In 1905, a Chicago lawyer named Paul Harris began a small club with three of his friends. They rotated their meetings between their different offices, which prompted them to name it The Rotary Club.
Since then Rotary International has grown exponentially and now includes 34,000 Rotary Clubs around the world with 1.2 million members.
One of those members is Ron Burton. He joined the Norman Rotary Club in 1979. 35 years later, he just finished a year-long term as the president of the international organization. The native of Duncan spent most of his career at the University of Oklahoma. He joined the staff of the OU Foundation as an accountant in 1969, and became the organization’s president in 1978. He led the Foundation for nearly three decades before retiring in 2007.
“Depending on the project, Rotary Clubs do work together, but they also work alone,” Burton says. “And that's the beauty of it. It really gets back to the individual Rotarian.”
One of the greatest successes of Rotary International is its contribution to the eradication of polio, which has so far been 99 percent successful. In the past 25 years they have helped to bring down the number of polio cases from 350,000 to 450,000 per year to 176.
“Because of the respect that world governments have for Rotary, we have been able to broker cease-fires in some of the warring countries for polio immunization days,” Burton says.
Another point of pride for Rotary International is its scholarship program, through which it sponsors graduate programs at six universities throughout the world. One of the programs provides a full ride scholarship for sixty students to study conflict prevention and resolution for two years in Chulalongkorn, Thailand.
“We honestly believe,” Burton says, “if you can get people talking with each other and working with each other, you can eliminate conflict.”
According to Burton, what sets Rotary apart is that it has one very clear mission: improve the quality of life for all humans.
“I think if we are communicating with each other and moving in the same direction,and if we can bring different points of view into the mix and different philosophies, surely we can carve out a solution that will be beneficial to all," Burton says.
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On what Rotary is:
Rotary International is an association of about 34 thousand rotary clubs around the world with 1.2 million members approximately and Rotarians, men and women, are folks in each community that really care about the world. They do all kinds of absolutely wonderful service projects to make their communities and the world a better place to live.
Depending on the project, rotary clubs do work together, but they also work alone, and that's the beauty of it. It really gets back to the individual Rotarian.
On eradicating polio:
What has happened over the years is we have gotten together as a group of rotary clubs and as a rotary organization, for example to eradicate polio, and we have been 99 percent successful. We started this 25 years ago, no one thought it would take 25 years, we have 3 endemic countries left, but we have polio cases down to 176 this calendar year and back 25 years ago we would have 350 to 450 thousand cases per year.
Because of the respect that world governments have for rotary, we have been able to broker cease-fires in some of the warring countries for polio immunization days. We got a lot of support from World Health, we got a lot of support from Centers for Disease Control, from UNICEF, from the governments of the world including the government of the United States of America, but also the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They've given us 405 million dollars for polio eradication.
On the Rotary scholarship:
Our scholarship program has kind of evolved over the last several years to studies in peace and conflict prevention and resolution. We have six universities throughout the world where we have graduate level programs. Five of them are a two year program and the one at Chulalongkorn, Thailand is actually a short term program and we select about sixty students a year and its a full free ride for two years to study peace and conflict prevention and resolution because that is one of our six areas of focus for our rotary foundation. We honestly believe that if we can open the communication lines, and I know some people who think that's extremely naive, but if you can get people talking with each other and working with each other, we believe you can eliminate conflict.
On what sets Rotary apart:
The nice thing about rotary is we're not interested in acquiring land, we're not interested in acquiring oil, we're not interested in acquiring resources per se, we're not interested in what your religious affiliation or trying to covert you to our way of life. What we are trying to do is improve the quality of life for all human beings on the planet. And I think if we are communicating with each other and moving in the same direction, and if we can bring different points of view into the mix and different philosophies and that sort of thing, surely we can carve out a solution that will be beneficial to all.
It's not unusual at our banquets to see every religion that you can name sitting at the same table enjoying a meal together, discussing the issues of the day. It's sort of a one on one thing. It's one thing to stereotype a group of people and it’s another thing to get to know them. Rotary chooses to get to know them and try to get to some common ground and work together to achieve our objective, which is, in this case, peace.
A day in the Life of the president of Rotary International:
Sunday Morning-
Leave Sarasota, Florida for the Tampa Airport
Fly from Tampa to Newark, New Jersey
Fly Newark to New Delhi, India
Monday Morning-
1:00 a.m.- Arrive in New Delhi
3:00 a.m.- Go to Bed
6:00 a.m.- Go to Breakfast
Present Indian President with the highest rotary award
Lunch
3:00 p.m- Go to natatorium to speak to five thousand Rotarians
Host Dinner
9:30 p.m.- Fly New Delhi to Newark
Fly Newark to Chicago
Drive Chicago to Evanston, Illinois
TRANSCRIPT
SUZETTE GRILLOT, HOST: Ron Burton, welcome to World Views.
