History
The Rotary Club of Stony Brook (now The Rotary Club of Three Villages) was founded in 1945 with it’s first President being T. Bayles Minuse who served for 5 years and for whom the ponds in downtown Stony Brook are named. T. Bayles Minuse was a business associate of Ward Melville and a former superintent of water ways for Brookhaven Town. He was followed by Duke Shea (50-51) followed by Frank Gaebelein Head Master of The Stony Brook School. In 1959 Nelson Roberts. then owner of The Three Village Inn, became president. In 1967 Val Harto, superintendent of schools became president. Followed in 1968 by David Minuse son of T. Bayles. A list of all President may be found on a Plaque at the Three Village Rotary Memorial Garden. Membership grew into the 1970s at which time there were 60+ members. The major fund raiser in those years was an annual horse show at which members sold refreshments and watched the horses through the night.
A review of the Presidents of the Club would reveal that they were all men, because women were not allowed membership in Rotary International! In 1987 the Stony Brook Rotary Board decided to test this restriction and admit women. This was presented to the club and some members reacted strongly including one member who said that women would be admitted “over my dead body.” He was divorced shortly thereafter. However before we could take action the restriction was lifted and women were allowed to be admitted. The first women admitted was Ruth White who was manager of the Extebank which was where the The Reboli Center now stands. The first women president was Olga Belleau who remains a member and was followed by other women who are currently members, Christine Grobe and Hope Kinney
Shortly thereafter more controversey occured in regard to our holding meetings and our annual fund raiser at St. George’s Golf Course which had a restrictive membership policy that did not allow minority group members, such as People of Color, Latin Americans, Jews and Muslims as members. Olga Belleau, a Latin American woman was a member because of her husband. She approached the then president and got him to sign to memo of understanding to lift the membership restrictions.
Currently we are experiencing a resurgence of the club with, more than doubling of our membership under our President Marios Patrinis and Vice President Chris Sokol.
“WHATEVER ROTARY MAY MEAN TO US, TO THE WORLD IT WILL BE KNOWN BY THE RESULTS IT ACHIEVES.”
—PAUL P. HARRIS
Our 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man—Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT
Rotarians have not only been present for major events in history—we’ve been a part of them. From the beginning, three key traits have remained strong throughout Rotary:
We’re truly international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents. Today we’re working together from around the globe both digitally and in-person to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.
We persevere in tough times. During WWII, Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Japan were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.
Our commitment to service is ongoing. We began our fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. By 2012, only three countries remain polio-endemic—down from 125 in 1988.
NOTABLE ROTARIANS
Rotarians are your neighbors, your community leaders and some of the world’s greatest history-makers:
- Warren G. Harding, U.S. president
- Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer
- Dr. Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of Mayo Clinic
- Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor of the wireless radio and Nobel laureate
- Thomas Mann, German novelist and Nobel laureate
- Friedrich Bergius, German chemist and Nobel laureate
- Admiral Richard E. Byrd, American explorer
- Jan Masaryk, foreign minister of Czechoslovakia
- H.E. Soleiman Frangieh, president of Lebanon
- Dianne Feinstein, U.S. senator
- Manny Pacquaio, Filipino world-champion boxer and congressman
- Richard Lugar, U.S. senator
- Frank Borman, American astronaut
- Edgar A. Guest, American poet and journalist
- Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer
- Franz Lehar, Austrian composer
- Lennart Nilsson, Swedish photographer
- James Cash Penney, founder of JC Penney Co.
- Carlos Romulo, UN General Assembly president
- Sigmund Sternberg, English businessman and philanthropist
Ready to make history with us? Get involved.
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