President Ian Tate

2026/2027

I am honoured to have been asked to be President of Clitheroe Rotary for the coming year and I do hope that I can do the club proud and serve it well.

I am a Yorkshireman of Scottish descent born in Bridlington in the days before every home had a TV, not many had a telephone and certainly no internet so we made friends within our communities, socialised together laughed and cried together. We learnt that community was at the heart of everything we did helping each other whenever we could.

I have purposefully left my honours off my title line as they are part of my story. I started my working life as trainee chemist at a local tannery having not achieved  the ‘A’ level grades to get into medical school because I found beer and girls more interesting. I qualified as a Leather chemist/technologist at the Leathersellers College, Tower Bridge Road, London which is now long time closed. This college was supported by and remains associated with ‘The Leathersellers Company’ a charity which is worth a google search. So I spent my earlier working life as Technical manager in the tannery trade converting raw hides and skins into leather. I had a good grounding working at the tannery from 1969 to 1986 then I joined a major international chemical company who wanted to establish technical sales of their chemicals to the leather industry worldwide. This gave me the privilege of representing the company and travelling to many parts of the world, my final assignment was to set up a legal entity in Turkey, my wife Marion and I living in Izmir for 6 years.

I was awarded a ‘Fellowship of the ‘Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists’ of which I have been president and then awarded a surprise Honorary Degree for services to the leather industry.

I have worked with many and varied nationalities in many countries some wealthy and some very much at the other end of the scale I’ve seen poverty and all that it brings at its worst.

I am also one of the ‘lucky ones’ surviving cancer twice in my younger years so you can guess which charities that will have my favour.

I first got involved with Rotary in Beverley in my 20s but unfortunately events did not allow progression.

Currently I also serve as a Church Warden at St Paul’s Church, Clitheroe now in my 5th year.

Marion and I have 14 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren, her challenge to me is to name them all and if that were possible in age order!

I look forward to my role leading a great team of Clitheroe Rotarians continuing to make a difference within our community and supporting various charities.

If you are reading this we are a friendly lot, we welcome new members of all ages and rely on our supporting friends—please consider being part of this organisation.