to support the Boy Scouts and began holding a Christmas
party at one of its December meetings. In 1998-99 the Club began sponsoring visits of the
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Kelly Miller Circus to Bad Axe. The Club sponsored the circus for about 15 years and
regularly provided free tickets to children who could otherwise not afford to attend.
In the 2000-01 year, the Club began another social event, originally called "LobsterFest" and
later known as the "Steak & Lobster Dinner." This event continued until 2015-16.
In 2003, the Club was asked by Port Austin resident Marc Schillinger -- through his brother,
Bad Axe Rotarian Lou Schillinger -- to work with a Haitian Rotary Club to fund construction
of drinking water wells needed to provide the people of Haiti reliable sources of fresh water.
Marc had become involved with Haiti through several trips he had taken to that country
arranged through his church. The Bad Axe Rotary Club raised approximately $20,000 for the
project -- enough to construct five wells -- through its fundraising effort and matching funds
available from Rotary International.
In 2002-03, the Club started its "20/20 Raffle" as a fundraiser. The 20/20 Raffle continues to
be held up to the present. Also in 2003, the Bad Axe Area Youth Soccer Organization
approached the Club to assist with fund raising efforts for a new concession stand at its soccer
complex. Assisting AYSO with the soccer complex became the focus of the Club's project
honoring the 2005 centennial of Rotary International. The Club established four different
sponsorship levels and sought donations from its members and the community. The
"concession stand," as ultimately completed, featured bathrooms and a pavilion along with
food service facilities. The Club raised the majority of the funds for the $50,000-plus project.
During the 2007-08 year, the Club inaugurated WinterFest, later known as WineFest. This
event, a winetasting fundraiser, has been held every year since 2008 at the Franklin Inn.
In the 2010-11 year, the Club initiated the annual "Dictionary Project," which continues to this
day. Bad Axe Rotary each year donates age-appropriate dictionaries to third graders in the
elementary school and helps the children learn to use them.
In 2003, the Club became a sponsor of the "Shop with a Hero" program. At this annual
Christmas-time event, children from across the county come to the Bad Axe Wal-Mart to shop
for gifts for their family members and friends (and, eventually, themselves) with over 50 area
police officers, Coast Guard members, firefighters and EMS personnel. The Bad Axe Rotary
Club, one of the main sponsors of the event, helps provide the volunteers that wrap the gifts for
the children and heroes when they are finished shopping.
In 2014-15, as most of the Club's objectives in connection with the local soccer program had
been fulfilled, Rotary turned its efforts to the Bad Axe baseball and softball fields, which have
now been renamed "Rotary Park." The Club provided the "seed money" for the recently built
Concession Building which, in addition to providing an improved concession stand, provides
much needed bathroom facilities and storage space for the little league and softball leagues. In
2016, the Club funded the erection of two new remotely operated scoreboards that serve the
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fields. In addition, under a multi-year commitment with the City and the baseball and softball
leagues, the Club will continue to fund various smaller improvements and maintenance needs.
In that year, the Club began purchasing two books each week to present to the Bad Axe High
School library as part of its weekly speaker program. Over $1,000 worth of books were
provided to the library that year.
On October 16, 2015, the Club sponsored the Harlem Ambassadors basketball exhibition team
at Bad Axe High School. The team, similar to the Harlem Globetrotters, played a fun-filled
basketball game against a local team made up of Rotarians and other Bad Axe residents who
dared take the floor. The Ambassadors also presented a great message to Bad Axe youth based
on the values of staying in school, staying off drugs and fostering racial harmony.
During 2016-17, Bad Axe Rotary's literacy efforts included building, installing and stocking a
"Little Free Library" on the east side of town at Courtney Manor and collecting over 700
children's books to be sent to the Philippines to restock schools and libraries that were
decimated by typhoons. These projects were the brainchild of that year's District Governor
Cheryl Peterson.
Bad Axe Rotary also continues to award scholarships to deserving Bad Axe High School
seniors irrespective of their intended field of study. In 2016, Rotary awarded three $1,000
scholarships in addition to the $1,500 Norah Dowde Music Scholarship.
