Difference between revisions of "GMRoy"

Revision as of 14:08, 21 March 2011

THOMAS S. ROY

Grand Master, 1951-1953

TERM

1951 1952 1953

MEMORIAL

From the Proceedings, starting on Page 1980-82:

Most Worshipful Herbert H. Jaynes read the following Memorial:

Born in New Castle, New Brunswick, August 31, 1884; died at Worcester, Massachusetts, March 21, 1980. His long life with God is ended.

At the Memorial Service for Thomas Sherrard Roy in the First Baptist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts on March 25, 1980, the Reverend Doctor Gordon M. Torgersen, president of Andover-Newton Theological School and successor to Dr. Roy as minister of the church, began his tribute by saying:

"In the very beginning of the Bible, a writer is describing the distant past and those who had done so much, saying There were giants in the earth in those days. No doubt an exaggeration," he said, adding, "If the words were written today about Dr. Roy, there would be no exaggeration at all. Without question he has been a giant in his day. He was an absolute master in the pulpit."

This very rare and very real man has left us and we feel a deep loss.

After a lingering illness, Dr. Roy died peacefully and willingly in his sleep in Hahnemann Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the hfth of eight children born to Jerome and Nancy (Sherrard) Roy, he a Roman Catholic and she a Protestant; all the children were baptized in the father's faith.

At sixteen years, however, he began to attend the Baptist Church of which his mother was a member and soon was attending both morning and evening services, culminating in baptism in the Mirimachi River 'on a cool night in June.' "School," he said, "was a dull experience for me. " And so, he became a tailor's apprentice for four years, his pay to be room and board, plus a $160.00 for the total term. Later he worked on the railroad and spent a winter in the lumber camps. Not until 1905 at age twenty-one did he resume his education.

It was then that something happened in his life, he tells us "strange and exalting, that in religion is called conversion. There was born in me a consuming desire to enter the ministry." In that year, he enrolled in Horton Academy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, operated by the Maritime Baptist Convention. He was graduated in 1907 and entered Acadia College, also in Wolfville, that fall; was graduated in 1911 and received his M.A. Degree in 1912.

He was ordained in 1911 in the United Baptist Church, Digby, Nova Scotia and soon thereafter married Mary Richard Evans. In 1913, he came to Massachusetts and entered the Newton Theological School, graduating in 1915.

After the pastorates in West Newton, Massachusetts; London, Ontario, and Brockton, Massachusetts, he became minister of the First Baptist Church in Worcester, Massachusetts on January 1, 1929, a ministry he held until 1951, and which he left to become Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. Our Past Grand Master was a community leader: The first President of Worcester Civic Music Association in 1930 and continued as such for six years; President of the Worcester Kiwanis Club in 1937 and of the Worcester Economic Club in 1941. At other times he was president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, the Worcester Mechanics Association and the Bohemians Club of Worcester.

Dr. Roy was a trustee of Worcester Academy for twenty-five years, ex-officio trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a trustee of Newton Theological Institute from 1927. He received the "Good Neighbor Award" from the Brotherhood of Beth Israel Synagogue in 1967. Honorary degrees were conferred upon him by: Acadia University, D.D.: Colby College, D.D.: Clark University, L.H.D. and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, D.Sc. Dr. Roy was made a Master Mason in King Solomon's Lodge, No. 54 in Digby, Nova Scotia on March 5, 1912, while studying in Acadia College. He affiliated with other Lodges as he moved from pastorate to pastorate, lastly with Montacute Lodge in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1929.

He became its Worshipful Master in 1936; District Deputy Grand Master in 1942; Deputy Grand Master in 1943 and was Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts in 1951-52-53. He was Executive Secretary of the Conference of Grand Masters in North America for three years and Chairman and later Secretary for ten years of its Commission on Information for Recognition. While Secretary, he edited three books for the Commission. He is the author of Dare We Be Masons?, a collection of addresses delivered in various Grand Lodges in North and South America, and Stalwart Builders, a chronological history of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Most Worshipful Brother Roy was a membei of all the Scottish Rite Bodies in Worcester and a Past Most Wise Master of Lawrence Chapter of Rose Croix in that Valley. He was a member of Massachusetts Consistory in the Valley of Boston. He was created a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, Honorary Member of the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction on September 26, 1945 and was its Associate Grand Prior for many years.

In York Rite Masonry he was Exalted in Newton Royal Arch Chapter in 1919; he affiliated with Satucket Royal Arch Chapter in Brockton in 1924; Greeted in Hiram Council in Worcester, 1943; Knighted in Bay State Commandery No. 38 in Brockton, 1924. The Paul Revere Medal of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter was conferred upon him in 1953.

Officiating at Dr. Roy's Memorial Service were Rev. Dr. Gordon M. Togersen, Rev. James T. Begley, Rev. Suzanne Nelson and Most Worshipful Whitfield W. Johnson. Dr. Roy's body was cremated at Rural Cemetery in Worcester. His ashes will be deposited in the family lot in Cambellton, New Brunswick, where those of his wife, Mary, who died in 1975, presently rest.

We, in Massachusetts Masonry, are grateful for the gift ot his life and for his presence among us. This memorial ends with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson with which Dr. Roy began Stalwart Builders. "There is properly no history, only biography. An institution is the lengthened shadow of a man."

May we continue to live in the shadow of his giant of a man to the increasing glory of his and our beloved Fraternity.

Respectfully submitted,

Norman A. Ray
Charles A. Cross
Herbert H. Jaynes

Committee

NOTES

CHARTERS GRANTED

• 06/11/1952 Dover, Dover
• 09/10/1952 Canaan, Everett
• 12/10/1952 Ezra, Taunton
• 12/10/1952 Level, Worcester
• 03/11/1953 Shawmont, Springfield

RULINGS

• 1951
• 1952
• 1953

Grand Masters