Rotary’s slogan and ‘Four-Way Test’ guide the organization

Now, we’re rolling. The Rotary club “wheel” has been set in motion, effectively launching on July 16 a big celebration to observe the organization’s 100-year presence within Carteret County, N.C.

Members of the six local Rotary clubs that are now actively meeting in the county gathered at Shortway Brewing in Newport to unveil a special anniversary logo and outline a series of upcoming events, leading to “the grand finale” on May 19, 2025.

 

Coordinating the entire effort is Barbara Johnson, a member of the original Rotary Club of Morehead City, who currently serves as Rotary’s Assistant Governor, Area 1, District 7730.

The first Rotary club to form in Morehead City met on May 19, 1925, Johnson said. “Rotary spread quickly in Carteret County as local business and community leaders recognized the value of fellowship and support.

“Rotary Clubs acted as town chambers of commerce in the heyday of the Roaring Twenties. Beaufort quickly followed Morehead City with its club chartered three years later in March 1928. Newport chartered the third club in the county in June 1949.”

“For a small county, our six clubs provide strong Rotary impact throughout our communities,” Johnson said.

The nation’s first Rotary club was formed in Chicago in 1905. One of its members – Montague M. Bear, a professional engraver – volunteered to design a logo. He sketched a wooden wagon wheel with 13 spokes as the club emblem. Monty Bear’s intent was to illustrate “civilization and movement.”

“The Rotary logo has special imagery for us here in Carteret County,” Johnson said, “as there are six spokes on the Rotary wheel, one representing each of our current clubs.”

Rotary first entered North Carolina in 1914, coming initially to Raleigh. Manly Tyree organized the first club meeting in his downtown Raleigh photographic studio.

At the time, the local newspaper editor voiced his support by writing: “…No municipality can fully come into its own as a progressive city until it has organized its Rotary Club.”

The Raleigh Rotary Club, with 15 original members, began meeting regularly at the Yarborough House Grill Room. It was chartered as the nation’s 124th Rotary club.

In 1915, two more Rotary clubs formed in North Carolina – in the cities of Wilmington (charter 150) and Asheville (charter 152).

By 1921, Rotary had clubs on all six inhabitable continents of the world – Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

Rotary International uses the main motto “Service Above Self” to remind its members to think of how they can be helpful to others.

 

The phrase is attributed to one of the speakers at the 1911 Rotary International convention in Portland, Oregon. He was Ben Collins, a fruit merchant, a delegate from the Rotary Club of Minneapolis. He introduced the term “Service, Not Self,” which had a nice ring to it.

Over time, the wording was edited to “Service Above Self.”

One of the business leaders who left an indelible mark on Rotary International is Herbert John Taylor (shown below), who was born and raised in the small community of Pickford, located in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula.

 

Taylor is the creator of Rotary’s legendary “Four-Way Test.” It’s an interesting story.

After graduating from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1917, Taylor saw action during World War I with the U.S. Navy Reserve while stationed in Brest, France. After the war, he was hired by Sinclair Oil Corporation and dispatched to Pauls Valley, Okla.

Soon thereafter, oil was discovered in the region. Taylor opted to start his own company, an insurance and real estate business specializing in oil field leases.

Opportunity knocked again in 1924, when Taylor’s former Naval commander Maurice Karker, who was now president of The Jewel Tea Company in Chicago, offered Taylor a job as office manager. Taylor accepted, and by 1930, he had advanced to the position of executive vice president and was being groomed as Karker’s successor.

Fate intervened in 1932, when an officer at Continental National Bank in Chicago asked The Jewel Tea Company “to loan Taylor to the Club Aluminum Company on a half-time basis. Club Aluminum (the maker of Club Cookware products) was on the verge of bankruptcy.” 

“The bank was convinced that the only way to avoid that would be to bring in a proven top-level executive, and Taylor fit that definition. Jewel agreed to the request.”

“The first job was to set policies for the company that would reflect the high ethics and morals God would want in any business,” Taylor wrote. “What we needed was a simple, easily remembered guide to right conduct – a sort of ethical yardstick – which all of us in the company could memorize and apply to what we thought, said and did.”

“I leaned over my desk, rested my head in my hands and prayed. After a few moments, I looked up and…wrote down the 24 words that had come to me:

“1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships? 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

“I called it ‘The Four-Way Test’ of the things we think, say or do,” Taylor commented.

When Taylor became president of the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1938, he introduced The Four-Way Test to the Rotary world. The test proved to be an ideal tool that Rotary clubs could use to promote high ethical standards in business and the professions. In 1952, Taylor gave permission to Rotary International to adopt the Test worldwide.”

“In 1954-55, Herbert Taylor became president of Rotary International, and he used his presidency as an opportunity to travel around the world promoting the use of the Test. In 1954, he gifted the copyright for The Four-Way Test to Rotary International.”

 

Under Taylor’s leadership, Club Aluminum returned to profitability. The company was able to pay off its $400,000 debt within five years. More than $1 million in dividends were paid over the following 15 years. And net worth climbed to $1.75 million over the same period. Eventually, Club Aluminum was acquired by Mirro Aluminum Company of Manitowoc, Wis.

The Four-Way Test has endured as written for nearly a century and is still recited regularly by Rotarians around the world.

The Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie (Mich.) commissioned this statue of Herbert John Taylor to be built in the downtown area of the city in 2003.

Some Rotary clubs have playfully added a fifth point, including one in Port Isabel, Texas (near Brownsville). The Rotary Club of Port Isabel’s historian Ralph Ayers reported the addition of “Will it be fun?” began in 2010.

 

The Port Isabel Lighthouse is a Texas historic site.

Today, the club proudly displays a “Four-Way Test plus one” banner that was prepared by Russell Hampton Company of New Century, Kan. (near Kansas City), the official supplier of Rotary memorabilia and other promotional products.

Ayers said he has since learned that other fun-seeking Rotary clubs exist in: Houston; Dade City, DeLand and Coral Gables, Fla.; Avon Lake, Ohio; Madison and Fitchburg/Verona, Wis.; Sun City, Ariz.; and Ontario, Canada.

 

The idea of adding “Will it be fun?” to the Four-Way Test defines the nature of the Port Isabel club, and Ayers responds to critics:

“Rotary’s motto is ‘Service Above Self.’ All true Rotarians know how important that is and that the greatest pleasures in life derive from doing something for someone else without thought of personal cost or recognition. How could what we do not be fun?”

Ayers said the “Four Way Test…plus one” captures “the true spirit of Rotary.”