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Happy Birthday Dunwoody! A Deeper Look at Our First Full Year

Have you ever wondered where some of our Rotary Club of Dunwoody traditions began? What Dunwoody Rotarians 25 or 30 or 35 years ago were doing to make a difference? Well, Jackie Cuthbert and I are going to try to answer many of those questions in our year-long celebration of RCD's 35 years!

We're starting with more about our first full year as a club. That year started with John Ellis as our president - he served for only a few weeks before he was promoted by the Air Force Reserve and required to move to Washington DC. That's when Robert W. (Bob) Lewis agreed to move up from his role as Vice President.

During that first year:

  • The Family of Rotary gathered for our first holiday luncheon at the Dunwoody Country Club - a tradition that has continued most years ever since then. At the first luncheon, Community Service Director Bill Mulkey presented our first charitable contribution - $300 - to Emily Pritchett, Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Georgia Retardation Center. The holiday luncheon continues to be one of our best attended events of the year. Our Dresden Elementary book project started in 1998, when each club member brought a book to the holiday luncheon, and the Dresden Elementary Choir has provided "sunshine" at the luncheon since 2003. For the past several years, we have supported Toys for Tots at this holiday event.
  • We were there at the start of the DeKalb Rotary Council and took the lead on the Council's "Arrive Alive - Safe Ride Home" program for high school proms and graduations. The first annual meeting of the Council took place on July 20, 1984 at the Century Center Hotel - South DeKalb Rotarian Jack Mathis served as Council Chair.
  • We started a Scholarship Essay Contest - the subject was Business Ethics and we received 41 essays. We presented a first place scholarship of $2,000 ($500/year for four years) to Katherine Doyle of Maris School and a $1,000 second place scholarship to Todd Young of Peachtree High School.
  • Our membership grew by 50% - from 34 to 51. New members included future presidents Chris Gutschenritter and Lang Wooddy, and Pat McMahon, now an Honorary Member.
  • We held our first social events - a night of card playing, cigars and refreshments at the home of Bob Mingus, and our first "On to Jekylll Party" ahead of District Conference at the home of Hardy and Maureen Croom. Eight Dunwoody Rotarians attended District Conference!


Posted by Bill Mulkey
April 23, 2019

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