Paul Harris was born in Racine, Wisconsin. At age 3, when his family fell on hard times, they moved to Vermont to live with Harris’ paternal grandparents. He attended PrincetonUniversity, the University of Vermont, and the University of Iowa. For the next five years, he worked odd jobs for a newspaper as a salesman and a reporter, on fruit farms, as an actor and cowboy, and on cattle ships that traveled to Europe. Harris would settle in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, where he lived until his death in 1947.
A Paul Harris Fellow receives a special certificate and a gold pin. At the discretion of the Fellow’s club, the Fellow may also receive a gold medallion on a blue-and-gold ribbon.