Freemasonry's Black Hole

 

You have made your journey to the East. Planning for this milestone consumed you. It saturated your life. Thoughts of budgets and programs bloated your brain until there was room for nothing else; and, oh yes, there was that big part you had to memorize. Then you got there. You brought those programs to life. You managed the budget. You were gut-punched by the unexpected. You punched back. You won.

Now your year is coming to an end. Where, you wonder, did the time go? It all went by so quickly. Suddenly you realize you are traveling near lightspeed toward the event horizon… that point of no return… of the great black hole of Freemasonry: life after being Master of your Lodge.

Maybe it doesn't hit you right away. Oh, those first few weeks after your term is over… that sweet era when the responsibility void hits, when the burdens of leadership rest on someone else's shoulders, when you get to go to meetings, plan nothing, do nothing, and wear that sporty new Past Master's apron… is a nirvana reserved for a precious few… the newly minted junior Past Master.

But it's an illusion. You eventually realize you've been sucked into the great void. Oblivion awaits. You can't sit on the north heckling the ritual performance forever. You can only take so much listening to debates about the menu at the next dinner, reading of the minutes and grousing about the outrageous bill to fix the air conditioner. You realize they can do all of this without you. Weeks ago you were the most important guy in the Lodge. Now you are, by your standard, irrelevant. You're not even the top-dog of all the Past Masters. You're at the bottom of the barrel. And like anything that reaches singularity in a black hole, you disappear. Experience shows us it happens to many, possibly the majority of Past Masters. They gradually stop coming to meetings, fade away, and leave us wondering whatever happened to them.

As you try to fight this trend instead of "whence came you," a new question pops up: "whence go you," or more simply, "now what?" The fact is most of us don't want to sit around doing nothing. We need relevance, something to do, a goal, a project, a responsibility, a raison d'être.

Part of your planning as you approach the east should be to figure out what you will do when it's all over. Your Lodge has many needs you can fill: maybe it needs a new Lodge Education Officer, an appointed office filled, a mentor for new initiates, a Lodge historian, someone to take the helm of a civic project or, God forbid, a new Secretary. There are also appendant bodies to consider. The York and Scottish Rites especially offer more opportunities for the Masonic education, fellowship and community service we crave. Grand Lodge committees always need staffing. You might even put together an article for the Midnight Freemasons.

Whatever you do, vow to stay active; and the activities you choose should include those that keep you coming back the foundation of our Fraternity – your Lodge.

The Unfortunate William Dodd

 Born in Lincolnshire in 1729, William Dodd was a vicar's son who became an honor student at the University of Cambridge. He was a man of letters, authoring over 50 books and pamphlets. He subsequently became a doctor of divinity and served as chaplain to King George II as well as a Minister to Magdalene Hospital. Dodd was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry April 3, 1775 and a month later he became England's first Grand Chaplain.

As an accomplished author and eloquent orator, Brother Dodd became very popular with the people of England and was well connected with the most important people of his time. He enjoyed moving in the circles of the rich and famous and began to favor the trappings of wealth and society.

His immersion in the lifestyle of the gentry became a near obsession and earned him the title, "the Macaroni Minister." That obscure term relates to people of the day who became deeply involved in the extravagant lifestyle and ate Italian pasta, which was rare and expensive at the time. It is the origin of the first verse in the song Yankee Doodle, originally written to disparage American colonists:

Yankee Doodle came to London riding on a pony,

Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni…

Well, the Macaroni Minister was no Yankee but he certainly became a dandy. Piling on the excesses and luxuries of the life of a member of the British nobility finally became too much for his finances. Dodd incurred heavy debt and exacerbated the situation by trying to gamble his way out of it. His gambling losses simply made things worse.

In 1774, he attempted to bribe his way into a high-paying position, but his scheme was discovered and he was fired from all of his existing positions. A few months later when he joined the Masons, it may just have been an attempt to once again become well connected and begin his journey back up the social ladder.

In need of funds, Dodd forged a bond from the Earl of Chesterfield, then borrowed against it to settle his finances. The plan might have worked, but the banker involved saw a blot on the bond document which obscured some of the text. He rewrote the document and when he took it to the Earl for signature, Dodd's plot was discovered.

Dodd confessed to the crime. Since the banker had acted so quickly, Dodd had spent very little of the money, which enabled him to make full restitution.

Brother Dodd went to trial and based his defense on the fact that this had been an act of indiscretion and that the crime was mitigated by the fact he returned all the money. The jury did not see it that way. Its members convicted him of forgery, which at the time was punishable by death. Even so, the jurors recommended clemency for the popular preacher. Notwithstanding, the judge sentenced Dodd to be hanged. Dodd was so popular, 23,000 people petitioned the King for a pardon, but to no avail.

