Singing has been a staple of many Rotary Clubs for more than a hundred and eighteen years. Harry L. Ruggles, the fifth member of the first Rotary Club in Chicago, made it a regular part of Rotary meetings there as early as 1906, and singing spread to many clubs early on.
Ruggles was a printer and was responsible for printing the first Rotary wheel, but he is probably best known for Introducing singing to Rotary.
In 1952, Ruggles, an extremely moral man, described how he introduced singing to the organization. Apparently, a speaker at the club began a joke that Ruggles knew had an off color ending, and rather than let the speaker continue the joke, he jumped up on his chair and said “Let’s sing, boys,” and broke into a well known and boisterous song. From then on Rotary One sang as part of every meeting, and Paul Harris spread the word to clubs that they should