[D9640general] Rotary/RGHF: What Paul Harris Said for sunday, January 18th

[Garry Krischock]

Rotary Global History Fellowship (RGHF)
www.rghf.org



What Paul Harris Said
www.whatpaulharrissaid.org <http://www.whatpaulharrissaid.org/>  
Sunday 18 January 2009

 
The death of Paul Harris' Grandfather, Howard Harris of Wallingford Vermont.

I wondered how death must seem to one who must soon face it; would it seem
so terrible as it did to me? Grandfather had nothing to say on the subject;
I had done pretty well to get him to talk that much. Had I been less
tempestuous in nature and less interested in the amazing things I was
finding in life, I would have looked well to it that I added nothing to
grandfather's burdens, but I am sorry to relate that my affectionate
outbursts were not so frequent as they might have been and that most of the
time, I was just a boy well tuned to fun and mischief and to little else.

Despite all my misdemeanors and not infrequent relapses into savagery, there
was a warm spot in the heart of grandfather for his erring grandson. One day
when I was at my worst, grandfather told Mary Foley as she was working in
the kitchen at her pots and pans, [that boy will make his mark in the
world.]

Many long years after grandfather's death, there came to me a small
well-preserved leather covered memorandum book containing a brief summary of
his financial standing on the first of January each year beginning with 1826
and continuing until 1888, the year of his death. Inscribed without date on
one of the pages were the words: [For Ma and Paul.] It was an eloquent
testimonial of the careful planning and self-denial which made his
benefactions possible. [From My Road to Rotary, Paul P. Harris 1947 Chapter
20 Page 138]

http://www.whatpaulharriswrote.org/library/myroad/ Excellent reading!

COMMENT: A week from this next Tuesday, 27 January will mark the 62nd year
since Rotary founder Paul Harris died. If you read My Road to Rotary, or any
of the other books online, you'll find that Howard Harris formed the boy who
became the man with Rotary's vision. It is a story that every Rotarian
should read. Every president of every club should know how we started. The
story is inspiring, Harris is a remarkable writer and all of Rotary should
read and re-read his work. Some day Rotary Global History will be taught to
incoming district governors at the International Assembly. That is my prayer
for the good of Rotary. Then they can teach their presidents.

But why wait, every Rotarian in the world can read Harris' books, online
24/7, free. They can be down loaded, printed, shared, and Rotarians will be
all the better for the effor t.

http://www.whatpaulharriswrote.org

Yours in service through Rotary Global History,
Jack Selway
Founder & Chair Emeritus
Contact Selway at www.historycomment.org
RGHF www.rghf.org (Rotary Global History) 

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