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PROCEEDINGS OF THE
2017
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON NECROLOGY As the legislation results were being processed Grand Master Smith called upon Most Worshipful Brother Dr. Elmer E. Revelle, Chairman of the Necrology Committee to deliver the Report. Most Worshipful Brother Revelle began by informing the Craft; The Necrology report today has been taken from the 2006 Grand Lodge session, which was the last year that Most Worshipful Dr. J.C. Montgomery served as Chairman of The Necrology Committee. It is also interesting to note that there are two members of the Necrology Committee submitting the report this year, the third member would have been Dr. Montgomery, who died before the report was put together. It is a moment of personal privilege, in that, as I called him “Jack” and I go back to 1967, he was one of the most meaningful persons in my life vocationally, as he provided for my first appointment as a Clergy colleague and then I feel certain that he whispered into the ear of Most Worshipful Brother Robert Crede and I was appointed a Grand Chaplain in 1983, so his footprints have been on my life for many years as well as I know for many of you, so with that being said, we move into the report of the Necrology Committee. Most Worshipful Grand Master and Brethren, an aging Mason tells of climbing many steps to his Lodge hall. He pauses to catch his breath, wondering if he can continue. Then he remembers with gratitude those that have gone that way before him; Brethren who has recommended him, those who had initiated, passed, and raised him, those who’s Masonic example and teachings lived in his daily life as well as in his memory. Somehow, it became easier to take those additional steps and sit once more in that sacred retreat of friendship and virtue. In these moments you and I are called to just recollections. That great Masonic speaker and writer of two generations ago, Joseph Fort Newton, in his book “Builders and Brothers” wrote, “there come thoughts of those who walked with us in other days and have vanished, they were noble and true. Their friendship was sweet, and the old road has been lonely since they went away. Toward the end of life is like a street of graves, as one by one those who journey with us fall asleep but if we walk the road of the loving heart and make friends with a great companion, we should not lose our way, nor left alone when we come at last, as come we must like all Brothers and fellows before us, to where the old road dips down into the valley of shadows”.