"Greater Love Hath No Man"
A Tribute To
 John Willis Shearer 

John Samuel Eckler, 32
Past Wise Master
Chapter of Knights Rose Croix
P.O. Box 432
Great Mills, MD  20634-0432

BEING born in Kentucky in 1938, I grew up with trains. Practically   every
man in town was a trainman, and many of  them were Masons, as was my
father. I shined shoes at a barbershop, and trainmen would press a dime in
my hand and ask whose boy I was. When I would say I was Blaine Ecklers
youngest son, they would say, "Your dad is a good man and Mason, and so was
your grandfather."

        My maternal grandfather, John Willis Shearer, had died in a train
accident five years before I was born. Being young, I was not at first told
the details of his death. Later, however, I found out. He was the conductor
on a freight train. One day, on  September 18, 1933, to be exact, he saw a
gasoline handcar approaching on the same track as his train at Shawhan near
Paris, Kentucky. When applying the brakes, he was thrown between the train
and handcar. This action, according to those who remember him, saved  many
lives.

        My grandfather John was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master
Mason October 25, 1923, at Latonia, Kentucky, Lodge No. 746. I am so proud
of his life and his courage in the face of imminent danger. It was his
example as a man and Mason which, in large part, caused me to petition
Shryock Lodge No. 223 in Hollywood, Maryland. As I approach the age he was
when he died, I am constantly reminded of my obligation as a Master Mason
and of the vows and great lessons we teach in Freemasonry and the Scottish
Rite. My life may never reach my grandfathers greatness, but I shall
always strive to be better than myself. Virtus Junxit Mors Non Separabit:
Whom Virtue Unites, Death Cannot Separate. s

John S. Eckler
was invested with the 14th and 18th Degrees  in the Scottish Rite Bodies of
Southern Maryland, serving as Wise Master, and  he received the 30th and
32nd Degrees in the Scottish Rite Bodies of Baltimore, Maryland .
