Our History

The idea of creating a Probus Club in Perth came from Wilf Parry after he had heard of a successful club operating in Collingwood, Ontario. In 1995, he formed a group to explore the feasibility of organizing such a club in Perth. This group consisted of George Callan, David Crowley, Ed Danner, Ralph Fish, Frank Houghton, Grover Lightford, Gordon McKibbon, Bob McMahon, Wilf Parry and David Rapkins. To obtain an understanding of the structure and operation of Probus, Wilf and Ralph attended a few meetings of area clubs. It is to be noted that at this time there were 49 Probus clubs in Canada. After several exploratory meetings, the group agreed to form a Perth club. A letter soliciting interest was sent to a number of Perth and district residents.

Our first action was to approach The Rotary Club of Perth to sponsor our application and provide initial funding. With the support of Rotary, the structure was agreed upon and various responsibilities were assigned to founding members.

On February 7, 1996, an inaugural meeting was held at McMartin House in Perth. Approximately 70 men attended and the reaction to having a club in the Perth area was very positive. The group was addressed by the Honourable Judge John Matheson who spoke on Canada/Quebec Relations. On April 3, 1996, the Club was officially constituted with the election of officers to the first Management Team as follows:

The Rotary Club of Perth was requested to apply for official accreditation for our club. The Probus Club of Perth was duly registered as Club Number 64 in Canada. All persons who had joined the Club as of April became Charter Members. The May meeting saw the debut of a regular segment of each program known as Personal Profiles, during which members introduce themselves by means of brief biographical sketches.

In January 1998, Probus meetings moved from McMartin House to the Perth Public Library.

—The above was prepared by Wilf Parry