William A. Bell
First President of Yakima Rotary Club 1919
 
William Andrew Bell was born in Wisconsin in 1869.  After locating to Yakima, he joined a local hardware business in 1881 and remained there as manager until 1939.  The retail hardware store filled a vital role in supplying hard goods to the growing farming community and eventually became The Yakima Hardware Company. As the area grew and prospered, so did the business. To fill an increasing need for wholesale hardware distribution in Central Washington, the company began a wholesale division.  That company is in business today and is known as Horizon Distribution. 
 
In addition to being the founding president of the Yakima Rotary Club, he was active in organizing the Boy Scouts in Yakima.  He was also involved in many civic and social organizations and was a partner in Bell-Wyman automobile dealership.  He died after a protracted illness in Yakima in 1951 and is buried at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima.
Robert W. Rundstrom
Yakima Rotary President 1921
 
Robert W. Rundstrom was born June 8, 1880 in Woodhull, Henry County, Illinois.  In 1912 he married Lucina Jane Briggs in Yakima, WA.  Lucina was known as Lou to her friends.  Robert was the second president of the Yakima Rotary Club, serving in 1921, and was a founding member of the club in 1919.  He was also president of the Yakima Chamber of Commerce, Yakima Welfare Association, and Yakima Valley Businessmen’s Association.
 
He came to Yakima in 1907 and bought into the Coffin Brothers store when they added furniture in 1908 as his father was a long-time owner of a furniture store in Illinois.  The business eventually became Coffin-Rundstrom Furniture Store and was located at 301-303 East Yakima Avenue, North Yakima. The phone number of the business was 1052. It is a good guess that his classification was Retail Furniture sales. Robert died on July 17, 1935.  Honorary pallbearers at his funeral were all members of the Yakima Rotary Club, including several future club presidents.
Alfred Joseph Helton
Yakima Rotary President 1922
 
Alfred Joseph (A.J.) Helton was born May 22, 1877 in Atwood, Piatt County, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1916.  He then completed medical school in Salt Lake City, Utah where he met his first wife, Laura Bunting. 
 
Dr. Helton Moved to Yakima where he established a medical practice.  He married second time to Olive “Polly” Harris and they lived on south 18th Avenue. Helton was a founding member of the club in 1919 and the third president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1922.  His classification was “Physician - General.” He died at the age of 63, on September 25, 1940 in Yakima.  He and his wife are buried in Terrace Heights Memorial Park in Yakima. 
Joseph P. Kohls
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1923
 
Joseph Peter Kohls, known to his friends as “Joe” was a founding member of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1919 and its president in 1923.  His classification was “Shoes.” Kohls was born in Shakopee, Minnesota in 1888 and died in Yakima, WA in 1959.  He is buried in Yakima’s Calvary Cemetery.  Joseph and Eva M. Paradis were married in Yakima in 1912.  They were the parents of three children.
 
Joe was in the retail shoe business and in 1929 at a convention held in Yakima, he was named president of the Pacific Northwest Shoe Retailers Association.
 
The first community service project of the Yakima Rotary club was proposed by Joseph Kohls.  It was to make proper street name signs for the town so that deliveries could be made by local businesses without the delivery person getting lost.
Ralph B. Williamson
Yakima Rotary President 1924
 
Ralph Bertram Williamson was born in Tama, Iowa July 31, 1879, and married Helen M. Scott on August 5, 1908 in North Yakima. They had two children. He became a member of the Yakima County Bar Assoc in 1911 and was its president in 1922.  He specialized in water rights law and was recognized statewide as an expert in the field.  Ralph was the fifth president of the Yakima Rotary club serving in 1924.  In addition to Rotary, Ralph was a Mason, and president of the Yakima Commercial Club.  He died December 10,1932, in Yakima.
H. Stanley Coffin Sr.
Yakima Rotary president 1925
 
