MAGLARockwell
ARTHUR L. ROCKWELL 1929-2018
- MM 1951, WM 1957, Pequossette
- Member 1976, The DeMolay
- Member 1984, The Masters
- Junior Grand Deacon 1967
- Grand Marshal 1972-1974
- Senior Grand Warden 1975
MEMORIAL
PROCEEDINGS, 2018
From Proceedings, Page 2018-242:
Arthur LeRoy “Bud” Rockwell, a Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, died in Centerville, Massachusetts, on January 18, 2018. The following memorial is provided as a supplement to the 2018 Proceedings of the Grand Lodge. His necrology appears on Page 21 of this volume.
For more than forty years, Arthur “Bud” Rockwell was a fixture at the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. As the senior member of the corps of Senior Grand Wardens, he was often seen at the December Quarterly Communication, making the report of the ballot in his own inimitable way. His absence from the councils of the Grand Lodge is a sad loss.
Brother Rockwell was born in 1929 in Watertown, where he attended public schools, graduating from the Manter Hall School in 1948; subsequently he received a degree in business administration at Burdett College in Boston, and took a degree in embalming, which permitted him to join the family funeral business, Rockwell Funeral Services, which in 1996 became MacDonald, Rockwell and MacDonald Funeral Service. For forty years that was the most distinguished funeral home in Watertown, and was the site of many Masonic funeral services.
Bud was a corporator and trustee of Watertown Savings Bank from 1957, and he was active with many organizations in his home town, including the Rotary Club and the former Phillips Congregational Church, where he served as deacon, usher, and a moderator and treasurer of the Permanent Funds for many years.
After his retirement, Brother Rockwell relocated to Cape Cod, where he derived great pleasure from boating, fishing and golf, where he was well known and well liked; he was said to be the “fix it” man, frequently lending a helping hand to neighbors and friends.
Brother Rockwell joined the Masonic Fraternity in 1951, progressing through the offices of his mother lodge, becoming Worshipful Master of Pequossette Lodge in 1957. In 1967 he was appointed Junior Grand Deacon by M. W. Thomas A. Booth, and from 1972 to 1974 he served as Grand Marshal for M. W. Donald W. Vose; these were three very busy years, in which Brother Rockwell traveled everywhere in the jurisdiction, including a week’s visit to the Panama Canal District.
After his term as Grand Marshal, R. W. Brother Rockwell was elected Senior Grand Warden during the first year of the administration of M. W. Stanley F. Maxwell, in which office he served with distinction.
Subsequent to his Grand Lodge service, Brother Rockwell was elected commander of St. Bernard Commandery #12, Knights Templar. He was also Most Wise Master of Mount Olivet Chapter of Rose Croix. In 1983 he was awarded the 33° by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. He was also a member of the Aleppo Shriners and was active in a number of other Masonic organizations, including The DeMolay Lodge and the Masters’ Lodge.
Brother Rockwell spent his summers on Cape Cod, and was well known to both Masonic brethren and to his many friends and neighbors, to whom he often lent a helping hand.
His dignity, his good humor and his wise counsel will be missed by the many friends he has left behind.
