Ian Modelevsky, 32°
140 Sugartown Road, Devon, Pennsylvania 19333

At age 93, when he received his 50-year pin at an honorary dinner at the DeMolay Center in Fullerton, California, my father recited his credo for the last time. He passed away in October 2000, with his wife comforting him, and he received a Masonic funeral as one of his last requests.

Brother Bernard was born in 1907 in the Russian Ukraine, where he experienced the hatred of anti-Semitism and religious suppression. In 1919, he and his parents, brothers, and sisters were lined up to be shot by roaming hoodlum soldiers. They were saved only by neighbors who intervened by telling of the family's qualities as good citizens in the community and thus persuaded the soldiers to have mercy. At that early age, my father saw human compassion, expressed in what was to become his five points of life, work a miracle that spared his family's lives.

In 1921, his family fled the Russian Revolution and literally walked out of Eastern Europe, making their way to Liverpool, England, then by boat to the United States with, literally, only the clothes on their backs. Once again, the five points guided them to safety and the chance to live a productive life.

Bernard joined other family members in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1930, despite the Great Depression, he married and started a family. Embracing his five points, he was inspired to educate himself, working day and night selling newspapers on the street corner, working as a mattress maker, studying and teaching himself a trade as a master upholsterer. He was always able to provide shelter and food for his family and relatives. Together with his other brothers and sisters, he set aside funds to allow his youngest brother to attend university and medical school.

In 1942, at the age of 36, and with his wife and two young boys at home, Bernard volunteered for the U.S. Navy, wanting to serve his adoptive country, or as he called it "America the Beautiful." For three years, he served at an inland naval base at Farragut, Idaho, where he supervised 350 German prisoners of war. His ability to speak Russian, German, and Yiddish was an invaluable asset in conducting his duties. It was fitting for him to be put in a humanitarian service role.

Returning home in 1945, Bernard started his own upholstery and drapery business from the basement of his home, an early example of the "home office." When his brother-in-law returned from the Army, where he served in the brutal North African Campaign under Field Marshall Montgomery, Bernard took him into his home and family. There he nurtured him back to physical and mental health, taught him the upholstery trade, and made him a business partner.

In 1949, Bernard asked a business associate how he could help a child in need of physical therapy. That associate, a Mason and Shriner, suggested the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in St. Paul. Asking more about Freemasonry, Bernard learned that his five points for life were embraced in the Masonic Degrees, and he began his Masonic journey as a Master Mason in Macalister Lodge No. 290, the Scottish Rite, and Osman Shrine Temple—all in St. Paul, Minnesota. That journey continued for nearly 51 years, during which he helped dozens of families in need and worked with law enforcement agencies to rehabilitate many ex-convicts by teaching them a trade in his company.

Brother Bernard made sure that his sons aspired to and achieved a good education. He always said, "You can make money and you can lose it. But, no one can take away your education." And, he instilled his five points for life—Love, Respect, Discipline, Togetherness, and a healthy dose of Common Sense, along with the corresponding Masonic quest for Light—as guideposts toward living a good, honorable, productive, and charitable life. He will be dearly missed, but his legacy will continue through those he helped.

Ian Modelevsky is a member of Shikinah Lodge No. 246 and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Reading, Pa. He is President of Affinity Marketing Associates, which, since 1987, has assisted the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in fund-raising activities to benefit the Rite's Childhood Language Disorders Program. Dr. Herbert Modelevsky, his brother and fellow Mason, is a retired pediatrician and a trained clown. He volunteers his services to children's reading programs, is working to establish a children's hospice, and has served on the board of Heritage Pointe Home for the Aged in Orange County, Calif. A third son of Bernard Modelevsky, Joseph, is a professional musician who volunteers as the "official organist" for his Masonic Lodge, Scottish Rite Body, and Medina Shrine in suburban Chicago.