The Rotary Balita no. 731 (October 8, 1953).

A letter sent to me in California immediately upon the assumption of the Manila Rotary Club Secretaryship by Tony Anton in 1950 under the presidency of Ben Legarda (our 28th president) is still bearing fruit. Tony initiated the idea of having a gallery of pictures of past presidents of the Club and was successful in securing a large part of them. But several were missing and he wrote to me asking my help. He knew of my activities in the United States visiting Rotary Clubs and contacting fellow Rotarians and requested me to secure the missing pictures. Now after three years since the project was started, I have brought back with me another of the missing photos of former club presidents, this time that of Mr. C. Russell Zeininger, who with his wife Belle, is retired and lives at 1820 Gerda Terrace, Orlando, Florida. (Letters to him from members be appreciated). "Zeinie" was from two sources reported to me as killed in an automobile accident. As Mark Twain said: "this report was greatly exaggerated". "Zeinie" is very much alive and I had a talk with him over long distance as recently as July 28th. As it is now 30 years since he was our president a brief sketch of who he was and his connections are in order, as I find now in Manila only one Rotarian so far, (Carson Taylor) who knows him. The photo above shows him as he was (at my special request), his likeness in 1923. He served from 1910 to 1913 as a lieutenant in the old Philippine Constabulary. In the fall of 1913 he rifle from the Constabulary to join the staff of the Manila Bulletin as a reporter. During the next 13 years be became successively city editor, then associate editor, and finally managing editor. In the spring of 1926 he left to join the U. P. Association in the U. S. After another two years he became national director of publicity for the China Famine Relief campaigns, and subsequently had other publicity directorships of national responsibility until his retirement in July 1952. The commendable effort to collect and frame for the Rotary office the photos of all former presidents began in 1950. It was a timely move for the farther we get from the early days the more difficult it becomes to secure these pictures. Tony was then "short" of 11 out of the 28, all of the 11 had "moved away", some to parts unknown. So that the securing of the photos has already become to a 3 year job and even to this date is not finished. My file of correspondence to locate the missing 11 became about 2 inches thick, because many "dead-end" leads. Some were deceased and even many follow up letters were required with those still living or their families - even when a photo had been promised. There are now only 2 out of the 11 missing to be secured and if all hands turn in to help we may still get leads right here in Manila, better than in the U. S. These 2 are: Ray W. Berdeau. (1921-22) and Col. John P. Wade (1924-25). Those which I was able to secure before included: 1919: Our first president. L. J. Lambert, who died in Reno only a few months ago. 1922-23: Edwin E. Elser, now living in Altadena, California at the grand old age of 86 and as chipper as a sparrow. 1929-30: Charles W. Franks, now in Northern California. 1931-32: Judge Frank B. Ingersoll (deceased). 1934-35: Col. Arthur F. Fischer (now living in San Diego, Calif.). 1936-37: George C. Dankwerth, now in Northern California, 1939-40: My own photo. July 1-Dec. 1941 (to the Japanese invasion) : Hugo H. Miller, who was executed during the occupation. The securing of this photo presented the greatest difficulty. His former employers (Ginn & Co.) and his family could not be located. Finally by advertising in the newspapers I secured a small photo from one of Hugo's protegees living in far off Minnesota, from which an enlargement was made. Let us now make a concerted effort to get the photos of Berdeau and Wade, the former I believe having gone to South American many years ago (all previous leads exhausted); and for the latter maybe a final appeal to the War Department, even to the President of the United States might get better results than I have had to date.