It was in the early spring of 1949 when 20 local business and professional leaders held an organizational meeting to establish a unit of Rotary International in Mount Airy. Those in attendance voted to apply for a charter to the worldwide service organization and on June 27 of that year, the new Mount Airy Rotary Club received its official charter at the Blue Ridge Hotel. It had been granted admittance to Rotary International on May 25, aided by sponsorship from the High Point Rotary Club.  

Those 20 people who held the organizational meeting in 1949 represented a who’s who list of local business, industrial, civic and professional leaders of that era. They included Raymond Smith Jr., who was named the first president of the Rotary Club, along with Lester Y. Haynes (vice president), B.F. Heathcote, Thomas B. Ashby, the Rev. Frank Jordan, Milton B. Cash, Watt J. Shuford, John E. Woltz, Dr. Ralph Sykes, Howard O. Woltz, V.T. Currier, Lindsay Holcomb, Joe O. Boyles, Edmund Burke, Walter Leonard, Roger Inman, Dennis Moody, George W. Sparger, L.M. Lamm and Dr. R.B.C. Franklin.