Looking Back Over Time

Every year a number of Masonic veterans in this jurisdiction reach the 50-year membership milestone. One who recently achieved that cherished goal was our Grand Chaplain, the Reverend David A. Balcom, who was presented his 50-year pin by the Grand Master in his lodge, William R. Singleton-Hope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7. Responding to the congratulations that were showered upon him at that time, he made the following remarks: “As I reflect upon all that has happened in my life in the last 50 years I am made so keenly aware of how swiftly the sands of time have flowed through the hour glass of life since that quiet, cold, snowy, wintry January night fifty years ago when I drove from Westminster, Maryland, where I was a senior at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), for the conferral of my Master Mason’s degree in William R. Singleton Lodge No. 30, here in Tenleytown, D.C. So very vivid are the corridors of my mind. the sublime degree of Master Mason. Rev. David A. Balcom, Grand Chaplain

So much more could be said of the experiences that I have had in Masonry across these years.

But, this is only a response and not the sermon that I feel coming on.

I am so deeply honored to be able to stand here with

the precious memories of that time. Grand Master Albert McNair Smith presented a fifty-year membership pin to the Reverend They are indelibly engraved upon the Brother David A. Balcom on January 5, 2005 in William R. Singleton Hope-Lebanon Lodge canvasses that hang in the recesses of No. 7. David’s wife of 50 years, Jean, was present for the ceremony. Although we had moved from Arlington to this area of D.C. only four years before, we quickly became very much at home, as my family lived just off River Road. Jean and I had attended old Western High School in Georgetown when we both lived in Arlington and I graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, after we moved into D.C., and later from Wesley Theological Seminary on Massachusetts Avenue. As a member of this lodge I have Masters: Robert B. Heyat. Deputy Grand Master; Mansour Hatefi. Grand Secretary, Stewart W. Miner Grand Secretary Emeritus; Theodore M. Kahn; and Robert H. Starr, Past Grand Masters; along with Akram R. Elias, Senior Grand Warden; Kwame Acquaah, Junior Grand Warden; William D. Means, our Worshipful Master and Grand Lodge Photographer; and Gerhard Meinzer, Grand Tiler. had the honor of serving as Chaplain for seven years, as It is also a real joy that this is an open lodge with our substitute organist, as a member of the lodge choir, and ladies and guests present so that Jean can join me here at now as Director of Music and Organist for the last 16 the Altar. years. To you, Grand Master, to the members of the Grand Fifty years later I stand west of the Altar, where we all Lodge, and to all the members of William R. Singletonhave knelt in prayer, and near the spot where my father, Hope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7, I express my gratitude for Robert B. Balcom, later Master of our lodge, raised me to this, my newest Masonic treasure.” Albert McNair Smith, Grand Master, and Past Grand