SC Governor Dick Riley declares “Ruritan Week” in 1980. Attending were (l-r) Stan Stanek, Jerry Poston, and James Amick.

Ruritan is a civic service organization made up of local clubs in small towns and rural communities. The first Ruritan Club was chartered May 21, 1928, in Holland, Virginia. Ruritan has grown throughout the United States of America, and in doing so, has become “America’s Leading Community Service Organization.”

Tom Downing of Suffolk, Virginia, and Jack Gwaltney of Holland, Virginia, are known as the co-founders of Ruritan. Gwaltney and Downing recognized the need for an organization where community leaders could meet and discuss ways to make their community a better place in which to live.

The name “Ruritan” was suggested by Daisy Nurney, a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian–Pilot newspaper. The word is a combination of the Latin words for open country, ruri, and small town, tan.

Ruritan National has nearly 34,000 members throughout the United States, that work to improve more than 1,200 local communities. The slogan of Ruritan is “Fellowship, Goodwill and Community Service.”

The First Annual Ruritan Horse Show was held at LR High School in 1962. Shown here are ribbon marshals Ginger Amick (Hill) and Mary Cotton (Johnson). The Lower Richland Ruritan Club was founded in 1960. The first president was Smoot Cloaninger. The current president is Jay McAlister. The first LR Ruritan Mother of the Year was Kate McGregor in 1970. Pam Clark is the 2005 Mother of the Year.

In 1973, Herbert Cotton and Jim Amick started the Eastover Ruritan Club, and Robert Lee Scarborough became the first president. The charter members were Herbert Cotton, Clyde Lowder, Charles Page, Jimmie Young, Bunky Carter, Doyle Poston, Fred Hill, Wayne Rowell, ML Trotter, Bill Yelton, Jim Williams, Wesley Reynolds, Clarence Page, Lloyd Douglas, Lee Scarborough, Hugh Turner, Bright Stevenson, Billy Tolar, and Pete Palmer.

Busy at work at a LR Ruritan Club meeting in 1980 are J.C. Jones, Jack Boyer, and Bennie Jones. Larry Koester chairs a meeting of the LR Ruritan Club in 1978 while Secretary Lacy Poe calls the roll. James Amick, charter member of the LR Ruritan Club was National Ruritan President in 1983. He is shown here with his wife, Martha, at the 1983 National Convention.