Presidents of Rotary 1930-1939

Albert H. Huebner
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1930
 
President of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1930, Albert H. Huebner was a founding member of the club in 1919.  He was active in a wide range of community organizations and activities.    They included the Y.M.C.A., The Chamber of Commerce, where he served two terms as President and The Masons.  He was a veteran of the Spanish American War and a member of the John T. Anderson Veterans Post.
 
Huebner was born in 1873 at Weaver, Iowa, and started his career in the lumber business in that state.  He came to Yakima in 1906 as Sales Manager of The Cascade Lumber Company and eventually became General Manager, a position he held until his death.  He was President of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1930 and died three years later in 1933.  At his funeral, a number of prominent Rotarians served as pallbearers and honorary pallbearers.  Also, a Rotary quartet sang at the service and he was then interred at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima.  He was survived by his wife of thirty-three years, Ina (Schontz) Huebner.
A.E. Larson
President of Yakima Rotary Club in 1931
 
Adelbert Everard Larson, known to all as “A. E” was born in Minnesota in 1862 and spent several years in logging camps in that state before moving to Yakima in 1891.When he arrived, he bought an interest in the Scott Lumber Yard which was the first of several businesses he developed.Among the others were the Larson Theater, the Donnelly Hotel, and Ford car dealership.Perhaps his most well-known legacy however, is the “Larson Building” on the corner of Yakima Avenue and Second street.
 
The 1930 Art Deco office building was “state-of-the-art” at the time, and was considered very futuristic.In the height of the depression, the building cost $750,000 which would be more than $11 million in 2020 dollars.
 
Larson was President of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1931 and died in 1934.He and his wife Rosa Belle (Hawkins) Larson were buried in Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima.
James A. Loudon
President Yakima Rotary Club 1932
 
The thirteenth president of the Yakima Rotary club James A. Loudon was born in New Zealand in 1880.  He first arrived in Yakima in 1884 with his parents and two brothers.  Shortly following the family arrival, his father and one brother died and his mother later remarried.  She eventually was the founder of The Yakima Creamery.  Following her death, James took over the business and it grew to eventually became The Maid of Clover chain of dairy stores. 
 
An avid outdoorsman, Loudon served three terms as a State Game Commissioner, representing the Yakima County area.  He died in 1956 and was buried in Tahoma Cemetery.
 
 
Hal H. Skinner Sr.
President Yakima Rotary Club 1933
 
Henry Harlow “Hal” Skinner Sr., was president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1933.  He was the second president of the club to be part of a father-son president team.  His son Hal Junior, would be president in 1975.  He and his wife Dora also had a daughter name Ellouise.
 
Dr. Skinner was a graduate of Oberlin College in 1904 and Western Reserve University in 1908.  He arrived in Yakima in 1910 and was a practicing obstetrician and pediatrician from that time until his retirement in 1946.  He was a member of the American College of Surgeons, from which he received an honorary degree in 1924 and was made a life member in 1944.
 
In addition to being president of the Yakima Rotary Club he was a director of the Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Y.M.C.A., a 32nd degree Mason and member of the Shrine.  In 1942 he served as President of the Yakima County Medical Association and was former president of the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Medical Staff and first president of the Washington Obstetrical Association. 
 
Skinner died November 17, 1953 and was buried in Terrace Heights Memorial Park.
A. C. Davis
President Yakima Rotary Club 1934
 
Superintendent of Yakima Schools, Angus Charles Davis was president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1934.A. C. Davis High School (formerly Yakima High School) is named in his honor.He was born in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and came west with his family when he was very young.They first settled in Roslyn and then moved to Yakima when he was about ten.Davis held several teaching positions in Texas, Idaho, Oregon and Washington before returning to Yakima in 1909 as Principal of Yakima High School.He held that position for four years before being named superintendent of schools, a position he held for more than thirty years.
 
In addition to Rotary, A. C. Davis was active in the Y.M.C.A., Salvation Army, Red Cross, and Masons.He died in Yakima in 1967 at the age of eighty-seven and was buried in Terrace Heights Memorial Park.
Clarence Ernst
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1935
 
Clarence Ernst was born in Seattle in 1898, served in World War I, and returned to the University of Washington to graduate with a degree in Business Administration with the Class of 1920.  During the summer of 1919, the Seattle YMCA recruited groups of high school boys to work in the Alaskan fish canneries.  Ernst volunteered to lead one group of young men for a summer of work and this began a lifelong affiliation between Ernst and the YMCA.  Following his graduation from the University of Washington, he was recruited to the job of Boy’s Work Secretary at the Yakima YMCA, and he was promoted to General Secretary in 1925.  Married in 1921, he and his wife Josephine had one son. He remained in Yakima and retired from the “Y” in 1963.
 
