Craig Fitzgerald, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, addresses Rotary Club of Nashua members at Wednesday's event celebrating the club's 100th anniversary. At left are club president Bill Barry and Boys & Girls club health and wellness director Leah Elliott. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

Every Wednesday for more than two years, now-retired Nashua dentist Adrian Levesque Jr. went over to the Nashua Public Library, selected a particular roll of microfilm from the hundreds stored in large cabinets, pulled up a chair and went to work.

It was the early 1980s, and Levesque, who had joined the Rotary Club of Nashua just before the club’s 50th anniversary in 1971, was on a mission: To dig up anything and everything he could find on Nashua’s largest service club.

The material, not surprisingly, began piling up, Levesque’s files becoming fatter with each passing Wednesday.

Nearly four decades later, Levesque recalls his faithful Wednesday treasure hunts with a smile.

“I found so much stuff … I could write a book.

Rotary Club of Nashua president Bill Barry, center, presented awards from a club fund named for the late club benefactor Bob Cater to three Nashua nonprofit agencies at Wednesday's special 100th anniversary meeting at Martha's Exchange. Recipients are, from left, Leah Elliott and CEO Craig Fitzgerald of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua; Kathy Farland, founder and director of Stepping Stones, a newly formed agency that serves youths facing homelessness and other issues; and Casey Caster, executive director of the Nashua Youth Council. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

A BIG book,” he said with a laugh.

Actually, that undertaking – compiling and publishing a book on the history of the Rotary Club of Nashua – was Levesque’s intent all along.

Now, as the club his late father served for more than 50 years, and which Levesque has served for 50-plus years and counting, observes its centennial anniversary this month, his book project is coming to fruition.

Levesque’s father, Adrian Sr., was also a dentist whose dedication to community service ran wide and deep, as evidenced by, among other honors, the dedication in 1990 of the Dr. Adrian Levesque Sr. Performing Arts Shell in Greeley Park.

Speaking of the park, Levesque said that during his research he found a lot of instances in which Greeley Park and Nashua Rotary Club were mentioned in the same sentence.

A vintage photo of Ira Francis Harris, the first president of the Rotary Club of Nashua, is among those that Rotary member and historian Adrian Levesque Jr. have collected for an upcoming book on the club's history. (Courtesy photo)

For one, the club’s first president, Ira Francis Harris, who at first practiced dentistry then switched his career to the banking industry, created a monument of sorts to the “first white settlers locating here north of the Nashua River,” many of whom, according to the plaque, were buried in and around Greeley Park long before the acreage was the site of the Greeley brothers’ farm.

Harris, at 66 quite elderly by early 20th century standards, only served about four months of his term as Rotary’s first president – he died of appendicitis in September 1921.

While last week’s Rotary Club meeting didn’t follow the script of Nashua Country Club being its gathering place each Monday since Harris called the first meeting to order a century ago, the fact it was held outdoors on a gorgeous spring day (Wednesday) in less formal fashion was quite appropriate for a get-together celebrating a 100th anniversary.

“Our club held its first meeting on May 16, 1921, 100 years and three days ago,” current club president Bill Barry said in welcoming the roughly 80 members and a dozen or so guests who filled the expanded-dining area in front of Martha’s Exchange.

The club, Barry noted, was formed “not long after recovery from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19, and as we begin our journey toward our second century, we are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Founding and charter members of The Rotary Club of Nashua were photographed with a special panoramic camera 100 years ago this month, at what appears to be an outing, the location of which isn't known. (Courtesy photo)

Barry called Rotarians historically “resilient and resourceful” folks who “have made a huge difference in the lives of so many less fortunate people … we have always had the most dedicated, philanthropic, community-minded citizens of Nashua” as members,” he added.

Wednesday’s program also featured the presentation of the first three donations from a fund made possible by the late Robert “Bob” Cater, a longtime Rotarian with 36 years of perfect attendance, who bequeathed $100,000 to the club upon his passing two years ago.

The benefactors were the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua; the Nashua Youth Council; and Stepping Stones, a newly formed Nashua agency that advocates for youth struggling with homelessness and other issues.

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The Rotary Club of Nashua – Highlights of the past 100 years

Dean Shalhoup

The world’s first Rotary Club, founded upon an idea by Chicago attorney Paul P. Harris, was established on Feb. 23, 1905.

A little over 16 years later, a group of Nashua businessmen formed the Nashua Rotary Club, which is marking its 100th anniversary this month.

A timeline follows.

• 1920 – On Nov. 11, a group of Nashua businessmen traveled to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, as guests of that city’s new Rotary Club

• 1921 – A group of Rotarians from Fitchburg and several other Massachusetts cities came to Nashua on April 21 for a luncheon and to encourage their Nashua hosts to form a club

With a 100th anniversary banner spanning Main Street behind them, some of the roughly 80 Rotary Club of Nashua members who attended Wednesday's anniversary observance greet each other before the start of the program. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

• 1921 – On May 5, Nashua businessmen and professionals met in the Red Cross “work rooms” at City Hall. They would decide, by vote, that “it would be advisable to form a Rotary Club in Nashua.”

• 1921 – On May 16, The Nashua Rotary Club, alternatively called The Rotary Club of Nashua, is organized at a meeting of 38 prospective members at the Nashua Country Club. Their names are placed into a hat; the first 25 names pulled from the hat became charter members.

Banker Ira F. Harris is named the club’s first president. The club becomes the 963th to be chartered by Rotary International.

• 1921 – At a June 20 meeting, club secretary Edwin Morey read to members a letter from Rotary International confirming that Nashua’s application for a charter had been granted

• 1922 – In June, the young club begins the tradition of hosting the Nashua High School graduating class at Nashua Country Club

• 1935 – Then president Wilfred J. Phaneuf initiates a club-sponsored Christmas party for crippled children, held each year through 1954

• 1943 – War-related gasoline shortages prompt club officials to hold meetings at downtown hotels within walking distance for members.

• 1944 – Meetings resume at Nashua Country Club; to save gas, a bus begins traveling from Library Hill to the country club, picking up members along the way.

• 1971 – Rotary Club of Nashua observes its 50th anniversary. The same year, the Nashua West Rotary Club is founded

• 1974 – Rotarians fund the construction of a public city swimming pool next to Fairgrounds elementary and middle schools

• 1990 – Former club president and longtime member Dr. Adrian Levesque Sr. is honored for 52 years of perfect meeting attendance. The same year, the bandshell at Greeley Park is named in honor of Levesque, who died about four months later.

• 1996 – The club, in April, makes its largest donation to a nonprofit to date when it presents $40,000 to Harbor Homes for the renovation of an apartment building.

• 2021 – Rotary Club of Nashua celebrates its 100th anniversary.

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Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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