The Maysville Rotary Club held its Annual Awards Dinner on the evening of June 24, 2025. I was honored to receive one of the Service Above Self awards.  I have been a member of Rotary since 2012. I transferred my membership from Rensselaer, Indiana, in 2015 when I came to Maysville. The Maysville Rotary Club is one of the outstanding civic organizations in Maysville, and a significant reason why Maysville is known as “Maysville Strong.”

Thank you for your support of my involvement in Rotary. Not once has a member of the church suggested I devote less time to Rotary or other community affairs. Why might that be? I propose that, in general, Presbyterians seek out and value participation in the polis, the city.

Look at where the church chose to rebuild after the 1852 fire. They decided to be at the heart of city life, next door to what is now the old Mason County Courthouse.

It was John Calvin who set the pattern of civic involvement for Presbyterians. He considered all of Geneva, Switzerland, to be his parish, not just church members or the citizens living near the church. This “founding vision” continues to influence First Presbyterian Church of Maysville and many other Presbyterian churches. We don’t fear involvement with the secular; we embrace it.

Consider who founded the Maysville Rotary Club. Many people from First Presbyterian Church helped to organize the Maysville Rotary Club, which was established on November 6, 1923. One of those people was Robert Armstrong Cochran, who was born and raised in Maysville. He was born September 2, 1862, and was the son of Robert A. Cochran, a successful businessman who built up many of Maysville's earliest business centers. His grandfather was Andrew McConnell January. Robert Cochran served as chairman of the organizing committee, was the first member of the Maysville Rotary Club, and served as the club's first President.

Before his retirement in 1926, he became involved with Rotary, learned about its growth nation- wide, and developed a keen and thorough interest in the organization's objectives. After establishing the Maysville Rotary Club, Robert Cochran went on to found multiple other clubs in Kentucky and served as a District Governor.

One interesting fact about the Maysville Rotary Club's history is that there have been six pairs of men, either fathers and sons or grandfathers and grandsons, who have served as club presidents. Three of these pairs are/were members of First Presbyterian Church: F.L. Hendrickson and Doug Hendrickson; Eugene Royse and Robert Zweigart; and Dr. Mitchell Denham and Mal- lory Denham.

This pattern of family leadership suggests deep community roots and multi-generational commitment to civic service, values that align closely with the Presbyterian emphasis on community stewardship and service.

Other members from First Presbyterian are Stockton Wood, Peg Crum, Suzan Ross, and Craig Denham. Mike Denham has been a member of Rotary for almost fifty years, the second-longest tenure in the club.

Jim