2010 Paul Harris Award Winner - Ross Sheppard

Iqaluit Rotary is pleased to announce that fellow Iqaluit Rotarian Ross Shepherd was selected as the 2010 Paul Harris Award winner within Iqaluit Rotary. This award was established in honor of Paul Percy Harris (April 19, 1868-January 27, 1947) who was a Chicago, Illinois, attorney best known for founding Rotary International in 1905, a service organization with more than one million members worldwide.

Harris was born in Racine, Wisconsin, but grew up in Vermont. He attended Princeton University, the University of Vermont, and the University of Iowa. For the next five years, he worked odd jobs for the newspaper, as a salesman, on fruit farms, as an actor, and on cattle ships that traveled to Europe.

He began his law practice in 1896. Harris organized Rotary "in fellowship and friendship" with three clients, Silvester Schele, Gustavus Loehr, and Henry Ruggles. By the time of his death at the age of seventy-nine, the club had grown to more than 200,000 members in 75 countries. The club is dedicated to "service above self".

In his honor, individual Rotary clubs choose a Paul Harris Fellow who meets high professional and personal standards set by the founder. The fellow is honored at a fundraising dinner and receives a special certificate, a gold pin, and a gold medallion on a blue-and-gold ribbon. in recognition of his contributions to our club in particular with regard to the tireless hours, days weeks and months he devoted to the renewal of the annual Fall Fair. Ross has also contributed significantly to the community as Chair of the Food Bank.

Congratulations to Ross on this very special occasion. Ross has maintained the Rotary motto of "Service above self".