History

The Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown was chartered on June 30, 2008.

 
Rotary Club of San Francisco Presidents
 
Year
President
District Governor
RI President
RI Theme
2007-2008
Alex Chiu
President Elect
Brian McLaren
Wilfred Wilkinson
Rotary Shares
2008-2009
Alex Chiu
Russ Ketron
Dong Kum Lee
Make Dreams Real
2009-2010
Ron Gin
Riki Intner
John Kenny
The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands
2010-2011
Jim Allen
Bill Koefoed
Ray Klinginsmith
Building Communities, Bridging Continents
2011-2012
Ted Abe
John Bottari
Kaylan Banerjee
Reach within to Embrace Humanity
2012-2013
Andrew Yu
Bob Intner
Sakuji Tanaka
Peace Through Servivce
2013-2014
Lily Chan
Eric Schmautz
Ron Burton
Engage Rotary to Change Lives
2014-2015
Jeff Oaks
Christanne Gallagher
Gary Huang
Light Up Rotary
2015-2016
Paul Chin
Leah Lambrecth
Ravi Ravindran
Be a Gift to the World
2016-2017
Vanita Louie
Jeri Fujimoto
John Germ
Rotary Serving Humanity
2017-2018
Rich Swart
Ron Gin
Ian Riseley
Rotary Making a Difference
2018-2019
Liz Mark
Jayne Hulbert
Barry Rassin
Be the Inspiration
2019-2020
Reagan Lee
Sue Rokaw
Mark Daniel Maloney
Rotary Connects the World
2020-2021
Paul Chin
Mary Bates
Holger Knaak
Rotary Opens Opportunities
2021-2022
Rich Swart
Danielle Lallement
Shekar Mehta
Serve to Change Lives
2022-2023
Rhonda Pierce
Gary Chow
Jennifer Jones
Imagine Rotary
2023-2024
Jennifer Cheung
Laine Hendricks
Gordan McInally
Create Hope in the World
2024-2025
Susan Dean
Steve Wright
Stephanie Urchick
 
 
 
 
 

“WHATEVER ROTARY MAY MEAN TO US, TO THE WORLD IT WILL BE KNOWN BY THE RESULTS IT ACHIEVES.”

—PAUL P. HARRIS

Our 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man—Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.

OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT

Rotarians have not only been present for major events in history—we’ve been a part of them. From the beginning, three key traits have remained strong throughout Rotary:
We’re truly international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents. Today we’re working together from around the globe both digitally and in-person to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.
We persevere in tough times. During WWII, Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Japan were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.
Our commitment to service is ongoing. We began our fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. By 2012, only three countries remain polio-endemic—down from 125 in 1988.

NOTABLE ROTARIANS

Rotarians are your neighbors, your community leaders and some of the world’s greatest history-makers: 
  • Warren G. Harding, U.S. president
  • Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer
  • Dr. Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of Mayo Clinic
  • Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor of the wireless radio and Nobel laureate
  • Thomas Mann, German novelist and Nobel laureate
  • Friedrich Bergius, German chemist and Nobel laureate
  • Admiral Richard E. Byrd, American explorer
  • Jan Masaryk, foreign minister of Czechoslovakia
  • H.E. Soleiman Frangieh, president of Lebanon
  • Dianne Feinstein, U.S. senator
  • Manny Pacquaio, Filipino world-champion boxer and congressman
  • Richard Lugar, U.S. senator
  • Frank Borman, American astronaut
  • Edgar A. Guest, American poet and journalist
  • Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer
  • Franz Lehar, Austrian composer
  • Lennart Nilsson, Swedish photographer
  • James Cash Penney, founder of JC Penney Co.
  • Carlos Romulo, UN General Assembly president
  • Sigmund Sternberg, English businessman and philanthropist
Ready to make history with us? Get involved.