Steuart M. L. Pollard is a member of Ralph J.
Pollard Lodlge # 217 Orrington Maine and served the
Masonic Service Association as its Executive Secretary
from 1977-87.
Stew shares many stories of "why" men have be-
eome Masons. MSA would encourage Lodges to use this
STB as a program and ask the Brothers present to tell
their story too!!
Editor

WHY I BECAME A MASON

by Stewart M. L. Pollard

Prior to his initiation, a candidate is asked 
pertinent questions relative to his motivation 
in seeking the privileges of Masonry and is 
asked to give assurances that his decision was
not influenced by mercenary motives. How-
evcr, he is not asked to be spccific as to what
actually influenced him to become a Mason. 
It is not until we listen to the ritualistic ex-
change between the Worshipful Master and
thc Senior Warden that we hear the question
"what induced you to become a Master 
Mason?" The ritual answer to that question is 
familiar to all of us.

The Master of a Virginia Lodge a few years 
ago received word just as he was about to 
Open his lodge that his guest speaker for the
evening had been rushed to the hospital
moments before. Undaunted, he opened the
lodge, conductcd the necessary business, and
then announced the alternative program for
the evening. "What induced YOU to become 
a Mason?" he asked. After allowing the breth-
ren to think about it for a few minutes, he 
called upon several brethren to give their 
answers. It seems that each of us have vivid 
memories of when, where and why we made
the decision to apply for membership in the 
world's largest and oldest fraternal organiza-
tion.

This paper was inspired by the answers 
given on that night. Since then, all over the
country, that question has been posed to many 
brethren. The responses have been fascinat-
ing, inspiring and interesting. Basically, the 
responses fall into several general categories:

Example set by family and friends
Urging of wives, mothers or sweethearts
Demolay activitics
Impressive Masonic funerals
Masonic Charities
Curiosity

Surprisingly, the number who indicated 
that they joined just so they could get into one
of the appendant bodies, or who acknowl-
edged that they were ASKED to join, were so 
few that it appears not to be a major factor.
One Grand Master confided that when he 
proposed to his wife, one of the stipulations 
she made before she would agree to marry 
him was that he would have to petition a 
Masonic Lodge. (She was active in Job's 
Daughters.)

R.W. Brother "Jack" Kelly, Past Grand 
Master of Texas, rccalls that when he was a 
small boy in Indiana he was recuperating 
from pneumonia at the time that his grandfa-
ther died. He remembers being wide-eyed
when the house seemed to be filled with men
wearing funny hats with white feathers on 
them and carrying swords. He was told that 
they were Knights Templar and were there to 
conduct Grandpa's funeral. He also has fond 
memories of the kindnesses and concern the
men had for him. When it was explained that 
his grandfather had been the Commander of
the Knights Templar and the men were there
bccause of their love of his grandfather it 
made a great and lasting impression upon 
him. One of his most cherished possessions is
the engraved Templar sword which had been 
his grandfather's. He claims that that early 
exposure to Masonic brotherhood was a great 
influence on his desire to become a Mason.
A surprising number of brethren informed 
me that they were Masons as a result of the
urging of their children, who were anxious to
join one of the youth groups, and many of 
them expressed how surprised they were when 
they learned that other close family members 
or business associates were sitting on the 
sidelines when they were raised. Had they 
known that these family members or friends 
were members of the fraternity they would 
have petitioned sooner. This points up the 
fact that we tend to carry Masonic "secrecy" 
too far when we fail to talk about our Masonic 
activitics to our friends and family.

A young Junior Warden of a Wyoming 
Lodge, approached me at a Grand Lodge of 
Wyoming Annual Communication and an-
nounced that he was a Master Mason as a 
result of an M.S.A. Short Talk Bulletin. When
asked to explain, he said that he had come 
home from work one day and his father passed 
him a copy of the Short Talk Bulletin, sug-
gesting that he read it. That evening he did 
read the bulletin and the following morning 
asked his father for a petition. As a matter of 
curiosity, I asked him if he recalled the title of 
that Short Talk Bulletin. It turned out that it
was a bulletin I had written several years 
before, entitled, "Dear Son". I hope his father 
knows how proud I am to have assisted in 
being an influence.

A District Inspector in the Grand Lodge of 
Maryland is quick to explain that he was 
influenced to become a Mason by the ex-
ample set by Past Grand Master William
Jacobs of the District of Columbia, who many 
years before had been the Dad Advisor of his 
DeMolay Chapter. "I wanted to be just like 
Dad Jacobs, who so willingly gave of himself 
to every boy in the Chapter. If Dad Jacobs was 
a Mason, then I wanted to be one! What an 
example he was to us!"

