Fargo Lions Club
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Fargo Lions Club |
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Club History This section of our website includes historical information about the Fargo Lions Club. The first item provides background on the Fargo Lions Club. Following this is a list of Fargo Lions who served as Governor for District 5-NE: and a listing of the 85 individuals who served as President of the Club. The archives for the Fargo Lions Club can be found in the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies on the campus of North Dakota State University. Additional information about the club will be added, including charter member and club award winners. First, the text of a speech delivered as part of a program about the history of the Fargo Lions Club. "Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence." The anonymous quotation can be aptly related to the self-portrait of the Fargo Lions Club. For nearly 85 years, the Fargo Lions have autographed their work with excellence. Each of us has a story to tell about our involvement in Lionism. For me, it started in 1984 when Past District Governor and Fargo Lion, Fred Walsh, suggested that if I were going to be Department Chair for Speech and Drama at NDSU, I needed to know some community leaders. He brought me as a guest and I was on the way to nearly two decades of association (give or take a few years) with the Fargo Lions. While we know our own stories, there are some common threads that tie us together. One of those is a knowledge of our club history. Today, I will take a few minutes to share some of the highlights of our club history by looking at our origins, leadership in Lionism, service project and fundraising activities. The information I am using was taken fromt the archives located at the Institute for Regional Studies at NDSU. Gus Weiland was the long-time secretary of the Fargo Club and helped to preserve what records we have. Origins: 1. Organized May 7, 1921 by District Governor, Frank C. Berry of Minneapolis. 2. First officers: Ed T. Conmy - President; Fred M. Hector - Secretary and Treasurer. (as a side note, his son, Paul Conmy also was a long-time member.) 3. 42 charter members - two from each occupation (dentist, bankers, druggists, life insurance, undertakers, oculists, IRS collectors, srugeons, hotel managers, and capitalists - apparently trust companies weren't thought of very highly and the two members from Northern Trust took the label "capitalists" on the original charter) 4. The club has always met on Mondays at noon. FIrst in the Commercial Club Room of the Old Chamber of Commerce Building at 502 1st Avenue North. Meals were 25-40 cents; then the club moved to the Blue Room at the Powers Hotel (1100 members)and meals were 80 cents. In 1957, the club moved to the Town HAll of the Gardener Hotel (146 members). Since then, the club met at the Elks Building (where the new Courthuse is located) and now at the Radisson (over a decade). 5. Early membership records were lost in a flood, but peaked at around 150 members. Leadership: 1. Our Fargo Lions CLub has a reputation for leadership in North Dakot. Often recognized as 10/10 on membership reports in on time! Earliest "official" record of this 1929/30. 2. Spnsorship of new clubs (Finley, Valley City, Hawley, Casselton, Moorhead, and the Leo Club at Oak Grove) 3. Service as District Governors (18): 1922 - E. T. Conmy; 1929 - R.T. Trubey; 1948 - Jake Mauer (who was also MD5 secretary-treasurer from 1951-1964); 1953 - P.J. Carey; 1955 - Mel Toussaint; 1957 - Fred Hultz; 1961 - Frederick Walsh; 1963 - Vernon Sjoquist; 1967 - V.E. Kroeber; 1971 - W. J. Seifert; 1972 - Leo Eldred; 1976 - Lyle Swor; 1979 - J. Leo Malony; 1983 - Mayo Christianson; 1986 - Ted Appel; Ed Morken; and Dave Burtler. 4. Two "International Counselors" listed: Ed Conmy and R.T. Trubey. 5. Fargo also hosted Melvin Jones in 1936-37 and an International President, Frank V. Birch, in 1937. 6. Active in the District (earliest atttendance at convention - 1922). Fargo Club hosted its first District Convention in 1926. 7. Hosted Zone Meeting in 1935. 8. Earliest recorded attendance (in records) at "National Convention" was 1930-31 in Boston, MA. Activities and Service 1. Early activities included projects for young people: For nearly 40 years (1920s-1940s) the club hosted a Christmas Party for the ND Children's Home; from the mid 1930s to the 1940s, served an annual turkey dinner for the St. John's Orphanage (108 Pounds of turkey served); sponsorship of a Boy Scout Troup as early as 1929; Student Loan Fund ($3,000 on hand for NDSU students); 4H connection as early as 1929; milk to area children, Boys and Girls State. 2. Support of the Salvation Army started in 1928 (projects and bell-ringing) 3. Started purchasing glasses in 1931. In the 1960s, "new eyes for the needy" was the slogan as hundreds of pairs of glasses were collected and checked. 4. Recognition of Fargo Public School Teacher of the Year began in the 1950s (first record I found was 1957). 5. Contributed to support causes in line with the times: Community Chest, unemployment relief, flood relief, defense bonds, Red Cross, books for service men, clothes for refugees. 6. The Fargo Lions Club built a cottage at the Y Camp and has maintained a supportive relationship and helped with vaious cleaning and maintenance projects. 7. Fargo Conservancy Park - Lion Mike Benson - is an on-going service to the environment and our community. Fundraisers: 1. There have always been fundraisers, but some of the early ones have not much information recorded about them. 2. Int the 1950s, the Fargo Lions were entertainers (could have been partially because of the influence of Fred Walsh, Director of Little Country Theatre at NSDU?) 1952 - Passion Play (iron lung purchased); 1956 - Montovani; 1957 - Victor Borge; 1958 - Fred Waring; 1960 - Guy Lombardo. 3. Brooms, Nuts & Bulbs "Night for the Handicapped" - Started by Fargo Lions and joined by other area Lions. A one night "Don't Forget the Lions for the Blind." 4. Journey For Sight - Started at the Northport Shopping Center, later moved to Fargo South Arena area - joint venture with Nurses Association in the 1980s-1990s. 5. Charity Balls - Luaus - Country Hoe-Down Through it all, the club has changed to meet the changiing times. From its start in 1921, the Fargo Lions Club has created a self-portrait of leadership and service to the community. We can be proud that the work of our founders and those who served over the past eight decades, along with all of us here who currently carry the torch as Hellen Keller's "Knights of the Blind" has been autographed with excellence.
Past District Governors from the Fargo Lions Club
Roster of Past Presidents of the Fargo Lions Club
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