This is a tale of two cities and the man who ties them together for Rotary International.
The cities are Calgary, site of the 2025 RI Convention, and Singapore, which hosted the Convention last year in 2024.
The man was James Wheeler Davidson, one of the greats of Rotary extension. Davidson became a member of the nascent Rotary Club of Calgary in 1914. He helped charter the Rotary Club of Singapore in 1930.
Born in Austin Minnesota, Davidson grew up an adventurous soul. Introduced to Robert E Peary by an uncle, Davidson persuaded Peary to have him join his 1893 expedition to Greenland and on to the North Pole. A year later as a reporter for the New York Herald he covered the first Sino-Japanese War. After the war he was named a Japanese official to the ceded Formosa, and later a US official to China under the administrations of Cleveland, McKinley, and Roosevelt. During this time he wrote Formosa, Past and Present, the first history of the island.
Retiring from US Public Service due to tropical illnesses in 1905, he convalesced in San Francisco, where he met his wife, Lillian Dow. After becoming a lumber baron before World War I, Davidson retired to Calgary with Lillian in 1914 and immediately joined the nascent Rotary Club there.
Not content with community involvement, Davidson persuaded Rotary to name him an informal ambassador to Australasia and Southeast Asia. Spending more than $250,000 Canadian on travel and expenses, he and Lillian established Rotary Clubs in Australia, New Zealand, Burma (now Myanmar), Siam (now Thailand), THe Philippines and several other Southeast Asian states.
By the mid 1920’s Rotary named Davidson an official ambassador with the name “Honorary General Commissioner”. During a long trip through the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and across the Indian Ocean to India with Lillian and their daughter Marjory, he established clubs in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and finally to India. In most of these places other clubs were quickly formed.
During this last trip Lillian wrote travelogues that appeared regularly in The Rotarian. These were later collected in a book titled Making New Friends.
Davidson was insistent that the new clubs were not oriented to European and American expatriates. He was adamant that they include local officials and businessmen.
The last club that Davidson helped charter was the Rotary Club of Singapore, which hosted our International Convention last year.
Davidson and his family retired back to Calgary where he passed away in 1933. We must remember “Big Jim” Davidson when we are in Calgary this coming June.
The Davidsons’ story has been chronicled by Red Deer, Alberta, Rotarian Dr. Robert Lampard.
Tom Riley
PDG