The North Carolina Mason

January/February 2010

North Carolina Mason

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Page 4 The North Carolina Mason January/February 2010 BELLS, from page 8 HICKS, from page 1 INSTALLATION, from page 1 DILL, from page 1 Rifle raffle WASHINGTON — Washington 675 Master Jack E. Smiley Jr., front right, was a bit red-faced when the winner of the lodge's raffle drawing was announced September 19 at the lodge pic- nic. His son Michael Smiley was the happy re- cipient. He is seen here, center, getting the rifle from Secretary Fred M. Mallison Jr., left. No one was really suspicious of a fix, but they were hap- py that someone who was clearly qualified to handle the rifle had won. — Mac Mallison Rose honored SELMA — On D-Day plus eight, Kirby Rose landed on Omaha Beach. At a recent meeting of Selma 320, Ray Edwards gave Sel- ma member Rose a vial of sand from Omaha Beach as a tribute of appreciation for his ser- vice to our country. — Ray Edwards 1996. He is retired. He currently is secretary/treasurer of his family business, Olde Towne Caterers. He is also general secretary of the New Bern Scottish Rite Bodies. Dill is past director of acolytes at Christ Epis- copal Church where he is a lifelong member. He has also been a tee ball and baseball coach for Church League teams there. In Freemasonry, Dill was raised in St. John's 3 September 23, 1981. He served as master of the lodge in 1989. In the Scottish Rite, Dill is also the personal representative of the sovereign grand in- spector general and holds the thirty-third degree. Dill is a member of many Masonic organiza- tions. Among them are Sudan Shrine, New Bern York Rite Bodies, Eastern Star Craven Chapter 129, Nubia Grotto, National Sojourners' Camp Lejeune Chapter, and Royal Order of Scotland. In the Grand Lodge, he has been a certified lecturer since 1995, serving as grand lecturer in 2001. He served on Lodge Service Commission, Committee on Masonic Jurisprudence, and as chairman of the Board of Custodians. He is cur- rently dean of Wilkerson College. He was appointed to the Grand Lodge line in 2001 by then Grand Master Jerry R. Tillett. Dill's interests include Freemasonry, cooking, photography, and woodworking. Hicks is a former president of the Craven County Bar Association, and the North Carolina Association of County Attorneys. He is a mem- ber of the International Municipal Lawyers As- sociation and the North Carolina Municipal At- torneys Association. He has served on the boards of many local organizations including the District United Methodist Church, Friends of the School of Government, Wachovia Bank, and New Bern Chamber of Commerce. He is a lecturer on local government law and nonprofit organizations and in the East Carolina University School of Medi- cine's Masters in Public Health program. R. Sheppard. Other appointive officers who are not installed were Grand Historian Michael W. Brantley, Grand Lecturer Howard Kahn, Grand Orator omas W. Gregory (PGM), and Judge Advocate James R. Stevens. e Grand Lodge was opened earlier in the day by members of St. John's 3 who temporar- ily took the chairs of office to open and close the formal communication in the nearby lodge room. For the most part, they were the officers who served with Dill during his year as master of St. John's 3. ose pro tempore officers were: W. Stanley Kellum as grand master (appointed Dill to the St. John's Lodge line); John M. Wal- ston, deputy grand master; Fredrick H. Whitty III, senior grand warden; Roger C. Mallard, ju- nior grand warden; Oscar A. Kafer, grand trea- surer; E. Coy Wetherington, grand secretary; James A. Wiley, senior grand deacon; S. Craig Mallard, junior grand deacon; John T. Pugh Jr., grand marshal; Douglas L. Soltow, grand stew- ard; Michael A. Register, grand steward; Wil- ton M. Saunders Jr., grand tyler; and Warren G. Taylor, grand chaplain. On the day before the installation, the Board of General Purposes met for the last time with Grand Master Dan Rice. A dinner honoring the incoming grand master was held at the New Bern Shrine Club on Friday night. A reception, catered by the new grand master's mother, fol- lowed the installation. Our officers for 2010 are, front from left, Grand Treasurer Clifton W. Everett Jr., Junior Grand Warden Dewey R. Preslar Jr., Deputy Grand Master Lewis R. Ledford, Grand Master William L. Dill, Senior Grand Warden Robert E. Gresham Jr., and Grand Secretary T. Walton Clapp III. Back, from left, Junior Grand Deacon Douglas L. Caudle, Grand Steward A. Gene Cobb Jr., Grand Tyler Johnny C. Surles, Grand Chaplain Dennis R. Sheppard, Senior Grand Deacon Dalton W. Mayo, Grand Stew- ard Jimmie B. Hicks, and Grand Marshal Bryant D. Webster. Clockwise from above left: The officers take their oaths. Grand Secretary Clapp and Bobby Meadows prepare the officer jewels for the ceremony. Meadows spent the ceremony offstage making sure things ran smoothly. Past Grand Masters Jerry Tillett and Cliff