MAGLHBisbee

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HORATIO BISBEE 1913-2005

HoratioBisbee.JPG

  • MM 1950, WM 1957, Eden
  • DDGM, Palmer 19, 1966, 1967
  • Deputy Grand Master 1980

MEMORIAL

From Proceedings, Page 2005-96:

Brother Bisbee was born in New York City on March 25, 1913, the son of Ralph Bisbee and Minerva (Gault) Bisbee. He received his formal education in the New York City Public School System, graduating from Kent All Boys High School and later attended Harvard University. Although he was born, raised and educated in the “Big Apple”, he did not fit their mold of being a city boy but instead loved the country atmosphere and way of life. His appearance and mannerisms were more of a quiet, soft-spoken individual with a dry sense of humor and always with that devilish twinkle in his eye. To his friends he was affectionately known as “Biss”. Only his close friends and associates knew how he loved gardening, particularly the planting of trees and azaleas and watching them grow in beauty to maturity. We always felt that it was his love of gardening that helped him as a Grand Lecturer to be patient and to nurture and bring forth, through the officers and members, the beauty of our ritual and to keep it pure and unadulterated.

Biss met, courted and married the love of his life, the former Adelaide Kamienski, on June 12, 1943 and settled in Western Massachusetts where he worked in the textile industry in Ware.

He was a member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Ware and served as a deacon and also served the Town of Ware as a cemetery commissioner. His Masonic involvement covered a period of over fifty years. Biss joined Eden Lodge of Ware, Massachusetts as an Entered Apprentice on January 2, 1950, was passed on February 6, 1950 and raised on March 6, 1950. He served his Lodge as Master in 1957 and as District Deputy Grand Master of the Palmer 19th District in 1966 and 1967. He was Master of the 5th Lodge of Instruction from 1967 to 1969 and was awarded the Joseph Warren Medal in 1971 and was appointed Grand Lecturer from 1973 to 1984 and a Grand Representative to Puerto Rico in 1968. He served as Deputy Grand Master in 1980 and was awarded the Henry Price Medal in 1980 and the 50-year Veteran’s Medal in 2000 in the Grand Lodge at its quarterly meeting.

Right Worshipful Brother Bisbee laid down the working tools of the Craft February 24, 2005 to enter the Celestial Lodge to rest and refresh himself from his long and illustrious career.

Biss always said he was never perfect but lived and practiced Masonry to the best of his ability. He is and always will be sadly missed by his family and friends in Masonry.

Respectfully submitted,
Edgar W. Darling
John L. Dowell
Theodore E. Cooledge, Chairman

SPEECHES

FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1979

From Proceedings, Page 1979-241:

Most Worshipful Grand Master, Distinguished Guests, Brethren all:

As I stand here this evening, I am going through several emotions. The first is amazement. I couldn’t believe that this has happened. So that one is fading a little. The next one is pleasure. I am very pleased indeed that the Most Worshipful Grand Master saw fit to appoint me to this office. The next one I probably shouldn’t mention. I have a new priest in my church and he has been teaching and preaching that perhaps pride is the greatest sin of all. But I must sin a little more because frankly I am very proud indeed of this appointment.

So, Most Worshipful Grand Master, I do thank you for this appointment and I assure you that I will do my very best to uphold the traditions and carry out the duties of the office. And I would also like to say on behalf of all your appointed officers that we are very pleased indeed to be able to serve with you this year. We are very proud of you as a man, as a Mason, and as a leader, and we all pledge that we will do our very best to help you in any way we can in any of the programs that you propose for 1980.

Brethren, I will be starting my 31st year as a Mason next Tuesday and these last 30 years of Masonry have meant a great deal to me and they have brought me a great deal of joy. And as I look around, it seems to me there are some things that used to happen back then that aren’t happening any more. Perhaps they are happening in some places, but there arc a lot of places where they seem to be missing.

If they are missing, I say it’s our fault and when I say our, I mean those of us who have been Masons for 25 or 30 years, because we have not kept our successors on the ball. I think that we have forgotten to instill pride into our candidates. After I finished my first degree, a number of the Brethren, officers and members, came to me and told me how proud I should be to be a Mason. They said they were proud to be Masons, that not just anybody could become a Mason; you had to be a pretty good character, a special person and that I should be proud, and that Eden Lodge, my Lodge, was a good Lodge with a good reputation, and that I should be very careful never to do anything that would disgrace Eden Lodge, or Masonry, or myself.

And this was a repetitive thing. My instructor, my ritual instructor for the first degree (and in those days the candidate didn’t get to have a little cipher book, you worked it out with your instructor) had much the same things to say. And after every degree it was much the same, a catching thing. It was almost as though you had been inoculated with pride, pride in your Masonry, and pride in your Lodge.

And I wonder if we are doing that in this day and age because I feel that many of the candidates in those days, after they had completed their degrees, or perhaps even before they had completed their three degrees, would go back home, would go back to work, go back to their golf club, and I'm sure they probably had something to say about this great fraternity that they had just joined and this probably influenced other people to come along and make their application to join.

I really feel that we don’t do enough talking about Masonry outside of the Lodge. Somebody has got to spread the word and I think that we are the ones, that we should not be bashful. If we are in mixed company or in the company of Masons and non-Masons, there is no reason we should be bashful about talking about our Masonry, in showing our pride and joy in being Masons.

I would just like to ask you two questions. One, how can we expect the people out there who are not Masons to come knocking at our doors for admission if they don’t know we exist? Two, how are they going to know that we exist if we all go around with our lips zippered shut?

Brethren, let’s go out there and talk about our Masonry. I wish each and every one of you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Thank you.


Distinguished Brothers