On June 27, 1777, the day of his execution, the 48 year old Dodd rode in a black mourning coach with his father. On the way to the gallows the coach stopped, as dictated by tradition, at a pub, where Dodd was given a beer. This practice is said by some to be the origin of the term, "one for the road." The guards along with him also received a beer, but the driver of the coach could not partake because he was said to be, "on the wagon."

Another tradition of the time was that stewards at the gallows would take up a collection from the bloodthirsty crowd in attendance. If they collected enough money, the condemned man would be given a short drop in order that he would succumb more slowly and give the spectators a longer, more graphic performance. In spite of his popularity, the crowd anted up enough for the gruesome show.

As Dodd dropped from the scaffold, however, the Lord High Executioner ran down the steps, grabbed Dodd by the legs and pulled him downward to prevent flailing and to "speed things along."

In a bit of irony, Dodd had always been a death penalty opponent. Just earlier that year, he had given an inspiring sermon against it. In addition, he was a big supporter of the Humane Society which at the time was advocating the possibility of reviving those who had been hung, drowned or died under similar circumstances, speculating that even though appearing deceased, a bit of life might remain. Even today the Society's motto is lateat scintillula forsan, meaning “a small spark may perhaps lie hid.”

The fact is, some executions were sloppy enough at the time that this is known to have worked on rare occasions. So as soon as Dodd was cut down his friends rushed to claim his body knowing his neck had not been broken by the short drop. They carried him into the mourning coach and tried to go to the home of Dr. John Hunter to attempt a revival. The crowd reportedly rushed the coach and prevented its exit either to view the body or prevent its transfer, and it is unlikely any attempt at revival occurred. However for years rumors persisted that Dodd was revived and went off to live in France.

Dodd's Brother Richard was Rector of Cowley, which is where reports say Dodd's burial took place. Today, no marker exists for his grave, but a wall plaque says he rests within the cemetery. There is no record of his burial there, which has fueled speculation that he may have survived.

Shortly after his hanging, England changed its penalty for forgery and Dodd remains the last person executed for that crime; and while a minute measure of doubt may remain about him surviving the execution, one thing is for certain: upon hearing of his conviction, the Freemasons immediately expelled the unfortunate William Dodd.

The Woz

 

We live in a world steeped in technology. We run around with our smart phones fused to our hands avoiding human interaction in favor of texts, tweets, and Instagram posts that shout to the entire world "it's all about me." We grab our entertainment from streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Peacock and others that weren't around a decade ago. We order Alexa to turn on and off our lights and we drive cars that brake, steer and parallel park for us. Most of us, though, don't know much about the wizards standing behind the curtain who make this magic work.

You may, for example, have never heard of Tim Berners-Lee but you use his invention every day. We call it the World-Wide-Web. I could list others whose names are even more obscure to the general population. But some of these so-called nerds break through and become household names: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are known around the world.

In that group, there is at least one other name you will know. He was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry in 1979. They call him "The Woz."

Steve Wozniak was raised in Charity Lodge 362, now Mt. Moriah Lodge 292 in California. He and that other famous technology pioneer, Steve Jobs, started and built Apple Computer, today recognized as the world's largest company.

Wozniak provided the technical skills needed for designing the circuitry for the first Apple computer, and together in 1976, he and Jobs personally built about 200 units in in a garage-shop operation. Each of those Apple I computers sold for $666.66, raising some eyebrows, but The Woz always claimed he chose that price because he liked repeating numbers, knowing nothing about its symbolism.

The following year, Wozniak designed and built the Apple II which together with improved models in the 1980s is now regarded as the first truly successful personal computer. For those early machines that launched Apple, Jobs' role was marketing and it was Steve Wozniak who provided the design and innovation. Many of his ideas were born of the fact that he knew what features he personally wanted in a computer and, since those computers didn't exist, he had to invent them. In describing his motivation, he once said, "I had two things going for me: I had no money and no training."

Wozniak married Alice Robertson in 1976. She was a member of the Eastern Star. As the marriage gradually became troubled, Steve thought if he joined the Masons with its associations to the Star, it would provide an opportunity to spend more time with Alice and might help their relationship. He subsequently joined Charity Lodge. The plan didn't work. Just a short time later the relationship fell apart. The couple divorced and with that Wozniak's participation in the Craft ended. It's likely his membership was more a commitment to attempting to save his marriage than to Freemasonry, especially when we factor in the fact that he has on occasion claimed to be an agnostic.

