In September, 1914, the Kansas City Scottish Rite offered an energetic young Mason a job as Administrator of the newly-formed Mason's Relief Committee. A restaurant owner, the young Brother sold his business and went to work for the Masons. Frank Sherman Land didn't realize it but, at the age of 24, his destiny was now laid out before him.
In the years that followed, Land built the program into one of the premier relief organizations in Kansas City, helping secure hundreds of jobs for the unemployed and distributing food and clothing to the needy. The organization grew and, in time, Land needed assistance, so he hired 17-year-old Lewis Lower to help him during evenings and weekends. Lewis had just lost his father. Land understood how much Lewis missed his father due to his separation from his own dad as a youth. Land was so impressed with young Lewis that in February 1919 he suggested forming a club at the Scottish Rite temple in Kansas City for Lewis and some of his friends. The following week, Lewis and his friends met there for the first time.
Over the next couple of months Land and Lower met with a core group of eight additional boys. Others joined and the little club began to flourish. They named this new organization after the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar who, rather than betray his God, defied the Pope and the King of France and was burned at the stake. Thus was born the Order of DeMolay which today, in 2019, celebrates 100 successful years of helping turn boys into men. My father, my brother and I are among the thousands who have benefited from its precepts. Also in that group are Frank Borman, Walt Disney, John Steinbeck, Fran Tarkenton, John Wayne and a host of others you would immediately recognize as leaders and role models.
To be sure, my experience as a DeMolay was somewhat different than boys who are members today. Like the Masons, the organization has suffered a decline in membership over the years. We had more members and more participation than typically found in chapters today. In fact, my chapter had so many members officers terms were limited six months so to give more boys a chance to advance. As Master Councilor I had a full line of officers – 22 in all.
I had the standard insecurities of any geeky high school student. My extra-curricular activities were church, Boy Scouts and DeMolay. Of all those it was DeMolay that best taught me I could be a leader. During my term we had a major event with Master, Senior and Junior Councilors coming in from all over the state for a Councilor's Night; and there I was, a 17-year-old kid, standing in the East with a Chapter packed with statewide DeMolay and Masonic Leaders. It was a big deal, and I was just a little too young and naive to recognize the support I had from the Chapter advisors who were really the ones who put it together. That's OK. Events like that gave me the confidence to be a leader, not a follower. And that is exactly what those advisors wanted.
I did not join the Freemasons immediately after being a DeMolay. I went off to college and never thought much about the Masons. When my father became a 50-year member, he asked me to attend the ceremony and present his jewel. As I walked into that Lodge room – my first time in about 25 years, the memories of my DeMolay experiences flooded back to me. Everything was as I remembered. It was all familiar, comfortable and even inspiring. Right then and there I decided I wanted to join, and I can say without hesitation if I had not been a DeMolay, I would not be a Freemason today.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that today's smaller groups of DeMolays get as much out of the organization as I did; and from what I've seen of many of them, they do. A recent survey showed about 9% of all Freemasons are former DeMolays. You could say that's not a high percentage. I prefer to look at it another way. You could also say fully nine per cent of our membership comes from DeMolay and in an era of falling membership any group that provides that percentage of our members is significant. Whatever the case, it wouldn't surprise me if many of those DeMolays who become Masons will also be among our leaders. Happy 100th birthday, DeMolay. May you flourish and have many more.
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