Together Again After graduating from High School in 1940, Hap Reynard ended up going to Colson Corporation, a bicycle manufacturer who ended up making machine gun parts to support the war efforts. Hap once said, I started in a bicycle factory, ended up making 50-caliber machine gun cores, and two years later I was firing one.� After the war, Hap went home where he built several businesses and a life. He did quite well, first buying a gas station, later doing advertising for Coca-Cola, and then venturing into interior design where he eventually opened his own store, Reynard Interiors in Mansfield, Ohio. Our Resource Center was honored to be able to meet Hap, now 96, and his wife, Alice this year after we received a call from their son. Living out of state and nearly 500 miles away, he was worried about his dad who is a Mason and lives alone. His mom is in an assisted living facility, and he was also worried about her as she recently fell and needed therapy services upon returning from the hospital to her apartment. He said how difficult it is to be so far away and not able to check in on them to see how they are doing or help them as needs arise. Our Ohio Masonic Home Resource Center Liaisons were able to do home visits, to both Hap and Alice, and connect them to services. They were able to get Hap weekly home care services, meal delivery services, and coordinate appointments with the VA to get his hearing aids checked. Hap now has new hearing aids, and the county he lived in even had Levy funds available to help cover the cost of private duty home care. Hap was used to driving from Mansfield to Ashland, every single day, to be able see Alice in her assisted living apartment. Being a World War II veteran, they are helping him apply for Aid and Attendance benefits through the VA, which could help with the cost of assisted living so that Hap could move into assisted living with Alice and they could be together again. It has been such a joy getting to know these two and hear their love story. Let us help you care for the ones you care about. Call our Resource Center at 877-881-1623. We’re here to help.
Ohio Masonic Authors Speculative Freemasonry and the Enlightenment, 2nd Edition, by R. William Weisberger A review by Doug Kaylor Brother R. William Weisberger, Ph.D., is a member of Steubenville Lodge, No. 45, and a retired Professor of History and Sociology. He is also a pioneer in modern masonic scholarship, one of the first of a new generation of scholars to apply modern historiography to the fraternity. His 1980 dissertation became the basis of his book, Speculative Freemasonry and the Enlightenment. Now, after thirty-seven years, Brother Weisberger has published a new, second edition, with added material. It is available in both paper and electronic editions. The origins of Freemasonry are a source of endless speculation, and depending on the school of thought, it is described as a society distinguished by fun and fellowship, philosophy, social action, liberal arts, moral education, or esoteric knowledge. Some argue that it is basically a dinner club; others that its lessons are ancient, complex, and layered with hidden meanings. Brother Weisberger is a historian of the Enlightenment. In this work, he studies well-known Lodges in London, Paris, Prague, and Vienna as vehicles of learning, civil religion, political equality, and societal action. In the second edition, he added chapters on Benjamin Franklin and Jewish civic rights in Philadelphia. His presentation is measured, reasoned, and supported by a scholarly research. How one interprets this book will depend largely on the predisposed beliefs that the reader brings with him. Those looking for proof that Masonic Lodges were one thing or another – whether social clubs, secret societies, or something in between will be disappointed. But those who approach this work with an open mind will find it a useful and thought-provoking exploration of our founding years and worth their time and attention. I recommend it to those who are willing follow the scholarship wherever it leads. They will be rewarded with a more complete and nuanced understanding of our founders, the influences that shaped our Lodges, and the ideas and ideals that distinguish us as a society of friends and brothers.