Mission:

The mission of the Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club is to bring together a diverse group of business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and build goodwill and peace in the community and the world.

History:

Our eleventh President, Steen Meryweather, has during this past year been urging an historical review of the Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club. Steen is not one to be easily put off and a bit if research does yield significant information about the activities of our membership in the past eleven years - activities which have had an influence on the community and the lives of all of us.

The genesis of the Club came from the enthusiastic interest of twenty-seven men in the early days of 1968 under sponsorship of the Ellsworth Club. Dennis Lombard, District Governor of Bangor, Carl Rogers, John Raymond, Malcolm Noyes, Phillip Eaton and others of Ellsworth attended our organization meeting on March 20, 1968 at the Bar Harbor Police Building. Officers elected were Ed Smith, President; Don Hobbs, Vice-president; Cary Swan, Secretary and Dick Libby, Treasurer.

The original name for the Club as proposed would have had a geographical description only, that is, "Mount Desert Island Rotary Club." International Headquarters, however, would not permit a club to be named with no reference to a municipality, so the original name adopted and authorized was Mount Desert Island (Bar Harbor) Rotary Club. In 1969 we changed this to Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club in the interest of ready identification of the Club and its location by Rotarians outside the immediate area.

Solicitation of charter members, and later other members, scrupulously avoided approaching members of other service clubs. As a result, our relationship with the Lions Club has been most cordial. Apparently, there was felt need for Rotary in Bar Harbor in 1968. Cary Swan, newly arrived to town from his Rumford Club, was a key person in recruiting new members.

At first we were only provisionally accepted by International Rotary, and it was in that status we had our first official luncheon meeting as the Mary Jane Restaurant on March 27, 1968. John Raymond, President of the Ellsworth Club, was the first speaker of the hundreds we have since heard. Jim Allen of Portland was First Guest, while First Visiting Rotarian was Richard Gay of Milbridge. Early programs reflected concerns of the community in the later sixties