About Our Club
Subpages
Related Pages
Links
Files
Photo Albums
The Rotary Club of Newport was organized on July 17, 1923. Application for membership was submitted to Rotary International soon after and the application was approved on August 16, 1923 with the votes of three Rotary International Directors: Anthony M. Smith, Jr., John J. Gibson, and Frank H. Harfield. We were officially chartered on August 23, 1923 with twenty-four members and were required to pay a charter fee of $100.00 to Rotary International.

Meetings were originally held on Thursdays at 1:00 P.M. at Newport Beach and later moved to various locations throughout the city of Newport.  These locations included the Sheraton Islander on Goat Island (now known as the Hyatt Hotel), the Canfield House on Memorial Boulevard and the Marriott Hotel on America's Cup Avenue.  At some point, the club changed its meetings to Tuesdays at 12:30 pm.  In December of 1996, the Newport Rotary Club moved its meetings to the Atlantic Beach Club overlooking Newport Beach.  It was several years later, while reseachig the club history and its charter documents, that we learned Newport Beach was the site of the original meetings in 1923!

In celebration of its 75th anniversary in 1998, the club published a book entitled, "Rotary Remembers".   A year-long research effort, the book is a snapshot of our local community in each year of the club's existance - including biographies and photos of each of the club's past presidents.