The Transition Era · 1965–1979

The Grand Master’s hat still fits

Dec 1967

In December 1967 the lodge that built this temple reached the summit of Texas Masonry: J. W. Chandler, raised in Reagan Lodge on October 30, 1948 and its Worshipful Master in 1955–56, was installed Grand Master of Masons in Texas for the 1968 term after a year as Deputy Grand Master. The lodge marched up at the installation to present his hat and carrying case.

His reply is preserved in the Grand Lodge’s own proceedings: “I hope that my head hasn’t gotten too big in the last few minutes … and it still fits.” Later that month the new Grand Master came home to his lodge’s fifty-seventh anniversary celebration. A Houston lodge, J. W. Chandler Daylight Lodge No. 1452, now carries his name.

The source

Part of a newspaper classified page with Lodge Notices under a square-and-compasses emblem, including two Reagan Lodge No. 1037 notices. — Houston Post, Dec. 30, 1967, p. 31: the Lodge Notices, with Reagan Lodge’s call to its 57th-anniversary meeting, where “the Most Worshipful Grand Master will present 50 year awards.”

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Also: Grand Lodge of Texas Proceedings, 1967, pp. 336–342, and 1968, p. 4.