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 Rotary
Mottoes
Rotary’s official mottoes, “Service Above Self” and “They Profit
Most Who Serve Best”, trace back to the early days of the
organization.
In 1911, He Profits Most Who Serves Best was approved as the Rotary
motto at the second convention of the National Association of Rotary
Clubs of America, in Portland, Oregon.
It was adapted from a speech made by Rotarian Arthur Frederick
Sheldon to the first convention, held in
Chicago
the previous year. Sheldon declared that "only the science of right
conduct toward others pays. Business is the science of human
services. He profits most who serves his fellows best."
Arthur Frederick Sheldon
joined the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1908 where he became
responsible for vocational service. He also made a list of 800
classifications for membership. His occupation was running a
business school, and took out the advertisement displayed here in
The Rotarian in
1917.
The Portland
convention also inspired the motto Service Above Self. During a
convention outing on the Columbia River,
Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian J.E. Pinkham about the proper way
to organize a Rotary club, offering the principle his club had
adopted: Service, Not Self. Pinkham invited Paul P. Harris, who also
was on the boat trip, to join their conversation. Harris asked
Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self
was met with great enthusiasm.
At the 1950 RI Convention in
Detroit, slightly modified versions of the
two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of
Rotary: He Profits Most Who Serves Best and Service Above Self. The
1989 Council on Legislation established Service Above Self as the
principal motto of Rotary, because it best conveys the philosophy of
unselfish volunteer service.
He Profits Most Who Serves Best was modified by the 2004 Council on
Legislation to its current wording, They Profit Most Who Serve Best.
This change, 99 years after the founding of Rotary, reflects the
acceptance that women are equal members of the Rotary organization.
Image courtesy of
Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler,
University of Freiburg, Germany
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