Speech given to the 1992 Pacific Northwest District Convention by Delaine R. Swensen, Past International President of Circle K |
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"History," declared Henry Ford, "is bunk." Now I'm sure that there are several of
you out there in the audience who would agree with this statement. The minute you
heard the word history, you decided to tune out and take a little map. As someone
who graduated from college with a major in history, I can certainly understand
that. I remember those long hours of history class in high school where we seemed
to spend most of our time copying from each other the answers for these work
sheets we had to complete. I still have no idea what the Taft-Hartley Act was.
Circle K history can be the same. Any mere recitation of historical fact is usually not very interesting, and nobody remembers it. The most interesting aspect of history is usually the story behind the story. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of bloody rebellion, political intrigue, or trade wars to make our history really exciting. Despite the advance press, Circle K does have a very rich, varied, and interesting history. It's my pleasure to give you a few of those details today. Everyone knows that Circle K started right here in the Pacific Northwest as a fraternity at Washington State University. Our official history says that the fraternity began in 1936, but few know the story behind this fraternity or the reason for its creation. First, Circle K actually was started three years earlier in 1933. You see, the Circle K fraternity was not recognized by the college for its first three years of existence because its members didn't have high enough grades. Some things never change, do they. Circle K came into existence due to a project of the Downtown Kiwanis club of Spokane. This club had a project where they bought and maintained homes for widows and their children. After doing this project for several years, the children grew up and started to attend college at Washington State University (then called Washington State College). The Spokane Kiwanis club contacted J.N. Emerson of the Pullman Kiwanis club and asked if they could help. It was at that point that J.N. Emerson, a future president of Kiwanis International, came up with the idea of a Circle K fraternity. So, the first Circle K'ers were the sons of widows. Another face that is not commonly know, is that the second Circle K in history was another fraternity in the Pacific Northwest, at my alma mater - Whitworth College. Following the success in Pullman, the Spokane Kiwanis club decided to build their own Circle K fraternity. This fraternity existed for seven years at Whitworth. Now, these were the days to be a Circle K'er. The Whitworth Circle K Fraternity was located on a 40 acre wooded estate. The Kiwanis club spent 45,000 dollars improving the house. That was 45,000 in 1946. The house was built along the Little Spokane River and included a full size swimming pool, a great dining hall, and fireplaces. In addition, the Kiwanis club hired a house mother, house keeper, and a cook for the fraternity. Within a few months, the Kiwanis club had purchased a car for the members' use. The house also boasted a television set, quite a perk in those days. How's that for Kiwanis support. In the newsletter of the Spokane Kiwanis club, I found a report of the first ever interclub in Circle K history. The men of the Whitworth fraternity travelled to Pullman for a joint project. The president of the Washington State College Circle K is quoted as saying: "I think this exchange could lead to something really big." Little did he know. The Whitworth fraternity was eventually closed when the administration of Whitworth College passed a resolution forbidding fraternities, in part because the 32 Circle K fraternity members accommodations were so superior to those offered on campus that hard feelings arose. In 1947, the first Circle K club was formed at Carthage College in Illinois, a college that no longer exists. (The college moved to its present-day location of Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1962.) The idea of Circle K undoubtedly spread when founder, J.N. Emerson, became president of Kiwanis International in 1946. Circle K became officially recognized in 1955. Circle K became truly international in 1956 with the charter of a club in Canada. The Pacific Northwest District was founded on August 14, 1962. There was a brief period in the 1960's when Kiwanis forbid Circle K clubs from acquiring housing for its members. This arose out of an incident in 1965. The Youngstown state Circle K had leased a house for it's members to live in. In November of that year, a motorcycle gang broke into the house, trashed it, and in the process knifed one of the Circle K'ers. This so alarmed Kiwanis that for a time, they outlawed Circle K from having any interest in real estate whatsoever. I also want to share with you some other Circle K historical tidbits. For instance, were you aware that Circle K played a small part in the Vietnam war? In November of 1969, the presidents of Key Club, Kiwanis, and Circle K International were dispatched on a ten day fact finding mission to South Vietnam. They met with the South Vietnamese president who expressed an interest in starting service clubs as a method of quelling the unrest in his country. On their return to the United States, the K-Family presidents met with Richard Nixon. South Vietnam never carried out its plans to build service clubs, and look what happened. We are fortunate in the Pacific Northwest District to have perhaps the most supportive Kiwanis district in all of International. We should be grateful of this as it has not always been so. In 1976, the Pacific Northwest District Kiwanis Board decided to eliminate the Circle K district structure and recommended to Kiwanis International that all Circle K administrative structures above the club level be eliminated. Fortunately, the resolution was defeated. It was not until 1980 when through the efforts of Gus Gustafson our district was rebuilt. Today, the Pacific Northwest District consistently ranks as one of the top districts. Most of you are aware that in 1973 the membership of Circle K was expanded to include women. What many of you might not know is the story behind this accomplishment. An amendment was proposed at the 1969 Circle K International convention to admit women as members, but it was defeated. The amendment was proposed again in 1970. This time it was defeated by the male delegates by a four to one margin. According to the minutes of this proceeding, it was the consensus of the delegates that such an alteration of the membership would turn Circle K into a "social organization." I'm not sure what's so bad about that. One year later, the Circle K'ers apparently had a change of heart. Maybe they decided that a little socializing with to opposite sex was not such a bad thing after all since they passes the amendment with an 85% yes vote. Kiwanis promptly vetoed it. Now its easy to place the blame for this veto on Kiwanis, but what is seldom mentioned is the reason for the veto. The provision passed by the Circle K members provided that women could be members only on the club level. No female members could vote or hold office on the district or international levels. The Kiwanis International board vetoed the amendment because they felt that creating two classes of membership would be harmful. In 1972, the Circle K'ers tried again. This time 87% approved an amendment removing gender from the qualifications for membership. On February 2, 1973, after giving it much thought, the Kiwanis agreed. Women became full members of Circle K. Of course, Key Club followed our lead in 1975, and Kiwanis did in 1987. |
GROWING INTO THE LARGEST COLLEGIATE SERVICE ORGANIZATION | MILESTONES OF PROGRESS | SERVICE A LOOK AT INTERNATIONALIZATION | CONCLUSION | OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES CIRCLE K INTERNATIONAL THEME and EMPHASIS PROGRAMS | SERVICE INITIATIVE DISTRICT'S OFFICIAL CHARTER DATES CIRCLE OF SERVICE RECIPIENTS | CIRCLE K INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CITIES and THEMES |
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