Serra Club Records

The Serra Club was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1934. The club derived its name from the great Franciscan missionary Father Junipero Serra (1713-1784) who founded a great number of missions in southern California. Its founders determined a need for Catholic professional businessmen and civic leaders to discuss Christianity in the modern day of work with the primary objective of working with explorer scouts posts, promoting vocational prayer clubs, sponsoring a ministry experience, or speaking at parish masses.

The Serra Club of Beaumont was founded on July 1, 1949, at the Crosby Hotel by Thomas J. Reilly, J.R.Jordan, and V.A.Covery. The original founders group was Dr. J.R. Venza and George Murphy. The Reverend E.A. Holnb of St. Ann's Rectory was designated as its chaplain. The Serra Club became a member of the Serra International Club on July 30, 1949, becoming only the eighth (8th) club to be founded in the State of Texas. Today there are 501 individually chartered clubs in twenty-nine (29) countries consisting of 16,000 Catholic lay men and women (until June, 1986, Serra members was limited to men). These clubs stress objectives such as fostering vocations to the priesthood and religious life and facilitating services to the church through lay education.