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First meeting 23 June 1923 · charter presented 16 November 1923 · standing
The founding, from the club's own history: The best-documented service club in Mishawaka is the Lions, because the club kept its own history and published it. Four men — William W. French, D. D. Gross, A. M. Jennings and Edgar Duker — with nine others held the club's first meeting on 23 June 1923. The club did not yet have the twenty-five charter members the order required, and Lions International authorized it anyway, on 9 July 1923, under a special dispensation; the quota was soon made up, and the charter was formally presented on 16 November 1923. The Mishawaka club was the twelfth Lions club formed in Indiana. French, who died in 1949, was the club's pillar: president three times, deputy district governor, district governor twice, and a member of the order's International Board of Directors from 1935 to 1937 — a man who, in his club's own judgment, "probably would have been a serious candidate for International President had he possessed the personal financial independence" the office demanded.
The course and the present: The club's own history carries its one dated membership landmark whole: membership opened to women in 1987, when the order's rule changed, and two women joined in that first year. The club stands active in the present record, at closing-line strength — the twelfth club in Indiana, chartered 1923, meeting still.
Sources:
- Lions Club of Mishawaka, the club's own published history (mishawakalions.org) — the first meeting of 23 June 1923, the special dispensation of 9 July 1923, the charter presentation of 16 November 1923, the twelfth club in Indiana, French's course, the admission of women in 1987; read first-hand.