Years ago, when asked about his thoughts on Freemasonry, he had this to say: "A lot of things about me don't get filtered. My wife at the time, in the early Apple days, was in Eastern Star. I thought if I became a Freemason I could go to more events with her. I did become a Freemason and know what it's about but it doesn't really fit my tech/geek personality. Still, I can be polite to others from other walks of life. After our divorce was filed I never attended again but I did contribute enough for a lifetime membership. There is nothing wrong with the Freemasons."

In his personal life, Wozniak supports a multitude of charities, many tech related and aimed at youth development including the Tech Museum, the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, and his local school's technology program. He opened his own home to help start the Dream Camp Foundation for underprivileged youth, now better known as "Camp Woz." He is known as a generous donor who gives with no strings attached. He also, unlike Steve Jobs, remembered early Apple employees who did not stay with the company and lost out on millions of dollars. To that group, in 1980, he personally donated ten million dollars of his own Apple stock.

Later in life, Brother Wozniak went back to school and received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkley. By the time he enrolled, he was so famous, he registered under an alias that reflected his well-known sense of humor. That alias is now the name that appears on his college degree: Rocky Raccoon Clark.

So, by his own words, he has no opposition to the Craft. In spite of his lack of enthusiasm and uncertain belief in a deity, he does, in fact remain a Brother. We'll leave it at that and without judgment ask, how many other members do you know who have long since become inactive or question their spirituality?

Steve Wozniak has contributed greatly through his inventions and has used his resources to benefit those less privileged than himself. In this amazing world of technology we live in it's safe to say we have all benefited in some small or even significant way from his pioneering work and for those accomplishments we are proud to call him Brother.

Put The Cart Before The Horse

 

I have attended and even spoken at a number of large, auspicious Masonic Meetings. A few of them have been so amazing, educational, well-produced, and fraternal that I will never forget them. Among these are the Masonic Roundtable's 300^th anniversary celebration at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, a York Rite symposium in Iowa where I had the honor of sharing the program with Harry Truman's grandson Clifton Truman Daniel, the annual Grand Master's breakfast in St. Louis, and my own Missouri Lodge of Research's Truman Lectures. These have all been gargantuan Masonic gatherings sometimes with hundreds… yes hundreds… of Brothers in attendance.

A huge crowd is a wonderful part of sharing Masonic Fellowship. In these large gatherings I've had occasion to visit with Brothers from not just other jurisdictions, but even other countries, providing opportunities to compare and share the precious diversity within our craft. Large crowds of Brothers are uplifting and inspiring but, make no mistake, an audience of dozens, or hundreds, is not a prerequisite, for a great Masonic event.

For example, just a few weeks ago I attended yet another one of those auspicious meetings I will never forget – but only about 23-25 Brothers were there. I was honored to be the guest speaker at Homer Lodge 199 in Homer, Illinois. Homer is a small, rural Lodge and by its member's own admission, attendance is not what it should be. To put it in Senior Warden Darin Lahner's words, "we normally are struggling to make a quorum."

Darin documented the full extent of this meeting from its conception to planning to execution in a thorough account in a recent Midnight Freemasons article. To read the full story, search for "A Night to Remember" on the blog.

Darin outlines the steps he took to create a successful event that more than tripled the attendance in his Lodge. I'd like to share those with you. "The funny thing is," said Darin, "it really wasn't that hard to do. To start with, I heavily advertised on social media. I started an Eventbrite event page to get a count of how many would be coming in." I'll come back to those two items in just a minute.

Darin continued with the steps in what he calls a "simple recipe:"

1. Get your lodge's buy-in. That shouldn't be hard to do, but what you're really looking for is a space for the event. If not your Lodge, there's got to be another one close with suitable space.

2. Arrange a speaker. One of the best places to go is the site masonicinstruction.com, which not only lists available speakers, but gives their biographies and summarizes their speaking topics.

3. Plan the event. Pretty self explanatory. This probably will involve a dinner which can be as elaborate as you want, or maybe just ordering in pizza.

4. Finally, hold the event. According to Darin, if you build it, Brethren will come.

The process sounds a lot like the "old-timey" definition of management: plan, organize, activate, control.

I'd like to expand a little on the first two things Darin did. He said he advertised heavily on social media, and started an Eventbrite page.

I've seen events fail where Brothers swear they promoted the event. What did they do? They posted it on FaceBook. Brothers , that's not enough. The key word Darin used is that he advertised it "heavily." FaceBook posts are a dime a dozen – or actually a dime a million. So however you promote the event, become a promotion Ninja.

