Our History

The Rotary Club of Summerville was started by the Charleston Club in 1947. Charter night was April 11, 1947 at the St. Paul’s Parish House. There were 22 charter members; District Governor was John V. Brookshire, and our District was #190. Our first President was Joe Hutchinson in 1947. Our first female president was Jan Freeman in 2000. As of today, our Club boasts approximately 100 members.

We are the Home Club of two former District Governors – JC Lipham in 1973-74, John Ramsey 2005-06. Herman Dixon is scheduled to serve as District Governor in 2026-2027.

Our Club started fairly small and remained that way for over twenty years. There were some reasons for this – Summerville was a small town with about 1,800 residents and only two rural mail routes – one north of the railroad and one south.

While Summerville has a past history of many fine inns, hotels and guest homes, there were no restaurants of any size in the 50’s and 60’s. The club initially met at the Curve Inn (restaurant-swimming pool) on Bacons Bridge Road and has moved its meeting location many times since then, until its current meeting place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Nexton.

Our Club projects have been many and varied. We started the old-fashioned July 4th celebration on the country’s bicentennial. In 1980-83, we collected approximately 236 tons of aluminum cans. This improved the environment and infused $140,000 into the local economy as well as continuing to supplement the educational scholarships the Club awards. After Hugo, Rotary was a key player in putting together a Crisis Ministry that aided our community with $250,000 in funds and even more in materials. Our Golf Tournament has been a huge success and only continues to grow each year. We participate in adopting out ducks as part of the Daniel Island club’s Duck Race.

On a more global scale, Rotary International has been praised in the medical community and around the world for its efforts in eradicating Polio. The Rotary Foundation helps Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace by improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment, and alleviating poverty. The CART fund is a non-profit grassroots organization that provides “seed” money for cutting edge, high impact research grants to help find a treatment or cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. Rotarians have donated over $13 million since 1999 to this fund.