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Last month we had the start and will continue from there but will get to modern times quickly! After being established as a Foundation in 1928, nothing much happened except some expansive planning and late in the 1930s there was even a suggestion that TRF be closed. RI contributed its unspent funds each year but that was the extent of the growth. Then on January 27, 1947 Paul Harris died and the RI Board encouraged clubs and Rotarians to honour our founder by making a contribution to TRF. Over $ 100 million was given and this enabled the first permanent programme to be established. 18 Rotary Fellows from 11 countries were selected to serve as ambassadors of goodwill in another country for one academic year. New Zealand missed out that first year but in year two Peter Dempsey was selected. He was from Auckland and I understand was later involved in politics in our area. The next year another New Zealander, John Fraser from Port Chalmers, was selected.  There were no further new programmes until 1965, when we got two. One of these, Group Study Exchange, also had New Zealand connections. In 1950, a team of six young men from Yorkshire had toured NZ and their visit was a great success so it was decided to initiate a project called Rotary Overseas Travel Award and in 1955 a team of six young NZ men went on a ROTA trip for two months to the UK. The District was so pleased with the result that further teams were sent overseas and funded by a $2 levy on every Rotarian. The project was picked up by TRF in 1965 and became Group Study Exchange. Our club has provided three GSE Team leaders, Bill Duncan, Alan Davies and the late David Oakley.
The other programme that year was Matching Grants, where TRF part funded club international projects under defined conditions. |