RON BURTON: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here.
GRILLOT: So let's just start by telling us what Rotary International is, what it does and then we'll go from there.
BURTON: Rotary International is an association of about 34 thousand rotary clubs around the world with 1.2 million members approximately and Rotarians, men and women, are folks in each community that really care about the world. They do all kinds of absolutely wonderful service projects to make their communities and the world a better place to live.
GRILLOT: The service projects, do they have an international focus? I know you do some work with international students for example.
BURTON: Some of them do. I think the greatest thrust that rotary has is starting in being a local organization to address the needs of the community. What has happened over the years is we have gotten together as a group of rotary clubs and as a rotary organization, for example to eradicate polio, and we have been 99 percent successful. We started this 25 years ago, no one thought it would take 25 years, we have 3 endemic countries left, but we have polio cases down to 176 this calendar year and back 25 years ago we would have 350 to 450 thousand cases per year. Depending on the project, rotary clubs do work together, but they also work alone, and that's the beauty of it. It really gets back to the individual Rotarian.
GRILLOT: How did this program start? Where does rotary come? Someone obviously said "Hey let's create a service organization that will spread around the world." Where does it even come from? What's its history?
BURTON: In 1905, a lawyer in Chicago named Paul Harris was living there and he was to some extent a little it lonely, but he was also looking, as a lawyer, probably to expand his business. He invited three friends that were from different vocations to join him on a Tuesday evening in Chicago on March 23 1905 to get together and just have a social hour. They decided early on that what they would do is rotate that meeting among those offices, thus the name rotary evolved. In 1910, the first International club was established in Winnipeg, Canada, and it continued to grow like wildfire.
GRILLOT: So just word of mouth and people just connecting to one another, the ideas spread that we would engage in community service from community to community and connect. How do these different rotary clubs connect? There are four in Norman; do they connect to each other? Do they connect to others? Do they have sister organizations? How does that perhaps work?
BURTON: They do connect, we do work with each of the clubs in town. They work together on certain projects, but they also work with other clubs in other states and other countries depending on what the project is. My club for example, which is the oldest rotary club in Norman, founded in 1919, has done water projects in Central America. We've partnered with clubs in Houston. Of course on the international projects you have to have and international partner, and while, in Oklahoma we have our own idea about Texas, Texas is not its own country and it’s not international. It just depends on the project and there’s a lot of involvement among rotary clubs and we do have sister clubs and that's a club decision.
GRILLOT: So when your organization here in Norman decided they wanted to work on water projects in Latin America, where does that come from? Somebody in your group says, "I have an idea," or are you searching for particular projects. How do you make that decision and create that contact in order to get it done?
BURTON-:Rotary International, at our world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, has staff members who actually work on cataloguing projects where rotary clubs can submit information on projects where they would like to partner with someone on. So you can actually go to that source and find a partner if that is something that your club is interested in doing. There's no shortage of opportunities because there are a lot of needs in the world.
GRILLOT: Well one of those needs of course is support for students. One of the things that has been very important to international students has been the support of rotary scholarships to bring them to the United States to study. One of my best friends in graduate school was a rotary scholarship winner. These are projects that are funded by your membership. It's a voluntary organization where people donate their time and their money to help solve problems and help young people around the world.
BURTON: Absolutely. Our scholarship program has kind of evolved over the last several years to studies in peace and conflict prevention and resolution. We have six universities throughout the world where we have graduate level programs. Five of them are a two year program and the one at Chulalongkorn, Thailand is actually a short term program and we select about sixty students a year and its a full free ride for two years to study peace and conflict prevention and resolution because that is one of our six areas of focus for our rotary foundation. We honestly believe that if we can open the communication lines, and I know some people who think that's extremely naive, but if you can get people talking with each other and working with each other, we believe you can eliminate conflict.
GRILLOT: So let's talk a little bit about that then. Rotary international as a civic organization, a member of global civil society if you will that contributes to greater understanding, greater awareness, cultural exchange, to the point that this leads to greater political, economic, social, relations around the world. Can you tell me, from your experience, particularly from your experience as president of the international organization some of the evidence you've seen of that and the impact rotary has made, not just on individuals or on specific projects, but general, over all greater relations around the world.
BURTON: When Rotarians come together, we just had our rotary international convention in Sydney, Australia, which was a tremendous success, it was actually my convention, we had 18,608 paid registrants from 160 countries around the world. It's not unusual at our banquets to see every religion that you can name sitting at the same table enjoying a meal together, discussing the issues of the day, discussing how they can work together to improve relations, discussing how they can work with other organization such as the United Nations and others, especially governments to open the communication lines. It's sort of a one on one thing. It's one thing to stereotype a group of people and it’s another thing to get to know them. Rotary chooses to get to know them and try to get to some common ground and work together to achieve our objective, which is, in this case, peace.
