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House of the Temple Presents the “Banjo Man”
On Saturday, June 3, 2006, the House of the Temple offered its second free Children’s Show, an interactive concert with the “Banjo Man,” Frank Cassel. While playing his banjo, he sang childhood favorites, and everyone joined in with him. To end the show, everyone waved red streamers while singing, “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” The children had the opportunity to dance, clap, and even play a maraca during the show. The approximately 60 attendees were enthusiastic in their appreciation of the performance.
The metropolitan Washington community has been very responsive to the quarterly children’s programs offered at the House of the Temple. The consistent comment from children and parents is that they would like to see more frequent concerts. This new children’s program is a great opportunity for people to come and view the beautiful House of the Temple building and to find out more about what we do.
The next Free Children’s Show is a repeat performance of “Oh Susannah” on October 7, 2006, at 10:30 a.m. For more information on children’s shows at the House of the Temple or on how to sponsor a performance, please contact Joan Sansbury at 202-777-3139.
Virginia Scottish Rite Foundation Announcesthe Matsue Yamazaki Dewese Endowed Scholarship
Illustrious and Mrs. George E. Dewese, 33°, at the announcement of the Matsue Yamazaki Dewese Endowed Scholarship at Radford University in Radford, Virginia.
On July 24th, Scottish Rite’s relationship with Radford University was celebrated at the close of the Scottish Rite Summer Language Program. Scottish Rite members, the twenty-nine children who participated in the program, faculty, family, and students were present. At the conclusion of a luncheon hosted by University officials, Ill. James D. Cole, 33°, SGIG in Virginia, announced that Ill. and Mrs. George E. Dewese, 33°, had established the Matsue Yamazaki Dewese Endowed Scholarship which will provide annual financial aid of $5,000 to a deserving student at Radford University.
Ill. Cole highlighted the significant relationship between the University and Scottish Rite: during the last six years, Virginia Scottish Rite has provided $423,000 to the University’s language programs, along with additional scholarships established by individual Scottish Rite members, such as Ill. Dewese, which have supported students in other disciplines. He encouraged all present to emulate the example of the Dewese family, who not only have contributed money, but also have given of their time and talents to assist the University and Scottish Rite.
Mrs. Matsue Dewese, born in Saitama, Japan, met her future husband when he was stationed in Japan during his Army service. Her supervisor was a Scottish Rite Mason and soon George joined the Rite. From the couple’s early dates at Masonic functions, her service in her Eastern Star Chapter, and through their untiring devotion today in supporting the Rite and its charities, the Dewese family continues to show their love of and commitment to the Masonic family.
Ill. Hoyt O. Samples, 33°, Appointed Deputy in Tennessee
SGC Ronald A. Seale, appointed Ill. Hoyt O. Samples, 33°, as Deputy in Tennessee succeeding Ill. Joseph O. Martin, Jr., 33°, SGIG, who has retired. Ill. Samples was born July 26, 1954, and joined Red Bank Chapter Order of DeMolay, Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a youth. He served as Master Councilor, Treasurer, and State Scribe, and received the Chevalier Award in recognition of his accomplishments. He is Past Master of Red Bank Lodge No. 717, Past Sovereign of St. Gregory Conclave, Red Cross of Constantine, and a member of Nicholas Oldham Council No. 378, Allied Masonic Degrees, Cherokee York Rite College No. 378, Alhambra Shriners, and Court No. 39, Royal Order of Jesters.
Bro. Samples graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1976 with a B.S. in Business Administration and from the University of Cincinnati in 1979 with a J.D. Upon graduation he started his legal career with the firm of Stophel, Caldwell & Heggie, and is now a senior member of Samples, Jennings, Ran & Clem, PLLC. He has been admitted to the bar in Tennessee and Georgia.
He has been a board member for six years of Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tennessee and is active in the United Way. Ill. Samples is a Sunday school teacher at Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, a member of the Hamilton County Baptist Association, and has been an Ordained Deacon since 1979. He is also a Mensa Society member.