Harvard Stanley Coffin Sr., the sixth president of the Yakima Rotary club was the founder of a company that dominated the livestock industry and wholesale grocery business in the Yakima Valley for several generations.  He was born in 1869 in The Dalles, Oregon and died in Yakima in 1940.  In the early years of Coffin Brothers, Inc., they developed an association with farmers, stockmen, and Indians.  He learned to speak the language of the Yakama, and was later made an honorary member of the Yakama Tribe
 
Over the years, the Coffin family controlled substantial real estate holdings and before 1909 had acquired 50,000 acres and leased another 50,000 between Wenatchee and Ellensburg.  Stanley and his son, Stanley Jr. made significant contributions to the development of the Washington Wool Growers Association as the leading sheep producers in the area.
 
Beginning in 1920, the Coffins were loyal Rotarians, with the father serving a term as club president in 1925.  Stanley and his wife Anna raised three daughters in addition to their son.
Holland E. Wight
Yakima Rotary President 1926
 
Dr. Hollard E. Wight graduated from Northwestern University School of Dentistry in Evanston, Illinois and arrived in Yakima in 1905 to begin his dental practice.  He and his wife Mabel had two sons. Dr. Wight was born in St. Lawrence County, New York and lived briefly in Utah before moving to Yakima. 
 
In addition to his involvement in Rotary, Dr. Wight served on the Yakima School Board for twelve years and was Board Chairman.  He served one term as a member of the Yakima City Council and was involved in the Masons and Boy Scouts.  In 1924 he was selected to be vice president of Yakima Rotary and in 1926 was president of the club.  After an extended illness, he died in Yakima in 1952 at the age of 69.
Ben A. Perham Sr.
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1927
 
Benjamin Agnew Perham Sr., was born the youngest of twelve children in Hood River, Oregon in 1879 and died in Yakima in 1961.  In addition to his involvement in Rotary, Perham was active in both local and State activities.  He served for 13 years as a Regent of Washington State College, and six years on the Yakima school board.  He completed several terms as a director of both the Federal Home Loan bank and Seattle First National Bank.
 
His principal activity however was his business, The Perham Fruit Company which he founded in 1919.  Perham joined the Yakima Rotary club in 1921 and was club president in 1927.  His special interest in Rotary was its “Crippled Children’s Committee” as well as providing loans to youth needing financial boost to carry on their studies.  Perham was the second Yakima Rotarian to eventually be followed by his son as club president. In addition to all these activities, he was a long-time leader of the “Community chest”, forerunner of the United Way. 
N. C. Richards
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1928
 
Nathan Charles Richards was born in Michigan and arrived in Yakima from Baker City, Oregon in 1908.  He and his wife Mary Lou remained in Yakima the rest of their lives.  As an attorney, N. C. Richards was a partner in the Yakima firm of Parker and Richards.  He was active in the Republican party, and in 1924 was a representative to the National Republican Convention.
 
About a year after arriving in Yakima, he was a principal investor in the Yakima Valley Transportation Company and became its General Manager.  This electric interurban train system expanded greatly during his involvement and spent about $500,000 in the first year, adding thirteen miles of new track.
 
He was a founding member of the Yakima Rotary Club and President in 1928.  N. C. Richards died in 1943and he and his wife Mary Lou are buried in Terrace Heights Memorial Park in Yakima
Elijah J. Wyman
President Yakima Rotary Club July 1929
 
Elijah J. Wyman was born in Penobscot, Maine in 1871 and died in Wapato, Washington in 1931.  He owned an Implement store and served as president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1929. Elijah was later a partner in the Bell-Wyman Company with William A. Bell, Yakima Rotary’s fist president.  That business was an implement company that separated from the hardware business and later become a Dodge automobile dealership.   Elijah’s death certificate indicates that he died of an accidental gunshot wound while hunting near Wapato, Washington.
 
Elijah’s and his first wife Alethia Lovett had two children and she died in 1896.  He later married Maida Hall in Yakima and they had two children.
 
Note: The only picture of him available was this drawing from a feature in the 1908 Yakima Herald.