Ed Rose, former Director of the Veterans 
Administration Voluntary Services Division, 
tellst his fascinating story related by his Grand-
mother when he was growing up. It seems 
that she and his grandfather had gone to 
Arkansas from their home in Virginia for a 
vacation. While there, his grandfather be-
came gravely ill and passed away. His grand-
mother was at wits end. She wanted to take 
the body back to Virginia for burial in the 
family plot, but she had no funds until she 
could get back. Fortunately, the Coroner
learned that her husband was a Mason, and 
contacted the local Arkansas lodge. Almost 
immediately, members of the lodge were there 
to comfort and console her and to offer assis-
tance. Within a few hours, they had made
arrangements for the body to be shipped to 
Virginia by train and she was provided with a 
train ticket to accompany the body. Members 
of that lodge also travelled with her until they 
were met by members of her husband's
lodge. She quickly went to the bank and
withdrew funds so she could repay them, but
those who had accompanied her could not be 
located. She told that story over and over 
again to her grandchildren, emphasizing that 
that was the kind of men they should try to be.
Ed likes to tell that he made the decision to be 
a Mason when he was eight years old. Isn't it 
great to know that there are men of that stature 
in our government!

Ill. Bro. Joseph R. ("Jose"') Gilbert, 33, a
Pennsylvania Mason living in New Jersey
gave this reply when asked what had induced 
him to become a Mason. "Without the 'built-
in ' advantage of having my Dad or brother as 
members of the Craft, I made my decision to 
petition a lodge for membership only after 
much thought and some years of decision. I 
did my best to find things I did not like about 
Freemasonry and found that I was wasting 
my time; there was no such thing! Every man 
I saw with that pin on, every man I called a 
dear friend who wore the Square and Com-
passes, every man I met in business, at church, 
socially . . . all were of a purpose, a principle, 
a way of life . . . that I felt a kinship with. I felt 
quite sure, even before I submitted my peti-
tion, that the men I assumed to be Masons as
I went through life, were an accurate repre-
sentation of what I would find if I were 
fortunate enough to be accepted. That was 
over forty years ago and I have no reason to 
think otherwise since that night I was raised. 
I thank God for that!"

In the January 1989 issue of The Virginia 
Masonic Herald, there was an open letter 
from a newly raised brother (Bro. Michael
Stairs of Willis V. Fentress Lodge #296 
Virginia Beach, VA.) As his letter so graphi-
cally explains his motivations in joining the 
fraternity, generous extracts from his letter 
follow:

* * *

"Several years ago I met and married a 
young woman who would turn my life around 
in ways neither she nor I expected. You see 
she is the daughter of a Master Mason. I knew 
very little about Freemasonry then, but the 
more I became acquainted with her father the 
better my perception of Freemasonry became.
My respect for this man has grown to 
immense proportions. He is a good man, an 
honest man, a man of virtue and integrity, a 
spiritual man; a man that will go out of his 
way to do what he feels in his heart is right; a 
man that can't be swayed by the evils of the 
world and a man of immeasurable character 
and pride. The more I got to know this man 
the more I began to think to myself that there 
must be something to Freemasonry.

Several years after I married, I approached 
my father-in-law and asked him how I could 
become a Mason . He said, "All you have to do 
is ask." I did and soon thereafter, I was initi-
ated into the mysteries of Freemasonry. This 
was the first step towards what have been 
some of the richest, greatest, and most pro-
found expericnces of my life."

* * *

To avoid him any embarrassment, we won 't 
identify the brother who confided that his 
original motivation to join the Craft was be-
cause he thought it would be "good for busi-
ness." He had noticed that a number of men 
who were in the same line of work were 
Masons, and that maybe he could gain some 
advantage if he were to bccome one. As he 
progressed through the degrees he realized 
how wrong he had been. One of his business 
competitors served as his mentor as he learned 
his catechisms and became one of his closest 
friends. On the night that he was raised he was 
amazed to find his father, his father-in-law 
and two of his uncles had flown in just to be 
with him on that "special milestone" in his 
life. It was then that he fully realized how 
wrong his initial motivation had been.

Think about it! What induced YOU to 
petition for the degrees? Think about the 
Masons who have influenced your life, and 
your way of thinking.

We thoughl that the poem "I See You've 
Traveled Some" (on page 8) would be a nice 
way to end this STB. We do not know the
author but the poem is in our file here at
M.S.A .
Editor


I SEE YOU'VE TRAVELED SOME

Wherever you may chance to be--
Wherever you may roam 
Far away in foreign lands,
Or just at Home, Sweet Home; 
It always gives you pleasure.
It makes your heart strings hum 
Just to hear the words of cheer--
"I see you've traveled some."

When you get the brother's greeting,
And he takes you by the hand,
It thrills you with a feeling
That you cannot understand.
You feel that bond of brotherhood
That tie that's sure to come
When you hear hlm say in a friendly way,
"I see you've traveled some."

And if you are a stranger
In strange lands all alone,
If fate has left you stranded--
Dead broke and far from home,
It thrills you makes you dumb,
When he says, with a grip of fellowship,
"I see you've traveled some."

And when your final summons comes,
To take a last long trip,
Adorned with Lambskin Apron White
And gems of fellowship;
The tiler at the Golden Gate,
With square and rule and plumb
Will size up your pin, and say,
"Walk in-I see you've traveled some."

