PAUL HARRIS, Founder of Rotary International

The Rotary’s founder Paul Percy Harris was born on April 19, 1868, in Racine, Wisconsin to George and Cornelia Harris. He was the couple’s second child. At age three, when his family fell on hard times, Paul was moved with a sibling to Vermont to live with his paternal grandparents, Howard and Pamela Rustin Harris. He was raised by his New England grandparents with values of tolerance toward all. He was a mischievous child. He attended primary school in Wallingford and secondary school in Rutland, where he played pranks and skipped class. He also attended Black River Academy in Ludlow but was expelled after only a few weeks. After secondary school, he enrolled in the University of Vermont in 1886. He was expelled with three others in December of 1886, because of his involvement in an underground society. Harris spent the spring with a private tutor, and in the fall of 1887, he enrolled at Princeton University