A Century of Service

The Rotary Club of Corning, NY was chartered in 1921, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Elmira. Its founding president was Frederick Carder, the English-born glass artist who co-founded Steuben Glass and became one of the most influential figures in American glass-making.

For Carder, Rotary represented more than fellowship among local business leaders. Having lost his son in World War I, he was deeply interested in Rotary's growing vision of international understanding and its potential to promote peace. At home in Corning, he also saw Rotary accomplishing something more immediate: bringing people together.

In the business culture of the period, Carder observed an attitude of secrecy and independence among businessmen. He credited Rotary with helping to replace that isolation with acquaintance, cooperation, and a shared interest in strengthening the community. Weekly meetings provided a setting where relationships could develop—and where those relationships could become service.

Growing with the Community

Twenty-five men signed Corning Rotary's original charter. Over the following decades, the club grew steadily, eventually reaching more than 170 members. Women became members of Corning Rotary in 1989 and have since served throughout the club's leadership.

For much of its history, Rotary luncheon meetings were a familiar part of community life in downtown Corning. The Baron Steuben Hotel served as an early home for the club, followed in later years by the Corning Hilton and Radisson.

Today, Corning Rotary continues the tradition of regular fellowship, communication, education, and service through meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

Corning Rotary is part of Rotary District 7120, encompassing clubs throughout an eleven-county region of New York State. District governors serve one-year terms, supported by fellow Rotarians who provide leadership, training, and assistance to local clubs. Corning Rotarians who have served as District Governor include Floyd English Sr., Walter Oakley, and Robert Hunt.

Service in Corning

From its earliest years, the club has understood that fellowship alone does not justify Rotary's place in a community. Service does.

Over the decades, Corning Rotary has supported an extraordinarily broad range of community activities, particularly those benefiting young people. Its involvement has included Sea Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, youth programs and centers, Camp STAR for young people with disabilities, Babe Ruth Baseball, Cinderella Softball, scholarships, student loan programs, and Interact clubs for high-school students.

Some Rotary projects have left a lasting physical presence in the community. Club support has helped create, restore, or enhance familiar civic, recreational, environmental, and cultural resources, including the Centerway Square Stage, restoration of the Centerway Clock Tower, Denison Park Gazebo, the Corning Rotary Cherry Tree Trail, and Spencer Crest Nature Center.

The club's Sustaining Fund helped make possible the accessible Rockwell Pavilion at Spencer Crest Nature Center, completed in 2007.

Corning Rotary has also supported the arts and cultural life of the community. One significant project helped fund a gallery redesign at The Rockwell Museum. That gallery served the museum for approximately 15 to 20 years before being redesigned again as The Rockwell continued to evolve its exhibitions and visitor experience. The project reflects an important aspect of Rotary service: not every contribution is intended to remain unchanged forever. Sometimes service means helping a strong community institution take its next important step.

Other projects likewise have responded to the needs and opportunities of their particular time. Corning Rotary has supported programs associated with Corning Hospital, educational and cultural activities, community facilities, works of art, lectures, theatrical productions, and numerous other civic initiatives.

The individual projects have changed as Corning has changed. The underlying purpose has remained remarkably consistent: people working together to meet needs that matter to the community.

Today, Corning Rotary concentrates much of its local service in four areas:

Youth Leadership & Education • Food Security • Environmental Sustainability • Health & Safety

These priorities are contemporary expressions of a service tradition extending back to the club's founding.

International Service

Corning Rotary's concern for the wider world also has deep roots. Frederick Carder's interest in Rotary's potential to encourage international understanding was present at the club's beginning, and international service has remained an important part of its identity.

Beginning in 1964, the club became involved in Rotary Youth Exchange, welcoming students from other nations and helping Corning-area students experience life abroad. Over the years, Corning Rotarians and their families have also welcomed international Rotary visitors and vocational and professional study teams, building friendships across national boundaries.

The club continues to support humanitarian projects beyond the United States, often working with Rotary clubs and partners in other countries. Annual International fundraising events provide important support for these projects, allowing local generosity to become service in communities around the world.

Corning Rotary has also been a longtime supporter of PolioPlus, Rotary International's historic campaign to eradicate polio worldwide. Since the program's early years, Corning Rotarians have contributed financial support and advocacy to this extraordinary international public-health effort.

Sustaining Service

Service requires resources as well as volunteers. Membership dues have long supported the basic operation of the club, while generations of Corning Rotarians have devised an imaginative assortment of fundraising projects.

Through the years these have included flea markets, variety shows, humidifier rentals, poinsettia sales, ski shows, art auctions, “instant wine cellars,” food concessions at LPGA tournaments and Watkins Glen races, and many other activities. The particulars changed from one generation to another, but the objective remained the same: turning members' time, energy, creativity, and community support into resources for service.

In 2002, members established the club's Sustaining Fund through voluntary contributions. Among its early major uses was construction of the accessible Rockwell Pavilion at Spencer Crest Nature Center in 2007—an enduring example of Rotary investment benefiting the community for years to come.

Recognizing Service

Corning Rotary also shares in the traditions of the worldwide Rotary movement founded by Paul Harris in Chicago in 1905.

Over the years, many Corning Rotarians have received Paul Harris recognition, reflecting support for the work and ideals of The Rotary Foundation. The club has also recognized a number of people outside Rotary whose contributions to the community exemplify the same spirit of service.

The history of Paul Harris recognition and Corning-area recipients is presented separately on this website.

Service Above Self

More than a century has passed since twenty-five Corning residents signed the club's charter in 1921. The community has changed, Rotary has changed, and the ways in which the club serves have continually evolved.

Some projects have become enduring landmarks. Others met an important need for a generation and then gave way to something new. Still others—particularly Rotary's investments in young people, international understanding, health, education, and community institutions—produce effects that cannot easily be measured in buildings or years.

That ability to evolve is itself part of the Rotary tradition.

Yet the principle Frederick Carder recognized at the beginning remains strikingly relevant: people who know one another, work together, and look beyond their individual interests can accomplish things for their community—and for the world—that none could accomplish alone.

That idea continues to animate the Rotary Club of Corning today through fellowship, local service, international partnership, and the Rotary motto:

Service Above Self.