About Ruritan

Ruritan National has nearly 32,000 members throughout the United States, that work to improve more than 1,200 local communities. Ruritan is a civic service organization made up of local clubs in urban areas, small towns and rural communities. Ruritan’s purpose is to create a better understanding among people and through volunteer community service, make America’s communities better places in which to live and work.

History of Ruritan

The first Ruritan Club was chartered May 21, 1928 in Holland, Virginia. Since that first club, 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, and the club’s charter members unanimously adopted “Ruritan” as the organization’s name. The word is a combination of the Latin words for open country
“ruri” and small town “tan,” interpreted as pertaining to rural and small town life.