
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 8, 1995                   TAG: 9508080042
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Short

RURITAN OFFICE'S 30TH BIRTHDAY

It has been nearly 30 years since Ruritan National, a community service group founded in 1928, placed its national headquarters in Pulaski County. The 35,000-member organization will celebrate that move at a ceremony starting at 2 p.m. Saturday at the building site on Virginia 662.

National President Frank Guthrie will give the keynote speech. He will be introduced by Van Orden T. Lee, Ruritan's vice president.

Curtis Graham, special assistant to Executive Director Richard Ely and a key figure in negotiations in the early '60s that brought the office to Dublin, will talk about what went on during those years. Robert Amick, national president in 1965 when the relocation occurred, will introduce members who served on Ruritan's board of directors then.

Pulaski County local government officials and state legislators will also be among those attending the ceremony. A tour of the home office and a reception will follow.

The first Ruritan club was founded in Holland, Va., by Tom Downing and Jack Gwaltney. There are clubs in South, Southeast and Central regions of the U.S., and more than 13,200 members in Virginia alone.

by CNB