GRILLOT: A very important forum for discussing these issues and overcoming these barriers and obstacles and stereotypes. You just mentioned working with the United Nations and governments. That was really where I was going to go next. How does Rotary play a role in helping governments to open channels of communication to speak with one another to overcome the barriers of intolerance and lack of understanding?
BURTON: Just to get back to the polio eradication campaign and give you a really, I think, great example. Because of the respect that world governments have for rotary, we have been able to broker cease-fires in some of the warring countries for polio immunization days. We're partners in the polio eradication effort which we actually started and the World Health Organization and Dr. Margaret Chan, who heads that up will tell you that the world wouldn't be where it is today were it not for rotary because we put the boots on the ground. We got a lot of support from World Health we got a lot of support from Centers for Disease Control from UNICEF from the governments of the world including the government of the United States of America but also the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They've given us 405 million dollars for polio eradication.
GRILLOT: You mentioned putting boots on the ground, I think that's a wonderful way to put it. Of course we think of other things when we think of putting boots on the ground. Rotary is in some ways an army of people that you send out around the world to solve problems that perhaps governments can't solve directly or don't necessarily have the resources to solve directly or where you have just interested individuals that are much more likely to get it done.
BURTON: The nice thing about rotary is we're not interested in acquiring land, we're not interested in acquiring oil, we're not interested in acquiring resources per se, we're not interested in what your religious affiliation or trying to covert you to our way of life. What we are trying to do is improve the quality of life for all humans. And I think if we are communicating with each other and moving in the same direction, we can bring different points of view into the mix and different philosophies and that sort of thing, surely we can carve out a solution that will be beneficial to all.
GRILLOT: And much more likely to be accepted, it seems like, by local communities, given your main interest is in providing better access to healthcare or better standard of living.
BURTON: Absolutely. I've actually been on the national immunization days in India and I've held Indian babies in my arms and given them those life saving drops of vaccine. That just rips your heart out and you look in their eyes, and they're such beautiful children and you know that you've done something very good. I know you help them, but what it does for you is just amazing.
GRILLOT: Well that clearly is what motivates, it sounds to me, over a million people to continue to be involved in this organization. Tell us about your actions as president. You travelled the world, clearly, you probably know more people around the world than anyone else in the state of Oklahoma. Tell us about that term, how that was for you, what that was like. What are some of the highlights of your year as president of Rotary International?
BURTON: Well, you spend a year in office as president, you spend the year before as president elect and then you spend 9 months of the year before that as the nominee, so it's really almost a three-year term. The last two years you are required to operate out of world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois so my wife and I moved to Evanston and rotary provided us with a condominium. We operated out of Chicago O'Hare airport because we were in the air most of the time. I think in the last couple of years on United Airlines we flew in excess of a half a million miles. You see these rock stars on television and certainly around Rotarians, the president of rotary international, whoever that happens to be, is a rock star. Everybody wants to see the president, they want to shake the president's hand, they want the president to come to their area and speak, they want to introduce the president to the heads of state. For example, I was in Sarasota, Florida in February doing a million dollar banquet for our rotary foundation which is our philanthropic arm which funds the scholarships we were talking about early and also provides funding for our international projects. I left there on Sunday morning they drove me to Tampa, I flew to Newark and flew to New Delhi, India. I got there about one o'clock in the morning, got to bed about 3 or 3:30, woke up at 6, went to breakfast, went to the president of India's office, presented him with the highest award that rotary can give (it was a very nice personal relationship that we developed) we left there, went to lunch with a bunch of Rotarians, went to a natatorium around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there were 5 thousand Rotarians there and we had Margaret Chan of World Health, we had Ms. Gandhi there, we had the president of India, we had the Prime Minister of India, we had the Health Minister of India and we had Mrs. Suarez who led the opposition at the time and it was a national press conference in India talking about the fact that we had now eradicated polio in India, which is a huge huge success. At the end of the presentation, the president of India comes over and shakes my hand; he doesn't shake anyone else's hand. I hosted dinner that evening for the health minister of India. I excuse myself at 9:30 to catch a plane to fly back to Newark to Chicago. Just those kinds of incidents, I was supposed to have an audience with the pope, but that didn't materialize, but I did get to shake his hand and visit with him for a brief minute and that was really a nice interesting thing to get to do. At the convention I got to spend 15 minutes with Tony Abbott
GRILLOT: Wow what an experience, Ron. The work you've done is really admirable and we thank you so much for being here with us on World Views to share the work of Rotary International.
BURTON: Thank you.
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