Presidents of Rotary 1940-1949
Leslie S. Rosser
President Yakima Rotary Club 1940
Leslie Stevenson Rosser was born December 31, 1885 in Moores Hill, Indiana, the son of a physician, Dr. David Rosser. Leslie and Frances E. (Fannie) Sutton were married in 1911 in Delaware County, Indiana. After relocating to Yakima, he taught chemistry at Yakima High School for a few years. With partner William Sutton he then ventured into self-employment, forming “Rosser & Sutton” office supply business. He was President of Yakima Rotary in 1940. Leslie died in 1957 and was buried at Tahoma Cemetery.
The picture is his High school Senior class photo.
Ben A. Perham Jr.
President Yakima Rotary Club 1941
Ben A. Perham Jr. followed his father as president of the Yakima Rotary club in 1941. He was an attorney and served as Yakima County prosecutor. He was born in Seattle in 1912 and married Virginia Van Amberg in 1931 when they were both 19 years old.
In addition to his involvement in Rotary, he served as chair of the Community Chest Drive for Yakima in 1942.
Perham eventually moved to Hawaii where he practiced law for about ten years. He died on August 29, 1959 on a business trip to Montreal, Canada and was buried in Terrace Heights.
Lester B. Vincent
President Yakima Rotary Club 1942
Lester Benson Vincent was born in 1889 in Monroe County, Missouri and graduated from Washington State University. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Lester and his wife Eva lived in Yakima until his retirement from law practice in 1964 when they moved to Seattle.
During his career in Yakima, he served as City Attorney and Yakima police judge. He was also the founder of the planning commission, was a member for twenty years, and chair for ten. Vincent was one of the advocates for a change in government from council-manager form to commission form in 1959.
He was president of the Yakima Rotary club in 1942. He also was president of the Yakima Bar Association and the Washington State University Alumni Association. Vincent died in 1977 and was buried a Terrace Heights Memorial Park.
John M. Darnell
President Yakima Rotary Club 1943
John Monroe Darnell and his wife Elizabeth moved to Yakima from Wenatchee in 1923 and remained there the remainder of their lives. Born in Denver, Colorado in 1888, he was eighty-four years old when he died in 1960 in Yakima. He was buried in Terrace Heights.
Darnell was trained as a Civil Engineer, but worked in Yakima as the manager of Blake, Moffit & Towne, a wholesale paper company. In addition to Rotary, he served on the boards of Yakima Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and The Community Chest. He was a member of the Wenatchee Masonic Lodge and Yakima Elks club.
He served as President of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1943.
Robert B. Bragg
President Yakima Rotary 1944
Robert Bruce Bragg was forty-nine years old when he died in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Yakima, a few months before the end of his year as President of the Yakima Rotary Club. For the previous five years, he was the district manager of the Pacific Power and Light Company in Yakima. Bragg was born in Pullman, Washington on July 22, 1894 and died March 13, 1944.
He worked for Pacific Power for 18 years, starting his career with the company in Walla Walla before moving to Yakima. In addition to Rotary, he was active in community affairs, being a director of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Elks Lodge. Bragg and his wife Helen were the parents of one daughter, Robin.
Wilbur H. McGuire
President of Yakima Rotary January-July 1944
Wilbur Harold McGuire took over the presidency of the Yakima Rotary club in January of 1944 to complete the term of President Robert Bragg who died later that year. McGuire was Manager of the National Bank of Commerce which today is Key Bank.
McGuire was born October 2, 1902 in Thornton, Washington and died July 16, 1997 in Portland, Oregon. On December 24, 1924 he and Astha Edith Pearson were married in South Bend, Washington. She was a native of Sweden.
Bert Broad
President Yakima Rotary Club 1945
Bert Broad and his wife Berdie arrived in Yakima in 1937 where they opened a book store which they operated until 1971. Bert was active in almost every phase of life in Yakima, serving as mayor from 1971 to 1975. He was president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1945 and served as its secretary/treasurer from 1968 to 1982.
He was born October 19, 1907 in Grass Valley, California. Bert lived in Spokane for a time where on August 18, 1929 he married Berdie Acheson.
During his years in Yakima he was president of the Yakima Valley Credit Bureau, the first president of the Better Business Bureau, and instrumental in establishing the downtown Yakima Mall. He was a leader in the rebuilding of the Capitol Theatre and active in organizing the Yakima Centennial events. As a long-time Presbyterian, he was a leader in the regional organization. Bert Broad died on August 4, 1987 in Yakima.
Jesse Edwin Barber Jr.
President Yakima Rotary Club 1946
Jesse “Jess” Edwin Barber was born July 1, 1892 in Racine, Wisconsin, and died in Yakima December 10, 1969. Most of his years in Yakima he worked in the clothing business, running his own stores, Jess Barber’s and The Cinderella Shop, and eventually managing Barnes & Woodin, Department Store.
Jess was a member of the board of The Salvation Army and its chair in 1956. He was elected to the Yakima City Council in 1959, the first year of a new Council-Manager government for Yakima.
Although he wasn’t a founding member, he joined the Yakima Rotary Club in 1919 and was its president in 1946. He and his wife Vera Faye are buried in Terrace Heights Cemetery.
Rex S. Matthews
President Yakima Rotary Club 1947
A Ford Automobile dealer in Yakima, Rex Stringham Matthews was president of the Yakima Rotary Club in 1947. Rex was born in Yakima in 1910. In addition to his involvement with Rotary, he was very active in the American Red Cross. In addition to serving on the board of the Yakima chapter of the Red Cross, he was the fund-raising chair for the Washington State organization. He also served as a member of the committee for nominations to the board of the national Red Cross.
Rex and Bernice Charlson were married in Chelan County in 1937. Following Bernice’s death, in 1985 he married Betty Ormiston, a Yakima native who he met in Honolulu, Hawaii where he had a second home. They continued to travel between Yakima and Honolulu until Rex’s death in 2000. His remains were buried In Terrace Heights.
Edwin A. Reinertsen
President Yakima Rotary Club 1948
Edwin Abner Reinertsen was born May 19, 1905 in Park River, North Dakota. He moved with his family when he was fairly young to Everett, Washington. He attended the University of Washington and in 1933 married Ruth Herman in Bremerton, Washington. In 1932 he moved to Yakima to work for Sunset Motor Freight which later became Lee and Estes Auto Freight. He was district manager of that firm for a number of years.
In 1956 he went to work for Frank Berry’s Tent and Awning. Two years later, he and a partner established Jed’s Sports and Athletics which he operated until his retirement in 1972.
He was president of the Yakima Rotary club in 1948 and also served as president of the Chamber of Commerce. He was a long-time member of the Y.M.C.A., and a fundraiser for Camp Dudley. In his spare time, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and golf. Edwin Reinertsen died in Yakima on October 19, 1989.
Leslie W. Dick
President Yakima Rotary Club 1949
Leslie William Dick was born in Waupun, Wisconsin on January 16, 1890. When he was three years old, the family moved to Chicago where he lived until moving West in 1906, settling in Lewiston, Idaho. In 1912 he moved to Portland where he worked in the wholesale grocery business.
In 1918, he and Lean McEachton were married in Lewiston. He retired after 17 years as District Manager of Pacific Power & Light Company having worked for that company in Lewiston, Walla Walla, and Yakima. In 1949, he served as president of the Yakima Rotary Club. Leslie died March 18, 1971 in Yakima and was buried in Lewiston, Idaho.