Everett (Dill's Line father and grandfather) talk before the cer- emony. Dill talks with PM Stan Kellum during the ceremony. Howard Kahn and Tony Hawkins just outside the auditorium. Ric Carter photos For all those Masons who are North Carolina State employees, please note that the Masonic Home for Children at Oxford is now a desig- nated charity in the State Employees Combined Campaign program (SECC). It is listed under Independent Charities – number 3724. — Randy Ogburn, Piedmont-Pioneer 685 Luckily for Robbins and us, he enjoyed his- tory and had recently become a Mason, joining J. J. Crowder 743 in Raleigh. He found all the paths of the story of the Bell Tower crisscrossed with the footprints of Masons. He set about bringing us the memory of the story and fin- ishing the job begun by our Masonic brothers of the 1920s — to put bells in the tower where they belonged. He has planted the seeds of a grassroots move- ment among students at NC State. Several stu- dent Masons are working with him: Sam Frink, Excelsior 261 (Charlotte), Austin Wood, Bula 409 (Burlington), Richard Pridgen Jr., Golds- boro 112, and Jeff Horn, and Tyler Stevens of J. J. Crowder 743 (Raleigh). Students, with the help of seed money from North Carolina Ma- sons, have already raised $35,000. His dream is to get the financing to place the six largest bells in the tower during rescue reno- vations of the tower which have already been approved. ose repairs await the end to a proj- ects freeze ordered by state government budget troubles. e smaller bells could be added at a later date. He also hopes to eventually have the tower restored to its original design with steps to the carillon instead of the hollow edifice the tower is now. e total job will come close to one million dollars with phase one, the largest bells, coming in at about $400,000. "The nature of the tower is that the sweat, blood, and hard work of our forefathers are encased in the tower, and it's only fitting that the alumni, students, and community con- tribute in the same way to make this special," Robbins said. He has spread his message at meetings of both our and Prince Hall Grand Lodge's annual meetings. He has spoken in several lodges and to newspapers and television stations. His plans al- ready include another Grand Lodge cornerstone ceremony, already diagrammed and planned in his scrapbooks. e plans are afoot with energetic young men carrying the message of sacrifice of our veterans and the tale of Masons bent on memo- rializing them. Your support will be important. You can contact these men and play a part in finishing a dream of our forebears. ey have a website that offers a chance to learn more and to help: or emailing . While inspecting the work, President (and Past Grand Master of Missouri) Truman dis- covered a large pile of foundation stones with mason's marks on them. He gathered more than 100 such stones and sent one to every United States grand lodge, several Eastern Star grand chapters, and other Masonic organizations. On November 22, 1952, President Truman sent one of the stones to the Grand Master of North Carolina, with a letter including these re- marks: "ese evidences of the number of mem- bers of the Craft who built the president's of- ficial residence so intimately aligns Freemasonry with the formation and the founding of our gov- ernment that I believe your Grand Lodge will cherish this link between the Fraternity and the government of the nation, of which e White House is a symbol." In celebration of its 100 th anniversary, the STONE, from page 8 George Washington Masonic Memorial has requested that the grand lodges temporarily re- turn their stones to the Memorial for a display in 2010. Director of Collections Mark Tabbert says that the Memorial will seek to borrow the Scot- tish Lodge mark books so that the stones' marks may be matched to the names of the stonema- sons. Also, they will ask that the minute books of Federal 1, Washington, DC will be loaned to match as many of the stones as possible with members of that lodge. North Carolina's foundation stone is now at the Memorial to be part of the showing. If you have the opportunity to visit the District of Columbia in 2010, try to take time to see this display and the other informative and interest- ing exhibits at the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. Adapted from an article in e Minnesota Mason. Submitting digital photos? PLEASE, use only the highest resolution and for- mat options on your digital cameras if you want them to appear in print. Lower settings, the ones that get more pictures on a storage device, degrade images to a point that they are unusable in print. DO NOT let their appearance on your screen, either computer, or worse camera, fool you. ey do not give a fair preview of print conditions. Good quality images will often exceed one megabyte file sizes. Don't let your email program downsize the file.

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