World Citizen James Wheeler Davidson (1872 – 1933) – By Dr. Robert Lampard
He joined Rotary as a ‘Loans Officer’. But his inter-provincial travels almost cost him his membership. Fortunately for Rotary he didn’t, as he became Calgary Club President in 1919/20, the old Zone 4 District Governor in 1923/4 and was nominated as one of two Honorary Commissioners by the Canadian Advisory Committee to extend Rotary to Australia and New Zealand in 1921. On that task he was joined by Lt. Colonel and future Canadian WWII Minister of Defence Layton Ralston. They left for Australia in early 1921 and chartered Clubs in Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington and Auckland. In thosetwo countries there are now 1200 Clubs and 42,000 members.
To Davidson travel, roads and Rotary were inseparable. He took his “through highway thinking” and joined the Sunshine Trail Association to promote a road from Calgary to Salt Lake City and eventually Los Angeles and Mexico in 1922. He did the same with every trail coming out the Calgary hub to Banff, Edmonton, Gleichen and Lethbridge
and made the motion to form the Alberta Motor Association in 1926.
His trips to the Many Glaciers Hotel laid the foundation for the Rotary International Peace Park proposed in 1931 and declared in 1932.
A s a Rotarian he was appointed to his first RI Committee in 1920 and was never off one including his years as Honorary Commissioner until 1931, sitting on the Publications, Aims and Objectives, Extension, Finance and International Service committees, befo re being elected third VP of RI in 1926/27 and accepting the RI call to consolidate Clubs in Calcutta, Shanghai and Japan and charter Clubs from Athens to Jakarta in 1928-31.
During his 32-month world circumnavigation with his wife Lillian and daughter Marjory, the threesome overcame car accidents, personal injuries, indigenous fevers, near fatal insect bites, language barriers, cultural differences, and unfamiliar religions. At the same time, they addressed indifference, philosophical resistance, and closed doors
but in the end, Davidson chartered 23 Clubs in 12 countries. This excluded Taipei, Formosa, which the Japanese Governor chartered two weeks after Davidson had sailed for Vancouver in 1931. Davidson reputedly spent $250,000 of his own resources to successfully conclude his commission.