Courtesy of  Ray Leisy, Club Historian
 
The Wooster Rotary Year 1956-1957 began as J. Garber Drushal took the helm as President of Wooster Rotary. Dr. Drushal, PhD., was, at the time, Professor in the Speech Department at the College of Wooster. Membership in Wooster Rotary at that time stood at 161.
 
A very active topic for discussion at the September 21, 1956 meeting was the use of Weitzel Hall as a noon meeting place for Wooster Rotary. President Drushal began the discussion because of the poor attendance recently at Wooster Rotary. It was noted that the main reason seemed to be the inaccessibility of the stairs to the Hall for many of Wooster Rotary’s aging members. Earlier, Paul Weitzel had been approached about installing a small elevator, but he evidently declined. Another possibility floated for discussion was buying a building on the ground floor for Rotary’s exclusive use. This would permit larger meetings such as Ladies’ night. That idea also evidently went nowhere. The Masonic Lodge was approached as well to rent their ground floor room out, but they declined. The Board of Directors was directed to continue the search for a suitable ground floor meeting place. As an added to note to this issue, we hope everyone had a chance to read page A8 in the 7/2/2020, Sunday Daily Record. There you would have noted Dr. Edward Brown, a polio survivor and Wooster Rotary member, being carried up the stairs to Weitzel Hall by Ivan Steiner, Jr., also a Rotarian.
 
The speaker highlight of the Fall season for many was the speaker on October 26th; Branch Rickey, graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University. He was, of course, a baseball manager who won eight pennants and four world championships, His greatest legacy was that he hired Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
 
It was announced that  November 9th would be declared “Fellowship Day” for Wooster Rotary as would the first meeting of every month. The purpose was to promote Wooster Rotary Fellowship by members sitting somewhere other than their usual seat so that they could meet new members and learn more about each Rotarian. It is hard to tell how long that program lasted, but we still struggle today with that issue.