Beaufort resident and Rotarian Wayne “Gabby” Grabenbauer, was recently recognized at a Rotary Club of Beaufort meeting for his joining the Chair’s Circle of Rotary International’s Arch Klumph Society.
That recognition is reserved for Rotarians who have given $500,000 or more to the Rotary International Foundation. His recognition came from fellow South Carolinian Anne Matthews, a longtime friend and a past vice president and director of Rotary International.
The Arch Klumph Society is named after the sixth president of Rotary, and it recognizes The Rotary Foundation’s highest tier of donors – those who have contributed $250,000 or more during their lifetime.
Grabenbauer had previously donated $250,000 to the foundation, so with his recent second donation of $250,000, he is recognized at the Chair’s Circle tier.
Only 73 Rotarians in the U.S. have attained Chair’s Circle and he is the only Rotarian from the state of South Carolina at this level.
In presenting his recognition, Matthews spoke of Grabenbauer as “… the living role model of what a Rotarian should be. His donation will make a difference in the lives of countless humans in developing nations, yet Gabby will never meet or know those whose lives he has touched.”
Grabenbauer joined the Rotary Club of Beaufort in 1971 and has had perfect attendance at every meeting for 31 years, from 1985 until an illness prevented him from attending weekly meetings in 2016.
