The History of Southwest Lubbock Rotary Club
By Rufus Grisham, Charter President

During the summer of 1956, District Governor Rex Webster made a decision to expand Rotary in Lubbock by organizing a second Rotary Club.

Every District Governor wants to start a new club. I don't know anything about the indoctrination at Lake Placid, but it must have a lot of emphasis on "Start a new club" or you may not be accepted in that big "Rotary club in the sky ."

At that time I was a member of the Lubbock Rotary Club and District Governor Rex asked me to organize and help with the new club.

We started the project with 12 members from Lubbock Rotary who wanted a smaller club or a different meeting day or just wanted to get involved in a new club. We also started with a number of suggestions from Rotarians with friends interested in Rotary, but could not be proposed for membership in the Lubbock Rotary because of classification problems.

The Lubbock Rotary Club, Gordon Thompson who was President, sponsored us. They were very supportive and helpful in many ways, including financial. When we started actively recruiting new members, we uncovered a somewhat difficult and unexpected problem and that was what territory the Lubbock Rotary Club would surrender. The Lubbock Rotary Club was the first and only club in Lubbock, so it was their decision where Southwest Lubbock Rotary Club could operate: This situation got complicated and a little sticky, so Gov. Rex appointed a negotiating team from Lubbock Rotary with Gordon Thompson as chairman and a team from the new club to work out the details.

The territorial dividing line was a line existing west down the middle of 19th Street to University and North down to the middle of University to Plainview and Infinity. All territory south and west of that line was Southwest Lubbock Rotary Club. Any individual whose business was located in that area was eligible for membership including Texas Tech and Methodist Hospital.

The Lubbock Rotary Club reserved the right to take members from all of Lubbock while Southwest Lubbock Rotary Club was restricted.

We started with 29 members, which represented a cross section of the business and professional community.