Much of Ill. Samples’ Masonic activity has been in the Scottish Rite. He became a Master of the Royal Secret, 32°, in 1979 in the Valley of Chattanooga, was invested with the rank and decoration of a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor in 1991, and coroneted an Inspector General Honorary, 33°, in 1997. He has served Chattanooga Lodge of Perfection as Venerable Master, 1999–2001; the Scottish Rite Foundation as President, 1999–2001, and as a Board Member, 1999–present; the Advisory Conference Board as Chairman, 1999–2001, and as a member, 1999–present; and as the Personal Representative to the SGIG, 2005–present.
Hoyt is married to Mitzi Poteat Samples, also an attorney, and they have two children, Lochlin B, born in 1986, and Kelsey A, born in 1989. He is a scuba diver, certified for open-water, advanced, cavern, and nitrox.
The National Association of Masonic Scouters (“NAMS”) is now being formed. Its purpose is to foster and develop the support of the Boy Scouts of America by and among Freemasons while upholding the tenets of the fraternity. This includes, but is not limited to, encouraging Masonic Lodges and other Masonic organizations to charter and support BSA units. The NAMS also will encourage the awarding of the Daniel Carter Beard Award to deserving Masons and support the Scouting movement at all levels.
Although still in draft form, the NAMS Constitution contemplates that Regular Members will be Master Masons who are in good standing in a regularly chartered lodge and who are registered adult members of the Boy Scouts of America. Associate Membership will be for Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts, family members of Regular Members of NAMS, and Master Masons who are formerly registered members of the Boy Scouts of America or who have an affinity for Scouting but are not presently registered members.
If interested in participating in the email list, from which NAMS will grow, contact Bro. David I. Karp, david@karpmediation.com, to request an invitation to join the list. Alternatively, you may join from the internet at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NAMS. In either event, be sure to supply the following information: Name, Address, Phone, Email Address, Scouting affiliation (include Council) and Masonic affiliation (include Blue Lodge).
Lincoln, Nebraska, Charters Knights of St. Andrew Chapter
If Benjamin Franklin was such an active Mason—Past Master of his lodge in Pennsylvania, Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, and Past Master of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris—why didn’t he mention the fraternity in his Autobiography or wasn’t he buried with Masonic honors?
Image: From an original pencil drawing by Benjamin West J. Sachse, Franklin’s Account with the “Lodge of Masons” (1898)
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) led a remarkable life. He is honored as a revolutionary, a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, and a Mason. His Masonic career is substantial: he joined the lodge at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, in 1730/31, was elected Grand Master of Pennsylvania, 1734, and published the first Masonic book in the colonies, James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons, 1734. After 1750 he spent most of his time out of the country. In 1755 he took part of the dedication of Freemasons’ Hall in Philadelphia, in 1759 he visited St. David’s Lodge, Edinburgh, and in 1779–1780 he was Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters, Paris. And this is just a partial list of his Masonic activities!
Why didn’t he have a Masonic burial or mention Freemasonry in his autobiography? The answer proposed by Prof. Steven Bullock, author of Revolutionary Brotherhood (1996), is that Franklin was affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Moderns. The first Ancients’ lodge was formed in Philadelphia in 1757, and by the end of the Revolutionary War, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was controlled by Ancients. According to Bullock (pp. 85–86), “By the time Franklin returned from England for good in 1785, he could not enter a Pennsylvania lodge. The grand lodge he had headed no longer existed, and its past grand master could not even set foot in a lodge room without a ceremony of ‘healing’ to convert him from an unacceptable Modern Mason into an Ancient brother.” While he never said anything explicitly, Franklin probably disassociated himself from the Ancients, and they refused to acknowledge or bury “an unacceptable Modern Mason.” Thus we see the bitter fruits of pride and rigid legalism.
Texas Senator Robert J. Glasgow Receives Scottish Rite Award
