The Pocatello Club has the bragging rights to be the ONLY Rotary Club in Idaho that has had a Rotary International President. Here is his biography:

RICHARD H. WELLS

Pocatello, Idaho. U.S.A.

President. Rotary International 1944-45

(Deceased: 6 January, 1947)

At the time of his death, Richard H. Wells was proprietor of the Idaho Lumber and Hardware Company and the Idaho Coal and Ice Company, and was Vice-President of the Idaho Bank and Trust Company in Pocatello.

He became a member of the Rotary Club of Pocatello in 1922 and was President of that Club. He had served Rotary International as President (in 1944-45), Director, District Governor, Trustee of the Rotary Foundation, and as committee chairman. He was one of Rotary International's consultants to the American delegation for the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

In September-October of 1944, he made a four-week trip by plane to the British Isles. That was the first time a Rotary President had been able to visit any of the Rotary Clubs in Great Britain since 1941. In January-February of 1945, he made a four-week airplane tour of Latin America, visiting Rotary Clubs in ten countries.

He had been decorated with the Order of Merit by the President of Chile and with the Order of the Sun, rank of Commander, by the President of Peru.

Mr. Wells had been President of the Idaho State Society for Crippled Children, Area Chairman for the Victory Bond Drives, a member of the Bannock County Selective Service Board, and Chairman of his local Postwar Planning Committee. He had served as Chairman of the Pocatello Board of Education, President of the Pocatello Chamber of Commerce, and as Director of the State Mental Hospital, and had been active in various civic and trade association.

Dick was the human dynamo from Pocatello, Idaho. He proved his willingness to do more for Rota , his town, state and country than his human frame could stand. He was a young President in 1944-1945 and did a good job as President, and in 1945-1946 as immediate Past President, but he passed on January 6th, 1947 at a very early age.