Our Club 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.
Our history spans seventy-seven years and we are very much a part of this community.
Our club is honored to have members who have led District 7770 in a variety of roles. The following individuals have served or are currently serving as follows:
Past District Governor
John C. Lipham, District 7770, 1973-1974
John Ramsey, District 7770, 2005-2006
Dennis Miskewicz, District 7490, 2005-2006
Past Asst. Governor
Anthony (Tony) Oglietti, 1998-2000
Ed Carter, 2005-2008
Don Nye, 2008-2011
Tony Pope, 2011-2014
Jaime Moore, 2014-2019
Current Assistant Governor
Herman Dixon 2023-2026
Club Presidents Since the Beginning
Joseph Hutchinson, 1947 *
P. Fran Smith, 1947-1948 *
Ed Vincent, 1948-1949
Sam Barshay, 1949-1950
P. Frank Smith, Jr. 1950-1951 *
Clifton S. Jones, 1951-1952 **
Randolph Walker, 1952-1953
John Finucan, 1953-1954
Albert Peters, 1955-1955
Paul Bonner, 1955-1956
A. M. (Merry) Jones, 1956-1957
Patrick J. (Joe) Melia, 1957-1958
John C. Lipham, 1958-1959
Robert Hemphill, 1959-1960
Harold Sebring, 1960-1961
Marion Watson, 1961-1962
Charles Wattles, 1962-1963
George Quaile, 1963-1964
Brunson M. Westbury, 1964-1965
Alfred Freisem, 1965-1966
W. Ray Jones, 1966-1967 **
W. Lang Foster, 1967-1968
Steve L. Skardon, 1968-1969
Gordon Blanton, 1969-1970
E. Loyless Knight, 1970-1971
John Compton, 1971-1972
Tom Myers, 1972-1973
A. G. D. (Mac) Wiles, 1973-1974
Pete Garbarini, 1974-1975
Erbert F. Cicenia, 1975-1976
Haskell E. Neal, 1976-1977
Ronald Strawn, 1977-1978
John Hanlin, 1978-1979
Fim M. White, 1979-1980
Hugh W. Wilson, Jr., 1980-1981
Ken Willard, 1981-1982
Thomas Bryce, 1982-1983
G. Lindsey Luke, 1983-1984
George H. Ritter, 1984-1985
Steve Hitchinson, 1985-1986 *
H. Carl Josephson, 1986-1987
William Coursey, 1987-1988
Paul G. Campbell, Jr., 1988-1989
John Dumas, 1989-1990
David McIntosh, 1990-1991
Bill Lomax, 1991-1992
Glen Haynes, 1992-1993
Phil Jones, 1993-1994
Anthony (Tony) Oglietti, 1994-1995
Randolph Rhodes, 1995-1996
David Vail, 1996-1997
Ken Ward, 1997-1998
Winnie Evans, 1998-1999
John L. Ramsey, 1999-2000
Jan Freeman, 2000-2001 ***
Tony Pope, 2001-2002
Yvonne Caruso, 2002-2003
Ed Carter, 2003-2004
Ed Tassin, 2004-2005
Don Nye, 2005-2006
Taylor Clarkson, 2006-2007
Bill Everett, 2007-2008
June Sullivan, 2008-2009
Sean Bennett, 2009-2010
Kelly Williams, 2010-2011
Gene Hundley, 2011-2012
Jaime Moore, 2012-2013
Frank Osage, 2013-2014
Roland Fulcher, 2014-2015
Jon Presley, 2015-2016
Linda Art, 2016-2017
Jaye Elliott, 2017-2018
David Powell, 2018-2019
Gillis McAllister, 2019-2020
Richard Waring, 2020-2021
Shirley Berardo, 2021-2022
Katie McCravy, 2022-2023
Ashley Rogers, 2023-2024
Ellen Priest, 2024 - 2025
*Denotes that a father and son served as President.
** Denotes that two brothers served as President.
*** Denotes first female President.
