THE ROTARY CLUB OF CLEARWATER WAS FORMED JAN. 2, 1924

Bob Clark's Progam on our Club's History - the '60s & '70s

Statistical History

Past Club Presidents

Paul Harris'
1937 Visit to Clearwater

Alfred P. Marshall

 

TAVER BAILEY

ROTARY CLUB OF CLEARWATER'S FIRST PRESIDENT

Taver Bayly was the first president of the Clearwater Rotary Club and was a charter member and past president of the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce.

He was also a board member of Morton Plant Hospital for many years and was active in a number of other community endeavors. 

"The Chamber of Commerce really started in 1914 as the Board of Trade,"  he recalled.

"James V. Davidson and a group of local businessmen got together and set up headquarters at a desk in Mac Duffy's barber shop where Rutland's Store is now."

The Chamber moved from Cleveland Street to a modern building on the bluff at Osceola Ave. and Drew St. in 1964. (That building was demolished in 1998.) In 1965, Bayly was named Mr. Clearwater by the Chamber. He was commodore of the Clearwater Yacht Club for six years and one of the first Pinellas County Gold Star Pioneers.

Taver Bayly died on November 8, 1979. In 1982, he was posthumously named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Clearwater, an honor accepted by his daughter, Anne Bayly Cornett.

Club History

Presenting winning ribbons at the Clearwater Rotary Track and Field Day

Ray Green Field - Clearwater, FL., c. 1940
(1) Chester McMullen; (2) Dr. M. E. Black; (3) Alfred Marshall (4) R. J. Cromartie; (5) John Chesnut (on microphone)

Photo Courtesy of Dave Perkins

The History of the Rotary Club of Clearwater

The Rotary Club of Clearwater was organized in 1924 by a group of 10 Clearwater businessmen.  The club, whose membership now is approximately 125, was officially chartered by Rotary International on January 2, 1925 as the 1875^th club worldwide; the first club president was Mr. Taver Bayly.  There are now approximately 25,000 clubs in the Rotary world.

Any new club in Rotary must be sponsored by an existing club. Our club was sponsored by the Rotary Club of St. Petersburg. We, in turn, have sponsored clubs in Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Largo, and Belleair plus two additional Clearwater clubs.

The Rotary Club of Clearwater is the oldest service club in Clearwater and the largest in all of Pinellas County. Through the years, we have undertaken numerous service projects - the first being the landscaping of what was then the "new" causeway linking Clearwater and Clearwater Beach in the 1920’s. Many of our projects have left a lasting mark on our community such as the donation of the first mobile blood unit to the Hunter Blood Center. We were the first service club to make a major donation to the Performing Arts Center. And we have reached beyond our city boundaries and those of the United States to have a hand in inoculating whole countries against polio through the Rotary Polio Plus program.

We are proud of the people who make up our club. Many of our members have been recognized with the prestigious Bilgore Award and the Mr. Clearwater designation by the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce. We have provided the District with three district governors over the years. One of our members, Herbert G. Brown, served on the 14-member board of directors of Rotary International and later become international president of Rotary in 1995-96. Our club was the first in the district to have a woman member - Mrs. Dee Eckert - who was, at the time, the executive director of our club.