History of Rotary in Romania
(in an abridged version by courtesy
" le Rotarien " August 1997)
The re establishment of Rotary in Romania in the
nineties was initially entrusted to French District 1660 (the
region East of Paris) However from 1 July 1997 the
responsibility for Rotary in Romania was placed under the
administration of a special Presidential Administrator
of a Rotary extension area under a Swiss PDG
named Jurg Tchopp .
Rotary was by no means a "new thing
" to Romania . That country had had a long standing cultural
and educational relationship with France and indeed a
good number of its educated people had studied in France …
Between 1929 and 1939 ,the Rumanian population had been around
the 20 million mark of which 17 million were
Romanians ,the balance being Hungarians ,Russians and
others. ..Agriculture was the country"s main activity
,there was excellent wine produced and a fair bit of oil came
from Romania . Economically Romania was not in bad shape .,and
thus it is no surprise that once Rotary did establish itself in
Bucharest ,that its membership was rather an elite affair . The
Bucharest R C counted amongst its members people of
outstanding repute and amongst its pre war Presidents ,it counted
a Minister of Agriculture , 2 Ministers of Trade and Industry and
a Minister of Finance . In the early days Rotary was not confined
to prominent Romanians only. Romulus Cordescu and Agrippa
Popescu both "old timers " and members of the
"pre war " Bucharest Rotary club recall that
there were many foreigners ,and many religions represented at the
Rotary dinner tables of pre war Romanian Rotary . They recall
visits by at least 3 Rotary World Presidents prior to
1940 ,and recall a very effective and active Rotary .Rotary
in Romania consisted of
| R C of Bucharest | Chartered | 8 April | 1929 |
| R C of Brasov | 1930 | ||
| R C of Tmisoara | 1929 | ||
| R C of Cernautzi | 1930 | ||
| R C of Arad | 1930 | ||
| R C of Campina | 1933 | ||
| R C of Iasi | 1933 | ||
| R C of Cluj | 1935 | ||
| R C of Ploiesti | 1936 | ||
Pre War Romanian Rotary
occupied itself in educational works and in health care
principally for its children ,finding employment
opportunities for sick or handicapped youngsters ,even the
erection of a lodge for young skiers in the mountains was one of
Rotary's projects A "mirror image " projects
,possibly somewhat akin to the later GSE scheme was developed to
let people learn from their peers in other countries .. Rotary
thrived until the outbreak of WW2 and their Government had
been replaced by a Communist one until 1990 .
| Post Soviet Era Rotary |
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