History of Rotary Club of Vellore
Rotary Club of Vellore was sponsored by Rotary Club of
Bangalore. Dr. R.G.Chochraine, the famous leprologist was the club’s charter
president and C.J.Jacob of Vellore Radio House was the charter secretary.
On 5th March, 1947, the first meeting of our club members was
conducted. Government Muslim High School was the first venue of that luncheon
meeting, wherein Rtn.Hosali of Rotary club of Bangalore explained the ideals of
rotary movement and enthused our charter members to form a club on their own.
Rotary club of Vellore was chartered by Rotary club of
Chennai by then District Governor Rtn. SR Sharma on 20th May, 1948. We are
fortunate to have a group photograph taken on that occasion. Many stalwarts of
Vellore town, particularly Rtn. PSRajagopal Naidu, PP Dr.VN Madhavarayan, PP
Munisamy Naidu and others can be seen in that group photograph.
The charter presentation was held at “Sunshine” the beautiful
garden bungalow of late Rtn. C.Dhanapal Chettiar and his brother PP
C.S.Ramamurthy.
Many foreigners were among our club members besides charter
president Dr.RG Cochrane. Dr.JJ Devolios, Dr.TH Sommer Ville, Dr.Debruin and HH
Gass.
In 1974-75, our charter member Rtn. PSRajagopal Naidu was the
district governor. Our club has hosted the District Conference at Scudder
Auditorium, Bagayam, Vellore during that year.
Our proud member Rtn. PP Jacob John has served the Rotary
International Board on polio plus. He is also in the World Health Organisation
committees to eradicate polio and aids. He played a key role in the
implementation of the RI 3-H Red measles program. The success of this program
led to Rotary Polio Eradication project. He is also instrumental in establishing
cold chain in this country. His contribution in the polio eradication has been
praised and recognised internationally. He is also the recipient of the most
prestigious “B.C.Roy Award for medical excellence”.
Besides Rtn PDG PSR and PP Jacob John, our club’s
participation in the district administration is note worthy. Many of our past
presidents have held several key posts in the district administration.
Mr.KV Elangovan, Rtn Shyam Sundar Jaisingh, Rtn. T.Krishnan
have served as Asst Governors. Rtn.V.Krishnan and Rtn. Shyam sundar Jaisingh
have led our district GSE teams. Mr.Suresh Talreja & his wife Sunitha suresh
represented our club in the family exchange program with Germans. Our annet
Sudarshan Krishnan was selected for the Semester at Sea program, He is the first
and only one from upcountry selected so far.
Every year we have done various projects for the betterment
of the community where we live. Our community service projects during the past
60 years are numerous. It is impossible to list out all our projects. Our club
contribution to lift the downtrodden and poor people is well known in our town.
To name a few recent matching grant projects, we have organized the childrens’
burn unit at CMCH, molecule laboratory at Karigiri hospital, printing unit at
Cheshire Home,
Brig Nandagopal (Param vira Chakra awardee), KS Pattabiraman
(silver elephant award winner), Sri SV Chittibabu (vice chancellor), leading
advocates Sri V.C.Rajagopalachariar, Sri N.K.Vijaya raghavan, Sri K.Bharathi IAS,
Sri M.Anantha narayanan, ICS, Sri KS Venkatraman, ICS were among our proud
members. Many Voorhees college principals were members of our club.
Our club has sponsored seven new clubs in this area. Rotary
Clubs of Chitoor, Ranipet, Vellore North, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore South, Arcot,
Vellore Midtown were sponsored by our club. Besides co sponsoring the R/c of
Vaniyambadi with r/c of Ranipet.
We are marching ahead in the ideal of Rotary Movement and the
dreams our founder Paul Harris.