ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY
The Ithaca Rotary Club was founded in 1914 by Edward G. Wyckoff, a
prominent Ithaca businessman inspired by the Rotary movement and its ideals of
fellowship and service. The club was the first Rotary club in the country
founded without sponsorship from an established club, and it did not fully join
the broader Rotary International organization until 1915. Ithaca Rotary has
sponsored programs such as the Student Exchange, and has supported numerous
organizations and causes, both throughout the Ithaca community and
internationally. Ithaca Rotary has also sponsored the formation of additional
Rotary clubs, including the Ithaca Sunrise Rotary Club, the Ithaca-Cayuga
Rotary Club, and clubs in Dryden and Trumansburg, NY. Women have been members
of Ithaca Rotary since Rotary International first allowed women in 1987. For
more information, please see Margaret Hobbie's A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ITHACA
ROTARY CLUB (1995), Box 17, folder 15.