Ernst, however, was not just a successful “Y” leader.  He was the singles handball champion of Yakima, headed numerous community fund drives—including Community Chest (now United Way), and led the first People For People tour behind the Iron Curtain in 1961 under the auspices of the United States State Department. 
 
He joined the Yakima Rotary Club in 1924, was elected club president in 1935, fulfilled the duties of club secretary from 1943 to 1963, and served as District Governor in 1945. In a 1964 Salute to Clarence Ernst in the Yakima Club Rotary newsletter, it was said …he was always ready to serve whenever he was needed…We salute Clarence Ernst—Mr. Rotary.
After retirement, Clarence and Josephine moved to California to be closer to their son.  In California, he was active in the Burlingame Rotary Club.  He died in California in December 1979.
 
Reidar D. Rovig
President Yakima Rotary Club 1936
 
President of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1936, Reidar Rovig was born in Norway in 1877 and immigrated to the United States as a young man.  His family originally settled in Minnesota.  In 1892, he began working for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.  He remained with the railroad until 1910.  He then migrated to Washington to begin a career in retail lumber, establishing the Rovig Lumber Company in North Yakima. 
 
In 1920, Rovig was elected to one term as Mayor of Yakima, winning the election by only less than three hundred votes.  As mayor he appointed a new police chief and ordered him to close down all forms of gambling in town.  That included card rooms, punch boards, and dice boxes.  Rovig was an early member of Rotary, serving as Secretary for over twenty years and club president in 1936.  
 
He died in 1943 at the age of sixty-six and was buried in Terrace Heights.
 
Guy C. Finley
President Yakima Rotary Club 1937
 
Guy C. Finley was an engineer on the early construction of the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation project and wrote a book on the subject.  He was a Civil Engineer who received a degree in engineering from Ohio State College in 1910.  Within a couple of years of graduation, he was married to Anna Singleton and moved permanently to Yakima to begin work for the Bureau of Reclamation. As part of his work managing the Tieton project, he was very involved in planning the dams on Bumping Lake and Rimrock reservoirs.  In addition to his engineering work, he managed the State Fair in Yakima for two years, sold insurance, worked for a trust company, and raised sheep.
 
Finley was born in Ohio in 1883 and died in Yakima at the age of 97 in 1981.  He joined the Yakima Rotary Club in 1920 as one of the first to join following the founding members and was club president in 1937.  In addition, he was the grandfather of a future president the Yakima Rotary, Bob Sinclair (1988-1989).
 
At his funeral, pallbearers and honorary pallbearers were largely Rotarians and the family suggested that all memorials be made to The Rotary Foundation.
David V. Morthland
President Yakima Rotary Club 1938
 
David V. Morthland was born in 1880 in Warren, Ohio and died November 16, 1965 in Yakima, Washington.  He was an attorney and partner in the law firm of Davis & Morthland in Yakima.  They specialized in Real Estate, Corporation, Probate and irrigation law.  Morthland was a Republican State Senator from 1916 through 1934.  He served as president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1938.
 
David and his first wife, Nelle Lane were married in 1909 and were the parents of five children.  Nelle died in 1930.  Following her death, he married Olga Anderson in 1932.  David and Olga are buried at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima.
 
Leon R. Rightmire
President of Yakima Rotary Club 1939
 
At the time of his presidency of the Yakima Rotary Club, Rightmire was Vice President of the National Bank of Commerce in Yakima.  He was born in Barton County, Missouri in 1855.  In the early years after his arrival in Yakima, he was a deputy sheriff and was known for first introducing bloodhounds to the department.  In 1944, he was a delegate to the Republican convention.
 
Leon married Anna cook in Yakima in 1912.  In addition to his involvement in Rotary he served on the Yakima School Board.  Leon Rogers Rightmire died in Yakima on April 2, 1960 and was buried in Tahoma Cemetery.