REMEMBERING -- WILL MANIER.

By  Chesley R. Perry

       Secretary, Rotary International. 1910-42.

From-The Rotarian, April 1953

Deep was this President's impress on Rotary.

Will Manier very definitely left his impress upon the Rotary movement not merely as President of it (and he was a great President), but as a tireless worker in the ranks.

Born and raised in an old Tennessee family, he was always a Southern gentleman, thoughtful of and helpful to others.

Considerate, tolerant, and courteous, he was a listener, a thinker, a reasoner, an arguer, a pleader, a persuader, an organizer, and a doer.

He early joined with other Rotarians in the development and maintenance of the traditions of Rotary as a philosophy of life in a democratic society.

As a young lawyer in his late '20's, Will R. Manier, Jr., began his study of Rotary in 1913 as a charter member of the Nashville Club. In 1917 he contributed to The Rotarian a philosophic analysis of the development of Rotary on an imaginary island. His conclusion was that Rotarians "must learn the lessons of self-restraint, of sacrifice, of duty, and of service. Hour after hour, day after day, we must face the ceaseless grind of obligation, of duty, to family, to neighbor, to acquaintance, to hose whom we do not even know, to country, and to God."

A few months later he was an Army officer in France leading his men into action from Chateau-Thierry to the Argonne. His faithful and valorous service brought him his country's decoration of the Distinguished Service Cross. During the period of occupation in Germany he was the military Mayor of Cologne.

In 1921 he was his Club's delegate to the Rotary Convention in Edinburgh, Scotland, and participated in a post-Convention pilgrimage of delegates to Paris and a Fourth of July observance at Belleau Wood, where he spoke briefly but eloquently. He came home to serve as President of his Club.

In 1923 Will was Chairman of the Resolutions Committee in the Convention in St. Louis. One of the 36 Resolutions was the famous Resolution 34 (largely drafted by the Chairman of the Committee), which reaffirmed the policy of Rotary International toward objective activities for the guidance of Rotary and its Clubs in the field of Community Service.

In the ensuing 12 months he was Governor of the old Tennessee-Kentucky District and in his zeal for extension organized 22 new Clubs in his District.

In the years that followed he was called to service on, and made constructive contributions to, practically every Committee of Rotary International.

He drafted the By-Law and co-operated in the preparation of the declaration of trust which gave permanence to the Rotary Foundation.

In the 1932 Convention in Seattle he presided over a full half-day general assembly of voting delegates to discuss proposed legislation, and in the Convention made an address on "Which Way Shall We Go in International Service?," which was adapted by the Board into a statement of the policy of Rotary International toward International Service.

Will became a member of the international Board of Directors in 1933-34. Three years later he was unanimously elected as President of Rotary International, with a pledge from him

‘to take my job seriously, but not myself," I and presented a seven-point program for the coming year to a post-Convention assembly of the Governors-Elect.

He presided with distinction over the Convention in Nice, France, and the previous week over the International Assembly in Montreux, Switzerland, and there established the first Institute of present and past officers of Rotary International for the discussion of Rotary's problems.

He organized a large number of one-day Rotary Club Institutes for the study of the Rotary program.

He brought into existence and supervised the conduct of the Institutes of International Understanding, Which for several years were so popular a feature of Rotary Club activity in North America.

His interest in the Rotary movement never lessened.

Modest and retiring unless called to service or stirred to action, he was persistent in any cause which appealed to him as just and sound.

Most recently he was deeply concerned over the tendency, as he saw it, of so many countries, including his own, and of so many organizations, including Rotary, to depart from the democratic way of life and yield themselves to the centralization of authority and power. With deep conviction he spoke on the subject at the 1952 Convention in Mexico City.

Among Will's many activities in his home city and State he was a founder of the Chamber of Commerce of Nashville and other Community groups, was a Boy Scout commissioner for 30 years, and had a constructive part in a reform of the judicial procedure of his State.

During World War II he was director of the Civilian Defense program of the State of Tennessee and co-ordinator of agencies for the Red Cross.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University and of the U.S. Naval Academy, he became a recognized civilian authority on military matters and conducted weekly broadcasts interpreting current developments in the War.

In 1925 Will Manier took unto himself a wife, Miss Ruth Salom, of Connecticut, whom he had met in Europe, where she was engaged in war work. Their marriage was blessed with two sons and a daughter. Through the years theirs was a loving and happy fellowship in a hospitable home. Last year a great tragedy came upon the Manier family when "Bobbie," the younger son, was report dismissing in action in Korea and no trace of him has been found.

Dr. "Jimmie" (at present on duty with the U.S. Air Force in Texas) and his wife were able to arrive in Nashville just before his father passed away. Katherine, a student at Vanderbilt, was at home with her mother.