The next thing Darin did was to set up an Eventbrite page. If you're not familiar with Eventbrite, learn about it and do it. This will more or less get commitments from people to attend.

And I'd like to add a dash of spice to Darin's recipe: Put the cart before the horse.

I know of a Lodge that practices this and they swear it's a sure thing. They do as much pre-planning as possible and come up with a couple of dates, then find out if Brothers are available on those dates. They then tentatively select a speaker and see when he is available. After a bit of coordination they find a good time for the event. Then, they sell tickets to the event, moderately priced to cover the cost of a meal. And only when they have sold enough tickets do they launch the event. In this lodge's case, they also limit attendance to 25 Brothers, and they sell out every time.

In other words, they sell-out the event, then plan the event. Not the way we usually do things. With the way he used Eventbrite, the is close to what Darin did.

Maybe using that old management definition you might say what they do is plan, organize, control, and activate. It might be something you could try. Follow Darin's advice and plan one of those unforgettable events. But see if it doesn't work better when you put the cart before the horse.

 

I Was Second

Anticipation consumed me as I sat in the large dining area with my father. A voice from a man I did not know came out of the hallway to my right and bellowed, "It's time, let's go." The room, filled with about 40 others, began to clear. Each got up, including Dad, and stood in line in front of a log book on a counter and signed in. Within minutes there were only four of us left in that empty room.

I sat in eerie silence with two other guys I didn't know at the long table where I had eaten breakfast. The fourth guy in the room was, we learned, the Tyler. He introduced himself. He joked, told us stories, and tried to put us at ease. I was not at ease. It wasn't because I was concerned about what I was going to go through, but because I wanted to get right to it. Time drug. In fact, it seemed to stop altogether. What were they doing in that Lodge room that was taking so long?

Finally, a guy stuck his head around the corner to my left and called out, "Randy!"

Rats. I wasn't going to be first. He took Randy away. More joking with the Tyler. More waiting. Eternity came and went. Finally, the same guy appeared at the corner to my left. I said a small prayer: "Make him say my name. Please make him say my name…"

"Steve."

Prayer answered, I leaped up and followed him into a place that was more a closet than a room. The three guys in there helped me put on a pair of… well… pajamas. They took a gold cross I wore on a chain around my neck, replaced it with a cord of some sort, slipped a sandal on me and then in their haste apparently forgot to put on the other one. After they blindfolded me, the main guy, followed by the other two, escorted me to a set of double doors, knocked and announced my presence. After a small wait, I was, for the first time in my life, in an open Masonic Lodge room.

I went through the degree, trying to soak it all in. I learned the lack of a second sandal was not a mistake. I learned why they took the gold chain from me. But it was like drinking from a fire hose. Other things I had experienced… well… I had questions.

They took me back out of the Lodge room, had me put on my street clothes, took me back in and we wrapped things up. It was amazing that the degree that seemed to take so long while I was waiting had passed in a flash. Parts of the degree swirled through my head as I tried to remember everything I had been through.

Then, suddenly, as they sat me on the sidelines, I realized there would be another degree for the poor guy who was still waiting outside, and I would get to see it. I was elated they had called me second, so I could immediately review what I had seen.

There was a knock at the door I had recently passed through. The same three guys walked in with the third candidate. I focused my attention. I hung on every word, every motion, every symbolic allusion. I watched transfixed with my Brothers… my BROTHERS… and tried to absorb it like a dry sponge in water. My Masonic education had begun.

The Dishwasher King

Is a dishwasher one of the appliances in your kitchen? My guess is the answer to that is yes. These days they're almost a universal part of every household; but your parents or grandparents may not have been so fortunate. The first commercial dishwashers made for home use were unreliable, leaky, temperamental gadgets that most times created more work than they saved.

In a nutshell, they didn't work… until, that is, the Dishwasher King came along.

Sam Regenstrief had quite a track record. Born in eastern Europe in about 1906, he moved to the US with his family two years later. He studied at Indiana University, then transferred to the Baum School of Engineering in Milwaukee, staying there until the school folded. A series of jobs led him to Rex Manufacturing in Connersville, Indiana, where he began to make his mark. Rex, a supplier of steel refrigerator cabinets, was in serious financial trouble. Sam turned the company around and by the age of 29, was running the show. Instead of just manufacturing refrigerator cabinets, he soon had Rex making complete refrigerators and selling them to, among others, Philco. He did such a good job Philco bought Rex and made it a subsidiary with Sam as president.

