Middlebury Lions Club – Part I of II

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Lion Ray Pietrorazio, wearing a patriotic top hat, stands beside the late Don Regan in the forefront as Lion Paul Shea rides in the passenger seat and Lion Scott Lutes looks to his right from the trailer during Middlebury’s 2004 Memorial Day parade. The Lions Club float was passing in front of Town Hall. (Robert Rafford photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968), the Alabama-born political activist, lecturer and author, changed the world. Speaking in Cincinnati in 1925 to organizations assembled for the Forum for the Chamber of Commerce, including members of the Lions Clubs International, she encouraged her audience to assist the Helen Keller fund of the American Foundation for the Blind and give happiness and a means of occupation to the 80,000 sightless adults of America.

Keller would repeat that promotion to many audiences, and, in 1927, at the DAR Memorial Continental Hall in Washington, D. C., she addressed the Washington Lions Club, thanking them for service to America’s sight-challenged, hailing them with, “Knights of the blind, I salute you.” She concluded her speech calling them “Knights of the blind, torchbearers in the darkness.”

The International Association of Lions Clubs was a new enterprise when Helen Keller challenged them in 1925. Its record of service, begun at its inception, had been exemplary. It had served the mentally ill, the poor, the aged, infirm, orphans, disabled veterans, and others, not to mention Boy Scouts, since 1916. Most special has been Lions clubs’ assistance to the blind, even a few years before Helen Keller’s invitation.

The International Association of Lions Clubs (IALC) was founded in Evansville, Indiana, on October 24, 1916, by Dr. William Perry Woods (1877-1966), an Evansville physician; Carmi Hicks; and C. R. Conen, all of Evansville. This organization was an outgrowth of another that Woods had incorporated under the name, “Royal Order of Lions,” on August 23, 1911, in Evansville. The Royal Order was established “to promote social intercourse and entertainment with the object to do charity among members of the organization,” and was intended to be established “in this country and Europe.” It should be said that many clubs were quickly organized in Canada, too.

Very early, the Royal Order offered medical benefits for sickness, accidents and funeral expenses for its members. However, there were other groups called the Royal Order of Lions formed at least by January 1911 in Ohio. Nevertheless, Woods’s Royal Order lasted until at least the 1920s, but declined, unfortunately, because it had become infiltrated by Klan members despite Dr. Woods’ efforts to keep them out.

Other groups with the name “Order of Lions” were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some as fronts for bootlegging and gambling, such as the one raided in Birmingham, Alabama in 1913. About 1909, S. B. Molin Jr. founded the Fraternal Order of American Lions in New Jersey and other eastern states, offering its members similar medical benefits. All these clubs were formed to provide membership to white men only.

However, by 1916 there were a number of disparate clubs across the country, so the new organization, still international in scope, was designed to pull all clubs with a similar mission together. After the incorporation of the IALC in 1916, the first annual convention was held in Dallas, Texas, in October 1917, when Dr. Woods was elected president. Melvin Jones of Chicago was elected secretary-general. Jones was among the earliest and most industrious promoters of the IALC, and sometimes (although mistakenly, according to my research) thought to be its founder.

The Middlebury Lions Club was founded in the early 1950s. Part II of this article will appear in the February issue of this newspaper.

You are urged to join the Middlebury Historical Society by going online at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or visiting them on Facebook. Questions about membership can be sent to Bob at robraff@comcast.net.