In addition to the projects mentioned above, the Club has long supported local organizations
through donations. In the last few years, Bad Axe Rotary has supported almost 20 local
charities, causes and civic organizations each year. Organizations that Bad Axe Rotary
supported during 2016-17 include various programs at the Bad Axe schools, the Bad Axe
Memorial Day Parade, the Bad Axe Chamber of Commerce Golf Outing Fundraiser, local
livestock associations, youth sports programs, children's health efforts, educational projects,
and programs to benefit the less fortunate. Finally, every year the Club supports the Rotary
International Foundation through donations to both its general fund and its special fund, Polio
Plus, which underwrites Rotary's continuing efforts to eradicate polio worldwide.
* * *
The primary sources for this document are:
Huron County Tribune, June 13, 1924.
Forrest Ridgely, "Facts About Bad Axe Rotary Club," February 21, 1943.
Program, Bad Axe Rotary Club and Parent-Teachers Association, "Burnt Cork
Melodies," Minstrel Show, April 23 & 24, 1953.
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Program, Rotary's Golden Anniversary, 1905-1955, Bad Axe Rotary Club, Bad Axe,
Michigan, Golden Anniversary Dinner, Monday, February 28, 1955 -- 7 p.m. -- Bad
Axe High School.
Program, Bad Axe Rotary Club, "the marriage of Robin Crow to Mr. Cheep Vulture,
II", November 7, 1968, Bad Axe High School.
Program, Bad Axe Rotary's Golden Anniversary, 1924-1974, Golden Anniversary
Dinner, Monday, June 24, 1974, Pointe Aux Barques Resort.
Program, Bad Axe Rotary Club, 75th
Anniversary Celebration, Follow Your Rotary
Dream (June 28, 1999).
Program Brochure, Bad Axe Rotary Club, The Rotary Follies -- That's Vaudeville????",
March 20th
and 21st, Bad Axe High School.
Program, Bad Axe Rotary Club, "The Shameful, Sexy Sixties -- A 'Laugh In' Review,"
November 10th
and 11th
, Bad Axe High School.
Annual Rotary Club meeting schedule booklets for 1993-94, 1998-99, 1999-2000,
2000-01, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2013-14, 2014-15,
2015-16 & 2016-17.
Additional information provided by Bad Axe Rotarians Douglas Brining, Peter B. Capling,
David Herrington, Mimi Herrington, William MacAlpine, Lowell McDonald, Ernie Paulick
and Jim Volk.
Photo 1
Photo 2. Uncle Gotrocks (Chuck Todd) and Aunt Gotrocks (Jim Volk) are pictures as the first
wedding guests in “The Womanless Wedding” which will be presented by the Bad Axe Rotary
Club Thursday night. About 40 Rotarians will take part in the comedy with many playing the
parts of woman.
Photo 3. Bad Axe Rotary Club is rehearsing for their comedy production The Sinful, Sexy Sixties
that will be given two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10 and 11. Among the chorus
girls (you would have a hard time guessing) are, left to right, local banker, Kenneth Gay; State Po-
lice Sgt. Richard LaCosse and Dr. Kenneth Herrington. The club makes money for their many
projects by putting on the play. The last production, The Womanless Wedding, was enjoyed by
adults and children alike and director K. William Pietscher reports that the show is for both adults
and children.
Photo 4.
Bad Axe Rotary Club members of 1974 posed in front of the Huron County Building: Front
row, left to right: Norah Dowde, club pianist, Arthur Ayman, Lee Ross, Harold B. Alexander, treas-
urer Ken MacDonald, president Peter B. Capling, secretary Robert Johnson, Dan A. McDonald,
Leon Bateman, C. Leland Harris.
Second row: Donald R. Clark, John Patterson, Todd A. Ross, Paul Ford, Clare J. Hewens,
Ron Hilla, Edward Gardiner, Peter J. Hebert and George Peterson.
Third row: Francis Hearsch, Phillip Neeb, Jack Carroll, Robert Osborn, Robert Tufts, Phil
Pettie, George Danks.
Back row: Richard Glass, K. William Pietscher, Robert Kerr, Clarence Sageman, Jim Volk,
Charles Todd, Charles Corbishley and Rev. Ross Nicholson.
Members absent when photograph was taken: R.D. Amos, Steve Baker, Joe Dean, Ken Gay,
Dallas Hatch, Dr. Ken Herrington, Alden MacAlpine, Bob McVey, Ed Moore, Sam Murray, Rev.
Austin Pellett, Jim Umphrey, Per Wardhammer.
Photo 5. Norah Dowde