♦ The *
NORTH
CAROLINA
MASON
Official Publication of The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons of North Carolina
VOL. XCVIII, No. 8
Oxford, North Carolina 27565, August, 1973
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR
A. D. Leon Gray Retiring
After 27 Years at Oxford
District Meetings Move West
OXFORD—After more than a quarter-century
at the head of North Carolina Masonry’s Ox
ford Orphanage the Reverend A. D. Leon Gray
Rev. A. D. Leon Gray
Orphanage
Superintendent
will leave the superin
tendent’s post on Sep
tember 30 to make his
retirement home in
Beaufort. He leaves
as the Orphanage is
marking its one-hun-
dreth anniversary and
a significant portion of
his final year’s work
here has been planning
and carrying out the
various programs cele
brating this event.
During Oxford Orphanage’s century of child
care its several superintendents have been al
ternately elevated by times of great joy and
crushed by times of great crisis. Gray’s career
as superintendent has been no exception—cer
tainly Oxford Orphanage has given him.
twenty-seven years of varied emotions. What
all of this has meant to Leon Gray is
best expressed in his own words and the full
text of his recent statement follows:
Somewhere in living I discovered an axiom:
A man is lucky who has a wife who loves him,
friends who trust him, children who admire
him, a God who guides him, and a job so large
(Continued On Page Two)
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The cruise ship EMERALD SEAS, pictured above, will depart Miami November 12 on a “Mason
ic Cruise” to ports in the Bahamas. For further information read the article appearing on an
other page of this issue.
Third of Schedule Completed
DeMolay 50th Anniversary
Conclave Held in Charlotte
Howard Pickett,
DeMolay's new State
Master Councilor
Deputy Grand Master
William L. Mills, Jr.
addresses DeMolay
Conclave at Charlotte
CHARLOTTE—For
Order of DeMolay has
a half-century the
been functioning in
North Carolina and hundreds of its members,
advisors, and sweethearts converged upon this
city on July 19, 20, 21 to hold their fiftieth
Annual
Charlotte
scheduled
weekend.
Conclave. The Steele Creek and
Chapters were hosts and they had
a full round of activities for the big
(Continued On Page Two)
MSI near
Grand Master Nathaniel C. Dean and his
district meeting team were at Bakers
ville lodge 357 in Bakersville on July
25 and at Cliffside Lodge 460 in Cliffside on
July 26, and at the end of July one-third of
the 1973 schedule had been completed. The
Grand Master
Nathaniel C. Dean
addresses District
Meeting
meetings will continue
through August, Sep
tember, October, and
the first part of No
vember; terminating
with the meeting of
District 38 on Novem
ber 9 at Pee Dee Lodge
150 in Norwood (Grand
Master Dean’s home
lodge and district).
The remaining schedule
appears elsewhere in
this issue.
The meeting at Bak
ersville was for Dis
trict 58 with District
Deputy LeRoy D. Riddle presiding, and District
Deputy Joseph G. Pyatt presided over the Dis
trict 59 meeting at Cliffside. Attendance was
good at each meeting.
The Grand Master is adhering to his pro
gram at each meeting, all districts receive iden
tical treatment and attention. After the lodge
is opened, and after the District Deputy and
then the Grand Master have been received
with private Grand Honors, Grand Secretar
ial Assistant Pete Dudley calls the roll of the
lodges in the district to obtain an attendance
count. Superintendent Troy Robbins speaks
on behalf of the Home and Assistant Super
intendent Henry Flowers speaks for the Or
phanage. Dudley offers remarks, distinguished
visitors are recognized, and the Grand Master
delivers his address.
In his address, entitled “The Majesty of
Masonry in North Carolina,” Grand Master
Dean notes that 110 of our 384 lodges—almost
•one in three—each have 200 or more members,
and he observed that the large lodges exper
ience smaller attendance percentage than do
the smaller lodges. It is his belief he says, that
it is easier to get the feeling of being needed
(Continued on Page Three)