Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Freemason of the Century

Let's travel back in time for a few minutes. Let's set the wayback machine for 20 years and go back to the halcyon days of the turn of the century. Millennium fever was at its peak and Y2K was about to destroy us all, or so we heard from a panicked news media. We anticipated the heralding of the new century and mathematicians argued over whether it started in 2000 or 2001. Time magazine named Albert Einstein the Person of the Century. Baseball named a Team of the Century. Other groups had their picks; but as far as I know, Freemasonry remained silent on the subject. Many lodges name a Mason of the year, but how about a Mason of the Century? Well, I have a nomination: that prolific Masonic author and leader, Ray Vaughn Denslow.

When Denslow died unexpectedly in 1960, waves of shock reverberated through the Masonic world. While no single individual could ever be the glue that holds Freemasonry together, Ray Denslow was certainly a catalyst for that process. Denslow discovered Freemasonry through his father and grandfather, who were both members and Masters of their Lodges. He was fascinated with the Craft to the point that he was initiated at midnight on his 21st birthday. From there, he went from being the youngest Freemason in the world to likely being the most well-known, holding a myriad of offices along the way. Grand Master of Missouri in 1931-32, he went on to lead other organizations, most notably serving as General Grand High Priest of the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons from 1942-1946. His list of organizations, offices, and honors covers six pages of small print in his memoirs. As one of his colleagues put it, "Ray Denslow is a promiscuous joiner."

Most Worshipful Brother Denslow was also a prolific writer; perhaps the most productive Masonic author of his time. With no computers in his day, he was glued to his manual Underwood typewriter. Denslow's compulsion for writing left the Fraternity with 22 books, 75 pamphlets, and dozens of magazine articles.

Beyond that, for 28 years, from 1932 until his death, he compiled an annual book-length report on the state of Freemasonry in the world. Masonic leaders worldwide anticipated its release each year. This communique, The Masonic World, became critically important in the years leading up to World War II as the only source of information on the state of the Craft in countries where ruthless dictators were shutting down Freemasonry. After the war, it provided valuable information about the efforts to reconstruct what nearly had been lost. Denslow didn't just write about the situation. He personally visited those countries to observe conditions first-hand. Those efforts gained him a worldwide fame which hardly another of our Brothers has known to this day. His passing created a void which in many ways has yet to be filled – The Masonic World died with Ray Denslow.

All that activity did not include what Denslow regarded as his crowning achievement. In 1943, he founded the Royal Arch Mason magazine, a periodical which became the largest Masonic publication in the world and which today almost every York Rite Mason reads. MWB Denslow edited and published the magazine from its inception until his death. When he passed away, his son William, best known as the author of 10,000 Famous Freemasons, took over.

Denslow knew Masonic and political leaders all over the world. He dined with kings, prime ministers and presidents. Harry Truman considered him one of his best friends. They discussed Masonic matters frequently and he considered Denslow's writings so important that he ordered paper be made available to him on a priority basis, even when paper was in short supply during World War II. When his train came through Trenton, Missouri, Denslow's home town, on his “Whistle Stop” tour in 1948, Truman, a Democrat, pulled Denslow up onto his car and introduced him to the crowd as, “my damned Republican friend.”

When Denslow was not off traveling the world on behalf of Freemasonry or working on another book or article, he was in front of his typewriter recording his Masonic activities on a daily basis. There was no aspect of Freemasonry Denslow considered unimportant. In those memoirs he chronicled "mundane" Masonic meetings as if they were ceremonies for kings; and those ceremonies for kings… he was a part of them as well.

The man was nothing less than a Masonic icon. His writings made him famous. His efforts on behalf of Freemasonry earned him respect. In 1933, he wrote an allegorical piece which, in poetic terms, described the workings, symbolism, beauty and principles of the Craft. It was entitled, "I Am Freemasonry." That he was.

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