To learn more about Percy, here is an article from the Missoulian that was written in 2005. His wife Adrienne passed away in May 2011. He died February 15, 2006.
Meet Mr. Rotary. Here's the link to the full article
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_ba2190b1-5393-52ca-9766-e4fa198b69d3.html
.... Frazier's unofficial membership began when his father, Percy Frazier Sr., joined the chapter in 1923. Frazier was 12, and his family had just moved to Missoula after skipping from place to place for years, following his father's job as a Boy Scout executive. But his father's job didn't provide much in the way of salary, so he took on the job of Rotary secretary for the extra $20 a month it would bring. Frazier attended Rotary meetings and functions with his father for years before officially joining the club in 1936. Soon after joining, he became secretary - a post he held for 38 years.
.... Because new Rotary presidents are chosen every year, Frazier worked with 38 different presidents. He has a photo, taken after his retirement as secretary in 1991, in which 30 of the former presidents are gathered around him. "We always called ourselves the presidents who served under Percy Frazier," Anderson said. Frazier logged 21 years of perfect attendance - but that was before he was married. The lunch, he said, was paid for whether he ate it or not.
Frazier's father worked as a Boy Scout executive for 13 years in Missoula before becoming a magazine distributor, another way in which Frazier followed in his father's footsteps, as he eventually took over the reins of that business. And then came the service projects of father and son. Frazier's father and other Rotarians were instrumental in fixing up a former Boy Scout camp, Camp Paxson, in the late 1920s. Percy Frazier Sr. was one of several Rotarians who helped create and maintain the campsite.
.... Frazier helped designate the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in 1932. ... Frazier was just a young man in his 20s when he joined Rotarians from Montana and Alberta to found the park. Rotarians from both sides of the border have celebrated the park's designation every year since. "I think it's the most wonderful thing," Frazier says. "There's all the Canadians there and all the Americans." ....Frazier has rarely missed a commemoration ceremony. Every year, he said, the Rotarians from the United States wear red buttons, and the Canadians blue, and they line up on opposite sides of a long ribbon. They reach across that symbolic border to shake hands and recite the Pledge of Peace, a vow that their countries will never take up arms against each another. The peace park also holds a special place in Frazier's heart for another reason. He was 46 and had never been married when a friend fixed him up on a blind date. After a two-month whirlwind courtship, he and Adrienne were married, but Frazier had an upcoming peace park meeting he just couldn't miss. "When I met my bride-to-be I said the only way we could go was on a business meeting," Frazier said. "So we went there for our honeymoon." |
