Presentation of Valentine Reintzel Medals and Special Recognition

The “Voice” takes pleasure in recognizing the most recent recipients of the Valentine Reintzel Medal: Worshipful Brothers Stephen Ohanian, Harry E. Echols, Jr., and Walter R. Hoenes. The exceptional worthiness of these recipients is only partly indicated by the citations read at the time of presentation by Grand Master Robert B. Heyat at the Grand Lodge’s Annual Communication on Saturday, October 27, 2007.

The Grand Master’s Citation for STEPHEN OHANIAN Worshipful Brother Stephen Ohanian was born in 1947 in the Yahyali village near Kayseri, Turkey. After completing three years of elementary education in Kayseri, he then moved to Istanbul, Turkey and completed elementary, middle and high school education in the Armenian schools in Istanbul. After graduation from high school, he passed the entrance exam and was admitted to Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul. He graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in mechanical engineering. Upon moving to the United States in 1976, he worked as a mechanical engineer until 1988 in the HVAC field. In 1988, he opened an auto body repair business which he operated until 2003. After receiving his Real Estate Sales Certificate in 2003, he began working as a Real Estate Agent. In August 2007 he returned to working as mechanical engineer. Worshipful Brother Ohanian has two children: Sevan, born in 1980 and Natalie, born in 1982. Worshipful Brother Ohanian is an active member of St.Mary’s Armenian Church in Washington DC, served on the parish council for fours years, with two years as the council’s chairman and two years as its secretary. He is also active with the Washingtonian Tower Condominium in Gaithersburg, Maryland where he serves as a member on both the Energy and Social committees.

His Masonic activities are numerous: Worshipful Brother Ohanian was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason by Wm. R. Singleton-Hope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7 on November 9, 1996. Since then he has affiliated with Hayastan Lodge No. 94, serving as its Worshipful Master 2002 and also Nur Lodge No. 2000, serving this lodge as Worshipful Master in 2003. Other Masonic memberships included Royal Arch Masonry, the Scottish Rite and the Eastern Star. In 2001 he served as High Priest for the Wm R. Singleton Chapter No. 4 of Royal Arch Masons. Preferring to avoid the limelight, Worshipful Brother Ohanian can always be found busy behind the scenes, working tirelessly, yet quietly, on behalf of our fraternity. In recognition of his devotion and dedication to the Craft, it’s my honor and pleasure to present Worshipful Brother Stephen Ohanian with the Grand Lodge’s Valentine Reintzel Medal for Meritorious Service.

The Grand Master’s Citation for HARRY E. ECHOLS, JR. Worshipful Brother Harry Earle Echols, Jr. was born in Atlanta on May 9, 1947 and raised in nearby Decatur, Georgia. After graduating from Decatur High School in 1959 he served in the U.S. Army as a Russian and German linguist and intelligence specialist. Following his military service, Harry earned a B.A. from Oglethorpe College, a J.D. from Atlanta Law School and a M.S. in Management from the University of Utah. Harry joined the U.S. Department of Labor in 1968, receiving progressively more responsibility and assignments in the New York and San Francisco regional offices prior to moving, in 1981, to the Department’s headquarters in Washington, DC. Once in the nation’s capital, Harry joined the local Rotary Club, where he met William Eccleston, who Harry was told was the Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Scottish Rite. Harry remembers that Dr. Eccleston’s title did not impress him—the man did. He watched him for several years and remembered other gentlemen whose lives had positively touched him. The common thread among the best of them was that they were all Masons. He soon asked Dr. Eccleston for a petition and began his Masonic journey. Harry was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in Albert Pike Lodge No. 33 on April 6, 1987. He served as Master of that lodge in 1993. At the conclusion of Harry’s service in the East, the late Worshipful Brother Julius Gordon, who was the lodge’s Secretary at the time, wrote the following in lodge’s bulletin, The Albert Pike Globe: “I cannot let this last Globe of the year pass by without commenting on the great year Worshipful Brother Echols has had. He ran the lodge with enthusiasm, with spirit, and with the good of the

fraternity always in his heart. The lodge raised 16 members this year, and he personally sponsored four of them.

Harry found time to give his all to the lodge in spite of the fact that he is active in many, many other organizations such as the Rotarians, the Odd Fellows, the Scottish and York Rite bodies, and his church. Harry’s leadership is a great one for future Masters to follow and I congratulate him on his superior stewardship of this lodge.” Since then, Harry has continued as a “Johnny Appleseed” of sorts for Freemasonry. His leadership and vision were instrumental in the creation of two additional lodges for this jurisdiction. Magnolia Lodge No. 53, chartered in 1996 gathers and makes Masons who are also members of the college fraternity: Kappa Alpha Order. On June 30th of this year, the brethren of Magnolia recognized Harry’s key role in the founding of that lodge by unanimously electing him as an Honorary Past Master. Fraternity Lodge No. 54, where Harry served as its first Master and which was consecrated in 2001, emulates Magnolia Lodge but on a broader scale, gathering and making Masons having membership in any Greek-letter fraternal society. Today it is conservatively estimated that over 75 brothers have Harry Echols to thank for being the top-line signer on their petitions.

