District History

The History of Rotary International District 3790

Rotary International District 3790 is composed of clubs covering 10 provinces in the Northwestern area of Luzon: Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Abra, Benguet, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Pampanga, Zambales, and Bataan. Our story properly begins in 1905, when Paul Harris organized the first Rotary Club in Chicago. True to his character, Paul Harris, the founder, became president of the club in its third year (1907), and he started to work on extending Rotary to San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Portland, and so on. In 1910 - After only 5 years, the First National Congress, with 16 clubs (1800 members), was held in Chicago. There were 29 delegates. On November 3 that year, RC Winnipeg (Canada) became the first club outside the US - making Rotary an International organization, and it started to cross the oceans to spread in Europe and other countries. 1919 - Leo J. Lambert wrote John Poole (the president of the International Association of Rotary clubs) on the possibility of organizing a Rotary club in Manila. Roger D. Pinneo of RC Seattle was sent to Manila to help organize, and on June 1, 1919 the Rotary Club of Manila became the first club in Asia with 38 members, 2 Filipinos (Gabriel Leo and Gregorio Nieva), and Chinese (Alfonso Sycip), and 35 Americans. Thirteen years later, in 1932, the Rotary Club of Cebu was chartered, followed by RC Iloilo as the third club in 1933. The three clubs, called Non-district Clubs, were directly supervised by the RI President and Board of Directors. Incidentally, the practice of districting under a governor started in 1915 by the 6th Convention in San Francisco. In 1936 - RI District 81 was re-created for the Philippines with George Malcolm as appointed governor. 3 new clubs (Bagio, Dagupan, and Davao) were chartered, making a total of 8 clubs. 1940 - World War II broke out, and all clubs in the Philippines were disbanded due to the hostilities. Theodor L. Hall was the governor. 1945 - The war ended, and Dagupan was the first club re-admitted to RI, followed by Manila, etc. District 81 was re-established with Theodore L. Hall as appointed governor. 1946-1947 - Gil C. Puyat was appointed the First Filipino District Governor. RC Tarlac was admitted as the first new club after the war. RC Bacolod, Bagio, Cebu, and Davao were re-admitted, making a total of 7 clubs with 186 Rotarians. The practice of electing district governors was institutionalized. 1947-1948 - Marianito F. Lihuanco of Dagupan was the first elected governor. He was followed by Benjamin Gaston (Bacolod) and Emilio Javier (Manila). 1950-1951 - District 81 became District 48, with Fernando Manalo of Bagio as governor, with 22 clubs with 834 Rotarians. Marianito Tinio of Cabanatuan was the last governor of District 48, which was re-numbered 385 under Governor Hermando Pineda of Cagayan de Oro, with 35 clubs with 1300 Rotarians. In 1963-1964 - Alfonso Oboza of Davao was the last governor of the whole Philippines as a district, it was divided into Distrct 380 (Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan) with 33 clubs, and Leonardo Gallardo of Bacolod as the governor. In 1976-1977 - District 380 had over 80 clubs (3,000 Rotarians) and Jun Tambunting was the governor, and this was split into 380 and 382. RC Angeles and Central Tarlac were charted. Ernani V. Certeza was the first governor of the new District 380 (North of the Pasig River) with 44 clubs and over 1,500 Rotarians. 1982-1983 - with 86 clubs and over 2,000 Rotarians, the Governor Mar Un Ocampo started the groundwork for the split, made effective by the Governor Mike April in 1983-84, into 379 (North Western provinces from Pampanga to Ilocos Norte), since then. In 1932, Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor created The Four-Way Test. The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationship. The test has been translated into more than 100 languages, and Rotarians recite it at club meetings:

Of the things we think, say or do

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?