The story of the Rotary Club of Marshall Texas would have evolved much differently if it had not been for the relationship between Ike Hochwald of the Great Railroad Supply Store in Marshall and Longview businessman R. Marvin Kelly of Kelly Plow Works in Longview. The story of these two men of vision as told by Past district governor George A. Kelly, II, is revealed in "The Club And The Town", "The The Rotary Club and the City of Longview, Texas, Year by Year from 1920 to 1995", by Eugene W McWhorter:
"In 1919 my dad was visiting in the office of Arthur A Everts in Dallas when it became time for Mr. Everts to go to the Rotary club (club number 39), he invited dad to be his guest. Dad was so impressed with this meeting that he asked if a suburban club could be organized in Longview and he was told that such a thing could not be done."
"A few days after returning to Longview his good friend, Ike Hochwald, of Marshall was in Longview and came by and talked to dad on his wonderful experience of being invited to attend a Rotary meeting in San Francisco [Dallas]. He and dad were so thoroughly sold on the ideals of Rotary that they decided to try to do something about organizing a Rotary club in East Texas."
"Ike Hochwald was so enthusiastic that he got a group of men together and they organized the Marshall Rotary Club in 1919. After the Marshall club received its charter Ike Hochwald came back to visit dad and they, with other Marshall Rotarians, organized a provisional club in Longview.”
Others recounted that the organization meeting was held on April 20th, 1920 in a room on the 2nd floor of the municipal building which was located just West of the present Grover-Crim Building. The ground floor was the fire station and the city officers were on the 2nd floor.
R M Kelly and most of the others who became charter members were present at this meeting. Ike Hochwald and Frank Davis were two Marshall Rotarians present. Rotary International admitted the Longview club to membership on May 1st, 1920, and the charter night dinner was held that night in the Magnolia Hotel.
Rotary District Governor Lutcher Stark of Orange appointed as his special representative Ike Hochwald of Marshal,l who presented the charter, and the Longview Rotary club became the 715th club in Rotary was officially in existence. The weekly meeting day was set as Tuesday and it has remained so throughout the entire history of the club. there meetings continued there for many weeks at the Magnolia hotel.
What had begun as a friendship between two men, became a strong bond between the two clubs, uniting them in the Ideals of Rotary Fellowship and Service, taking something that “could not be done”, and getting it done, and, in so doing, impacting thousands of lives, and changing the future of Marshall and Longview forever.