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OBJECTIVES
To promote the
adoption and the application of higher civic welfare, social,
business and professional standards.
To provide a
practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic
service, to initiate philanthropic endeavors and to build a better
community.
To cooperate in
creating and maintaining sound public opinion and high idealism
that promotes righteousness, justice, patriotism and goodwill.
To preserve, adopt,
promote and diffuse traditions, heritage, culture and language of
the Italian ethnicity.
HISTORY
The Columbian Club
of Chicago is an organization of Italian-American business and
professional men limited to one hundred active members with no
more than six from any one discipline. The Club can best be
described by its Objectives (listed above). These lofty goals have
made the Club well-respected so that its membership is much
esteemed and the waiting list quite lengthy.
The Columbian Club
of Chicago was the idea of Robert Tita. In September, 1939, Mr.
Tita organized a group of Italian-American businessmen to form
this Club. The original idea was to gather together to help one
another during those difficult times when business was still
depressed and experiencing the debilitating effects of the Great
Depression. The name of the Club in those early days was the
Columbian Commercial Club.
The first meeting
was held at the Mason Hotel at Central Avenue and Lake Street in
Chicago during the month of September, 1939. Present at that first
meeting was the founder, Robert Tita (a U.S. postman), together
with Philip C. Corrado, Sr., C.P.A. (Philip C. Corrado & Co.),
Charles Presto (President of Roma Macaroni Co.), Dr. Frank Mascari,
D.D.S., Dr. Joseph M. Schiavone, M.D., Ciro DiStefano (Italian
Food Specialties), Joseph Roti (Fulton Market Provisions) and John
DeVale (appliances). This meeting was the beginning of an
organization that would grow in stature, importance and respect,
setting a precedent that would inspire a number of
Italian-American organizations.
For many years,
meetings were held at the LaSalle Hotel, the Illinois Athletic
Club, the Graemere Hotel and the Como Inn. Currently, meetings are
conducted at various places to accommodate the geographic needs of
the membership.
Following the end
of the Second World War, the members decided to focus on
philanthropic endeavors and changed the name to THE COLUMBIAN CLUB
OF CHICAGO. Each year, the Columbian Club sponsors a number of
social and philanthropic events, in which its members and their
guests participate to foster the Club's objectives. The Club has
been a stellar supporter, contributor and fundraiser for charity
for many years, distributing the net proceeds of the Club's annual
efforts to selected charities.
In order to expand
its charitable capacity, and to extend the generosity of its
members toward cultural grants and educational scholarships for
deserving persons in the arts, professions and other Chicago-area
cultural disciplines generally wanting in the Italian-American
community, the Club formed the Columbian Club Charitable
Foundation in 1988 as a fully tax-exempt and qualified charitable
trust.
Ciro DiStefano, the
last of the original eight charter members and source of the
historical notes herein, died in 1984. The members of The
Columbian Club of Chicago are grateful to those original founders
who had the foresight, integrity and and dedication to conceive,
establish and develop this outstanding organization of Italian
Americans.
Written by: Ronald
J. Giordano and Robert F. DiSilvestro
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