For his success in creating for this jurisdiction two outstanding lodges; for sponsoring and serving as a Masonic mentor for many of our brothers; and for his energy, passion, and dedication to the fraternity over two decades, it is my honor and pleasure to award Worshipful Brother Harry Echols the Valentine Reintzel Medal for meritorious service.

Editor’s Note: Worshipful Brother Harry E. Echols, Jr. passed to the Celestial Lodge on Sunday, October 28, 2007 after a long illness. His high intellect, enthusiasm, and countless acts of kindness will be long-remembered and appreciated by his family, friends and brothers. He charmed us all.

The Grand Master’s Citation for

WALTER R. HOENES

Worshipful Brother Walter Robert Hoenes was born in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York on

July 12, 1964 to his parents, Walter and Virginia, and later raised in the leafy green suburbs of

New Jersey. At the age of seven, Walter lost his father to cancer, and he soon began looking to his two grandfathers as male role models. These men were active Masons in their respective communities and, by their examples over time, taught Walter the cardinal principles and tenets of Freemasonry. It was Walter’s love and appreciation for these men and their values, along with his great interest in history and ritual, which caused him to determine early on that he would one day like to become a Freemason.

In 1982, Walter arrived in the nation’s capital to attend the George Washington University. During his college years, where he studied international affairs, and throughout the 1980’s he was active in politics, working either for Congress, for political consultants, or for presidential election campaigns. Finally tiring of the political scene and ready to seek new challenges, he accepted a position with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, working primarily in the rooms division and sales, and finally as regional director of the company’s frequent business travelers/guest recognition program. The Valentine Reintzel Medal (named for the first Grand Early in 2001, in the course of Master in the District of his duties as an alumnus Columbia) is awarded by advisor for his college the Grand Master to no more fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, than three Master Masons Walter had the good fortune of for their meritorious service being introduced to and to the Fraternity and in quickly befriending Worshipful recognition of their devoBrother Harry Echols, from whom he quickly requested Masonic information. Harry tion, loyalty, and zeal toward the Craft and their Brother Masons. naturally guided Walter to petition the newly chartered Fraternity Lodge, which has the mission of gathering and making Masons who share the Greek-letter fraternal experience. Walter was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason exactly six years ago today. He served as Master of Fraternity Lodge in 2005. That same year, Walter was proud to participate in the raising of his beloved stepfather, Gus Rutledge, a New Jersey Freemason. Always seeking further light in Masonry, Walter holds memberships in both the Scottish and York Rite bod

William Wallace Jermane Grand Master, 1916

Our sixty–third Grand Master in point of succession was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 4, 1862. He was obligated to leave college before his graduation due to a lack of funds necessary to complete the final year. He spent the following years as a type-setter, pressman, job printer, reporter and editor of a number of local and national publications. M. W. Bro. Germane, came to Washington in 1899, by way of Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota. He was raised in Charity Lodge No. 331 of St. Joseph, Missouri on November 12, 1886. He affiliated with Pentalpha Lodge No. 23 and became Master of that Lodge in 1905. He held high offices in almost all of the appendant bodies.

M. W. Br. Germane had a remarkably active and busy life, both professionally and fraternally, none of it perhaps in the year he was Grand Master. He brought to the office of the Grand Master a rich experience, a ripe Masonic knowledge, and an energy and enthusiasm almost without parallel in the history of our jurisdiction.

Installation Address of M. W. Bro. William Wallace Jermane (1916)

In assuming the high station to which you have this evening elected me, permit me to speak a word of seriousness.

We stand at the opening portals of a new year. Whether it is to be a year of success or a year of failure, will depend ultimately not upon the Grand Lodge, nor yet upon the constituent Lodges, but upon the more than 10,000 Master Masons of the jurisdiction as individuals. We cannot do our best—our most important-Masonic work in the mass; we cannot do it by proxy, as, for instance, through committees and the Lodges. As a fountain can rise no higher than its source, so Masonry in this jurisdiction must measure its working efficiency by the individual loyalty of its adherents. If that is what it ought to be, no outside opposition, I care not what its origin or power, can impede our progress; but if it is not, no amount of effort on the part of our Masonic bodies as such can keep our forces in proper motion. In other words and this is the point I am trying to make—we must have not more of organization at the top, but more of consecrated devotion to duty at the bottom, if we are to justify, in a larger way, year after year, in the thought of this community, our right to exist as an institution. Masonry with us has a record of glorious achievement, covering more than a century; but as I face the coming year, I turn away from that record, and call upon all my brethren to turn away with me. The past, with all that it has of glory, is secure, and does not need our attention. What concerns us is the present moment. Let us live well all of the todays, and the tomorrows will crown us with benedictions, and in time become golden yesterdays. I ask you to join me in a purpose to make the new year a year of peace, a year of progress, a year of renewed determination to raise our beloved fraternity to still higher levels of efficient service, Standing at the focal point of a great nation which today contains three-fourths of the regular Masons of the world; doing our work in the white light which beats down upon such a point, and with greater opportunities for development than are possessed by many of our brethren elsewhere, let us earnestly rededicate ourselves to service, and call upon Almighty God to make us more useful than ever before in the great work of establishing His kingdom in the hearts of men.