It is with considerable pleasure that I received and read the first copy of the supplement [July]. I am a relatively new Rotarian, although not new to Rotary. When my husband, Past District Governor John I. Frid, was dying in 2008, I knew that I could not be parted from the organization to which he had devoted so much of his time, and which I had learned to love and admire as much as he did. To his great joy and satisfaction, I asked if I could join his club, which I did the month before he died. I had travelled with him to many parts of the world, always for Rotary, and admired the causes and the people involved. I could not bear to be parted from them as well as from him.

I trust your publication will grow with the enthusiasm of Canadian Rotarians, and I wish you every success. I know I shall be eagerly anticipating each edition.
Joyce Caygill Frid
Rotary Club of Hamilton, Ont.

Nice job with the Rotary Canada supplement to The Rotarian . It was a delightful surprise to receive it with the [July] edition of The Rotarian .
Don Evans
Rotary Club of Vancouver, B.C.

I just received a copy of Rotary Canada with my issue of The Rotarian this week. Nice job. Many thanks for carrying through with this initiative. I am certain it will stimulate others to respond and suggest articles or themes for future issues.

In your editorial note, you requested a response from readers. I would like to add a brief one on Jim Davidson, and perhaps receive a plug for my book, The Life and Times of James and Lillian Davidson in Rotary International , released as a Rotary Club of Red Deer, Alta., centennial project. Copies of it can be purchased for $30 plus shipping and handling by e-mailing me at robert.lampard@gov.ab.ca .

There were five errors in the David Forward article on Davidson in A Century of Service . One error carried through into your article, in the heading that was used. He was never a colonel, only a brevet lieutenant. He received his commission at the age of 18. After that he was never in the army – Canadian, American, or any other – although he was attached to the Japanese army in 1895.

Before you leave the legacy of Jim Davidson and the circumnavigation of the globe with Rotary clubs – a service club first – you might note that he chartered 32 Rotary clubs from Banff to Bombay and beyond. It is probably a Rotary record.

His famous 1928-31 trip with his wife, Lillian, and daughter, was detailed in 26 articles Lillian wrote for The Rotarian magazine at the request of Paul Harris. At that time, women were not allowed in Rotary. She compiled the stories into the book Making New Friends , named after Davidson’s strategy for chartering new Rotary clubs. Their book was reprinted for the first time in The Life and Times of James and Lillian Davidson in Rotary International .

Mount Davidson was named in 1935, two years after Davidson’s death, but the name did not reach the Canadian maps until 2002, when the omission was uncovered. A first ascent was made in 2003 by Rotarians, who climbed the 9,568-foot peak and held a meeting on its summit. Mount Davidson can be seen from 130 miles away in Red Deer.

The Rotary Club of Calgary commissioned a mural dedicated to Davidson as its centennial project. It hangs in the foyer of the Fairmont Palliser hotel, where the club has met since 1919. Rotarians are welcome to visit the mural and recall Davidson’s legacy.
Robert Lampard
Rotary Club of Red Deer, Alta.

I have written before about receiving The Rotarian in a plastic wrapper. That practice only lasted for a short time. Now I have received The Rotarian and Rotary Canada in a plastic wrapper.

My complaint is about the plastic wrapper. I quite simply do not want to receive a publication that comes in such a wrapper.

Please let me know what the practice will be in the future.
Bill Inglis
Rotary Club of Fernie, B.C.