History of the Rotary Club of As

History of the Rotary Club of Asbury Park

Back to the 1920's 1930's To the 1940's

The Governor of the State of New Jersey, Morgan F. Larsen, spoke to the Rotary Club of Asbury Park on March 21, 1930. The Club continued to attract high quality speakers.

The Asbury Park Club was represented by Laurence Gillett (d-1933-34) and Merrill Thompson (d-1939-40) at the Rotary International Convention in Boston, Massachusetts on June 20, 1933.

On May 9, 1934, the Club hosted a Third District Conference at the Monterey Hotel in Asbury Park. Laurence Gillett was then President. Club representatives Merrill Thompson and Harold Warren (d-1936-37) were on the road again to the Rotary International Convention in Detroit, Michigan.

The luncheon cost for the weekly meetings at the Marlborough Hotel was 87 cents. Asbury Rotarian and former District Governor J. Lyle Kinmonth remained active as delegates to the Rotary International convention in Nice, France.

Harry F. Jackson (1948-49) recalls working at Fitkin Hospital, now Jersey Shore Medical Center, during the Morro Castle disaster of September 8, 1934. The Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship returning to New York from Havana, Cuba, when it caught fire and came ashore just north of the Convention Hall. One hundred and thirty-four lives were lost in the disaster; 125 injured and burn victims were transferred to Fitkin Hospital, Neptune. While the hospital improvised space, Harry Jackson enlisted the help of fellow Rotarians Fred Havens and Jess Webster (d-1929-30) to install additional phone lines in a matter of a few hours to handle the emergency. Rotarian Dick Gibbons, a reporter for the Asbury Park Press, received a national by-line for his story on the disaster.

On September 18, 1936, the club moved the weekly meetings to the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel. In the Fall of 1937, the Club awarded bronze buttons to the boys and girls of the school safety patrols.

In view of the growing number of Rotary clubs in 1937, some wanted to divide the 36th District. The Asbury Park Club lobbied for the "Asbury Park Plan" which was adopted by Rotary International. This successfully blocked the placement of the Asbury Park Club in the South Jersey-Delaware District and allowed it to remain in the Northern District of New Jersey.

The initiative of Harrison C. Hurley in 1922, with the tenacious support of the Asbury Park Club to encourage the formation of a Community Chest was finally realized on November 8, 1938. The Asbury Park Community Chest was at last established. Most of the Rotary Club members became active in the Community Chest. The regular Club meetings were shifted to the YMCA in order to join the "Chest" annual report session.

The Asbury Rotary Club's Children's Christmas Party on December 20, 1939, was highlighted by a visit from George Herman "Babe" Ruth, baseball's most famous slugger.

Back to the 1920's 1930's To the 1940's

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