About Junior Chamber International

JCI’s story begins with Henry Giessenbier Jr., a young man living in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, during a time of incredible growth and change. Giessenbier recognized the talents and passions of the young people around him, and envisioned the positive change they could create if they had the right resources. To provide these tools, in 1915 he founded the first JCI movement in the St. Louis area. What began as a local movement spread quickly, and with enthusiasm. Young people across the United States and then across the globe joined together to create positive forces in their communities on a local, national and international scale.

Giessenbier saw JCI as an organization that could harness the energy of young leaders to overcome a variety of civic challenges. JCI members would have the opportunity to develop as individuals, contribute to the prosperity of economic infrastructure through entrepreneurship, understand and appreciate the social dynamics that enable community problem-solving and promote goodwill, cooperation and understanding amongst all people. That enduring vision lives on through the organization today.

Learn more at about JCI here.

Notable Alumni

Larry Bird – Boston Celtics

Warren E. Burger – Chief Justice of the United States

Bill Clinton – President of the United States

Ken Coon – Little Rock psychologist, former Arkansas Republican state chairman, served as Arkansas state Jaycee president

Cal Cunningham – North Carolina State Senator, US Senate Candidate

Gerald Ford – President of the United States

Wendell Ford – U.S. Senator, Governor of Kentucky, also served as US Jaycees President

John Wayne Gacy – Serial killer, clown and businessman, served Jaycees for many years before going to jail

Bill Gates – Chairman of Microsoft

Al Gore – Vice President of the United States

Mike Gravel - U.S. Senator from Alaska, conducted national Jaycee tour advocating tax reform and free enterprise in 1958

Larry Holmes – Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion

Rogers Hornsby – Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player

Howard Hughes – Industrialist

Hubert Humphrey – Vice President of the United States

Bradley Joseph – Composer/recording artist

Edmund Kemper – American serial killer known as the "coed killer". Became a member of the Jaycees while incarcerated

Charles Lindbergh – Aviator

Tom Monaghan – Founder of Domino's Pizza

Walter Mondale – Vice President of the United States

Richard Nixon – President of the United States

Elvis Presley – Musician, Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumous recipient, 2018.

Lani Rae Rafko-Wilson – Miss America 1988

Ronald Reagan – President of the United States, Actor

John Jacob Rhodes – U.S. Representative from Arizona

Charles Thone – Governor of Nebraska, served as Nebraska state Jaycee president

Robert Van Pelt - United States District Judge, drafter of the Federal Rules of Evidence