The Durham Chronicle 17-18 Issue 05

8 The Chronicle January 16 - 22, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community
Photograph by Kaatje Henrick
Bill Irwin eats, drinks and sleeps Rotary.
Call him 'Mr. Rotary'
This is one story in a series profiling people who have made an impact in Durham
Bill Irwin
marks five
decades with
Rotary Club
in Whitby
Kaatje Henrick
The Chronicle
They call him “Mr. Rotary.”
“Anything you need to know about what Rotary
should do, I can answer it off the top of
my head,” says Bill Irwin, one of the longest
serving Rotary members in Whitby.
This fall, he marked five decades with the
club.
Irwin was born and raised in the town. He
is a man with many talents.
He was not only a lawyer for Whitby, but
also loved engineering and working with
people.
In high school, he wanted to be an engineer.
He loved building things and wiring things.
“Everything to do with numbers and math
was a cake walk.
If I were to grow up again and do it all
over, I would choose engineering,” says Irwin.
After high school, he went straight into law
and graduated with honours.
He wasn’t fond of spending time in the
courtroom – dealing with parking tickets,
speeding tickets, and so on – so he went on to
practice for 25 years with the town instead.
“I knew that if I had a court case, I had to
Despite
all my shortcomings
I am a happier man because of Rotary.
do this today, this tomorrow and this the next
day, and I didn’t like that, I didn’t like the set
time table,” he says.
It wasn’t until he watched a program about
law on television when he realized he had
some interest in the political world.
But he also discovered the “true nature”
of politics and wanted nothing to do with it.
Irwin says it took ten years with the town to
realize that things said outside the courtroom
were sometimes misinterpreted in the papers.
“I enjoyed working in the backroom where
things I said wouldn’t be put in the press and
come back to haunt someone,” says Irwin.
Irwin is also known for not just for his position
with the town but for his commitment
to the Rotary Club of Whitby.
“I eat, sleep, and drink Rotary,” he says.
Irwin says being a part of Rotary has given
him meaning and purpose.
It has also helped him overcome certain
fears.
“I was in high school and I would walk
down the halls without looking up,
I wouldn’t talk to anyone, that’s how much
I’ve changed, and I have Rotary to thank for
that,” Irwin says.
He first took interest in Rotary because
the club worked with people in wheelchairs.
When Irwin was growing up, two of his
siblings had spinal atrophy, a disease that
steals the physical strength from the body by
affecting the motor nerve cells.
Both of Irwin’s siblings were in wheelchairs
at a very young age.
Having the chance to help and work with
people in wheelchairs gave him a sense of
meaning.
“It was late 1960, a plane was sent to Africa
full of prosthetic limbs for the children who
were getting sick with polio, a disease which
leaves you unable to move certain limbs,
whether it be your arms or legs,” says
Irwin, noting those children would have
been left in wheelchairs if it wasn’t for Rotarians.
He experienced one of the most meaningful
events that year.
“One of the happiest moments of my life
was when I was faced by a little African girl
who wanted to meet a Canadian Rotarian,
and that Rotarian was me.
Tears of happiness were brought to my
cheeks that day, now I know why I am a Rotarian,”
says Irwin.
Through Rotary, Irwin has been able to
change many people’s lives.
Irwin and his wife of 47 years, Marion,
mentored a young boy who started his life
severely crippled in a bed.
They helped him with his physical strength
and motor skills.
All the hard work paid off, as he was eventually
strong enough to be in a wheelchair and
even walk on his own.
“I don’t do any of that stuff to get thanks,
I do that stuff because I feel good about it,”
says Irwin.
His favourite things about being a Rotarian
are helping young people succeed in areas
where they may not be privileged, providing
meals for people who can’t afford them, and
mentoring troubled kids on how to treat one
an another.
“We show them how to talk to each other
without getting in trouble, how to relate to
other people, and how to consider someone
else’s wishes versus their own,” he says.
Irwin is a respected and humble Rotarian
in Whitby.
“I’m not here for people to say, ‘way to go,
Bill.’
I just want to look in the mirror in the morning
and say you’re so lucky to be a part of
something so real,” he says.
He loves to be a part of the community.
“Rotary has made me the man I’ve become
today, despite all my shortcomings. I am a
happier man because of Rotary.”