A few years later most thought Sam, by then a Philco corporate Vice President, was on track to become its President. Instead, in 1958, he left the corporate giant and started his own company, Design and Manufacturing (D&M), in Connersville. There, he earned his Dishwasher King title, transforming the household dishwasher from a piece of near-junk into the modern appliance most of us use today. That alone would be enough, but there is more to his story.

Sam Regenstrief was a Freemason. A member of Warren Lodge #15 in Connersville, he was raised October 28, 1948. Fueled in part by the same strong humanitarian principles inculcated in the Craft, Sammy first provided for his family and then became a generous philanthropist. Among his other endeavors, in 1969, he founded the Regenstrief Institute, an internationally recognized healthcare research facility. In turn, the institute developed the Regenstrief Medical Record System, a progressive, comprehensive patient care data collection system. For this, he has had numerous medical facilities named in his honor. Even when Sam was still at Philco, Brother William Denslow listed him in his iconic work, 10,000 Famous Freemasons.

Brother Sam Regenstrief passed away January 17, 1988. Looking at his accomplishments would not reveal how humble his beginnings really were. Shortly after his birth, a fire destroyed his family records. He never knew what his birthday was and remarkably, he was never sure where he was born (his family has said Romania; Sam himself once wrote he was born in Austria). Throughout his life he proved those things really don't matter that much: the cliché is true – it's not where you start out, but where you end up.

Sam valued his employees highly and maintained a good working relationship with them, including my father. You see, in 1969 he bought the company where my dad worked and served as a corporate officer. He was always warm and congenial with my dad, who called him Sammy. Me? I called him Mr. Regenstrief. Now, years later, I have learned I can also call him Brother.

Washington's Opponent

 

Did you know George Washington was a Freemason? (Gasp). It's true. I'm a little surprised so many of you didn't know that. Anyway, even if you didn't know that you probably know he was the first President of the US; and history tells us he ran virtually unopposed in the election of 1788. Well, the key word is… I guess… "virtually." You see, the constitution stipulated the presidency would go to the person getting the most electoral votes and the vice-presidency would go to the runner up. So the question is, if Washington was the unanimous winner of the election, how could there be a runner up? And if there was a runner up, just how did Washington get all the votes, and doesn't that mean he had an opponent in that election?

AND, if your head isn't spinning by now, get this: Technically, you could say George Washington had ELEVEN opponents in that race. Eleven. See, the key to this puzzle is the fact that each of the 69 electors back then got TWO votes. So the first 69 votes went to Washington and he won a unanimous victory. Then the second set of 69 votes went to a variety of men, with the one garnering the most votes becoming Vice President.

So who were these guys? You can probably guess one of them was John Adams, who received 34 of the remaining 69 votes and became our first Vice President, going on to become the second President.

Robert Harrison (no relation that we know of), Washington's personal military secretary, received six votes.

Also receiving six votes was John Rutledge, who became the second Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

John Milton, first Secretary of State of Georgia received two votes. James Armstrong, a Georgia state representative and Edward Telfair, Governor of Georgia, both got a single vote. Georgia was well-represented.

So, Adams, Harrison, Rutledge, Milton, Armstrong, and Telfair account for six of the men receiving electoral votes.

The remaining six, including Washington – half the field – were Freemasons.

John Jay, received nine votes and came in a distant second to Adams for the Vice Presidency. His Masonic status is, in fact, somewhat vague, but it is likely he was a member.

John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence and first Governor of Massachusetts received four votes.

George Clinton, Governor of New York and Later Vice President got three votes.

Samuel Huntington, 2^nd Grand Master of Ohio and also a Governor of Ohio, received two votes.

Finally, Benjamin Lincoln, ex-officio Secretary of War during the American Revolution, got a single vote.

There was not much of a campaign in that election. It was a foregone conclusion George Washington would win. It is likely each of the 11 also-rans we've talked about had his sights set on the Vice Presidency. Also, although there were no political parties per se, most of the candidates were like-minded Fedralists, favoring a strong federal government. Only Clinton and Telfair were Anti-Federalists, who not only opposed a strong federal government, but also opposed ratification of the constitution. In addition to that, back then it was considered rather undignified for a gentleman to campaign for an office. Some might say that's the opposite of our situation today where being undignified seems seems to be a requirement for public office. One wonders if the aversion to campaigning has something to do with the fact electioneering is frowned upon if not outright banned in many Masonic elections.

Our nation's first election, with a president elected unanimously and votes left over for eleven runners-up. Interestingly, in the inconceivable scenario they would have been elected president or maybe a bit more likely vice president, Harrison, Rutledge, Armstrong, and Brother John Hancock would have died in office.