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The NORTH CAROLINA MASON Official Publication of The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons of North Carolina VOL. XCIV, No. 4 Raleigh, North Carolina 27608, April, 1969 ONE DOLLAR A YEAR Grand Lodge Holds 182nd Annual Communication In Raleigh William A. Hooks New Grand Master On the sixteenth of April at the One Hundred Eighty Second annu al communication of the Grand Lodge of A.P. & A.M. of North Carolina held in the Memorial Aud itorium in Raleigh, William Ar thur Hooks of Smithfield was elected to the office of Grand Mas ter of Masons, a position formerly held by six of historical Grover- nors, beginning with Richard Cas well, and including such colorful .oreats as Richard Dobbs Speight, Jr., Wiliam R. Davie (Founder of the University of North Carolina), Samuel Johnston, Benjamin Smith and Hutchins G. Burton, Jr. Son of a country doctor and one of seven children, William Arthur Hooks was born in Smithfield, North Carolina, on a frosty morn ing November 13th, 1909, to Thel Hooks, M.D. and Eva Hood Hooks; and so began the career of a diligent and industrious young man. He was educated in the public schools of Smithfield, Oak Ridge Military Institute and the Univer sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began his business career early in a hardwood saw mill up on the Virginia-Tennessee line at the city of Bristol. After two years as a lumberman, he returned to Smithfield where he manned-the- pumps for the Holt Oil Company, Texaco Distributors, later operat ing his own station (Texaco) until 1942 when he joined the service department of the Wright Aero nautical Corp. in Patterson, New Jersey. In 1944, he bought the Holt Oil Company and operated it under the name of Hooks & Layne Oil Com pany, expanding the business to in clude the Hooks & Layne Tire Co. covering a wide area of operation centered in Smithfield and John ston County. On November 25th, 1935, he married his pretty hometown sweet heart, Nell Morgan Broadhurst. They are blessed with three daugh ters: Nell H. Bradberry and Julio H. Healy of Atlanta, Georgia; and WILLIAM A. HOOKS Grand Master of Masons in North Carolina Susan H. Poisson, of Miami, Flori da, and abundantly blessed with a grandson. Quill 6. Healey II of Atlanta, and a grand daughter, Susan Doyle Poisson, of Miami. It is easy to see that Bill is an intergral, or functioning part of Smithfield. He is a member of Cen tenary Methodist Church, served on the Board of Stewards, and as Sunday School teacher for a class of High School Seniors, and a class of adults. He served six years on the Smithfield Board of Commis sioners and was President of the Smithfield Chamber of Commerce in 1952. Intra-State and nationally he received deserved recognition, i.e. Chairman of the Consignment Dis tributors Division of the N.C. Oil Jobbers Association - two terms. President of the Carolina Oil Fuel Institute for two years. Named “Man of the Month” (April 1962) by The Fuel Oil News, the national trade magazine. In 1962, he received an award from North Carolina Oil Jobbers Association as the person who had contributed most to the advance- (Continued on Page Two) Grand Master Bass Hosts Reception As a prelude to the opening of the One Hundred Eighty-second annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accept ed Masons of North Carolina, our Grand Master Robert N. Bass, Jr. held a reception and Banquet at the Statler-Hilton Inn, in Raleigh Mon day evening of the fourteenth to of ficially introduce the Grand Mas ters, Past Grand Masters, Grand representatives and their Ladies, from Canada, the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and Florida. Too, practically every state east of the Mississippi, (and Arkansas) were represented, by dignitaries of their Grand li>dge lines, along with such distinguished guests as the ranking officers of both the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of North Carolina, and the Potentates and Recorders of Sudan and Oasis Temple. Double Ceremony At M and OES Home An Emergest Communication of the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina was held in the Chapel at the Masonic & Eastern Star Home in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Monday, April 7, 1969, at 10:30 A. M. with the following present: GRAND LODGE OFFICERS M-'.W.'-Robert N. Bass, Jr., P. M. (97), Grand Master; R.‘.W.‘. Percy Pickett Turner, P.M. (642), as Deputy Grand Master; R.'.W.'. Maurice E. Walsh, P.M. (407) Sen ior Grand Warden; R.LW.'.Harry L. Holland, P.M. (198), as Junior Grand Warden; M-'-W-'-James W. Brewer, P.G.M. (708K as Grand Treasurer; and R.'-W.'.Mack L. Gordy, P.M. (694), as Grand Secre tary. Also W.'-Oakley G. Hughett, P. M. (409), as Senior Grand Deacon; W.'.Sherman, Clapp, (Master-76) as Junior Grand Deacon; W-'.Hi- (Continued on Page Three) At one o’clock in the afternoon at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Car olina opened for the dispatch of business, and the official reception of Distinguished guests, Past Grand Masters, and the Report of the Grand Master. There followed in the evening at seven the Annual Grand Lodge Banquet held in Memorial Audi torium. This is the event heralded far and wide for its magnitude, beauty and splendor. Not only that but the assemblage was most de lightfully entertained by a pretty choius of selected voices from Ral eigh’s own Meredith College, under the astute and charming direction of Miss Beatrice Donley, of the Music Department of the College. Besides being an inspiration to our hearts, they were revivification to our minds, poetry to our ears, and served to reactivate our collective eyesight as they walked across the stage of our vision. Theirs was a return engagement, by unanimous demand; and they were accorded hearty applause and lasting praise. All this preceded the appearence of_ Brother George Bailey, enter tainer par-excellence with a phe- nominal memory which makes him equal to, or better than our Brother Red Skelton 33°. He’ll be remem bered longest for his ingratiating ways, for Brother Jack Honeycutt gave him his favorite $6.00 tie, piece-by-piece, and our Brother Pete Dudley even gave him “the shirt off’n his back”. It was a great evening, such that next year every Mason in North Carolina (68,000) plus their ladies, to be in attend ance—and this of a certainty. Wednesday morning of the six teenth broke fair with a clear blue sky overhead and a warm sunlight pervading the morning brilliance stretching from the Capitol down the Fayetteville thorofare to the Memorial auditorium—indeed the “Royal Mile”. In this setting, and within the auditorium the Grand Lodge recon vened for a business session and for the address of the Grand Orator, Brother H. Pat Taylor of Kilwin ning Lodge No. 64 of Wadesboro. It was a stirring and an inspira tional address. (Continued on Page Two)
The North Carolina Mason (Oxford, N.C.)
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April 1, 1969, edition 1
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