MAGLCFrench

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CARROLL B. FRENCH 1898-1963

Deputy Grand Master, 1962

MEMORIAL

From Proceedings, Page 1963-138:

Right Worshipful Carroll Brackett French, Junior Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, died suddenly at his home in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Sunday, May 5, 1963, in his sixty-fifth year.

Brother French was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, November 16, 1898, the son of Elmer Eddy and Mary Celia (Bean) French. He attended the Lynn Public Schools and graduated from Lynn Classical High School as valedictorian of his class. His education was continued at Tufts University, where he was Class Orator and director of Tufts Chorus and Glee Club in 1920-21, graduating in 1921 with a B.S. degree in Economics. While at Tufts, he became a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and served as Worthy Keeper of Annals. In 1917, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and became a First Sergeant of Infantry receiving his honorable discharge in 1918 as a veteran of World War I.

In l921 Brother French entered the employ of the W. S. Quimby Company (now the LaTouraine Coffee Company) as manager of credits and collections, a position he held for over forty years. Active in credit work throughout the New England area, he had for many years served as a director of the New England Association of Credit Executive and was a corporator of the Boston Penny Savings Bank.

He married Ruth Washburn Jenkins on November 28, 1925, who survives him, together with a son, Carroll Bean French; a daughter, Betty Ruth French; a grandson, Keith Allan French, and a granddaughter, Cynthia Ruth French. He is also survived by a brother, Elmer Clayton French, and a sister, Mrs. James T. Brown.

Brother French was a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts. In former years he served as soloist and Sunday School teacher in the First Church of Christ Scientist in Lynn, Massachusetts.

He was raised a Master Mason in Golden Fleece Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Lynn, on July 2, 1929, and was its Worshipful Master in 1942-43. He has been its Treasurer since 1949. He was exalted in Sutton Royal Arch Chapter of Lynn in March 1957; greeted in Zebulun Council, R. & S. M., of Lynn, in June 1957 and knighted in St. Bernard Commandery No. 12 at Boston, Massachusetts, in January 1958. He was District Deputy Grand Master of the Lynn Eighth Masonic District in 1955-56 and Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1962. He was awarded the Henry Price Medal for distinguished service in March, 1962 by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He was Chairman of the Committees on Library and Museum.

Other Masonic affiliations include: Member of Aleppo Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S.; member of Massachusetts College Societas Rosicruciana; Past President North Shore Past Masters' Association; and Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of South Australia near the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

In Scottish Rite, Brother French became a member of the four bodies in the Valley of Boston in 1943, serving as Sovereign Prince of Giles Fonda Yates Council of Princes of Jerusalem from 1956 to 1959. He was created a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, Honorary Member of the Supreme Council at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 24, 7958. On September 27, 1962, he was crowned an Active Member of the Supreme Council at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Funeral services were conducted at the Parker Memorial in Lynn by Mrs. Muriel L. Irish, Christian Science Reader, on Tuesday, May 7th, at 2.00 p.m. Interment was in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn. The services were attended by a host of friends and Masonic dignitaries. Grand Lodge was represented by its Acting Grand Master, R.W. Donald W. Vose. Truly it can be said that here was a man cut down "in the midst of his usefulness".

Fraternally submitted,
Laurence E. Eaton
Fred W. Mellon
Raymond E. Smith
Committee

SPEECHES

FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1961

From Proceedings, Page 1961-238:

Most Worshipful Grand Master, Distinguished Guests and Brethren:

When some few weeks ago our Grand Master asked me if I would like to perform a task for the Grand Lodge, I was greatly surprised but answered, "Yes, if it is something I am able to do." When he went on and elaborated what he had in mind, I was bewildered and scared. And now some weeks later, I am still bewildered and scared.

I began to ask myself why? Why? It is certain that the credit side of my Masonic ledger cannot possibly show the qualifications that would recommend me for this prominent office, and then there came to me two lines of a very famous poem I am sure you will all recognize, and with poetic license, I have purposely changed one word. It goes something like this:

"Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do or die."

And Brethren, I am determined so to do.

Just one serious thought. It is not new. It has been voiced many times in recent years and will be repeated many times in days ahead. The world needs Masonry, its principles and its teachings today more than it has ever needed them before. Many thinking people are terribly disturbed. We live in times of hectic crises, one after another, times of rapid and far-reaching changes in material values and seemingly in moral values.

When our homes lie some forty minutes from the launching of intercontinental missiles, when man orbits the earth in a matter of hours, when those who are sworn to maintain order and uphold our laws themselves frequently violate those laws and then have their actions condoned by individuals in high places as something perfectly normal and proper, 1 say to you that the world needs Masonry.

We need to cling tenaciously to those steadying influences and principles that have come down to us unchanged, constant through the centuries, principles which anchor us to the Volume of the Sacred Law and to the Golden Rule.

Most Worshipful Grand Master, I know not the full extent of duties this office will require of me, but I am keenly aware of, and deeply grateful for, the honor you have accorded me, for the privilege of actively serving our Grand Lodge, and for the apparent confidence in my poor abilities that your appointment indicates.

I would like to leave with you a few lines written by John Greenleaf Whittier. They have impressed me deeply and I think point up the attitude that I take upon entering what to me is a great and important undertaking.

"But what avail inadequate words to reach
The innermost of truth? Who shall essay,
Blinded and weak, to point and lead the way,
Or solve the mystery in familiar speech?
Yet, if it be that something not thine own,
Some shadow of the thought to which our plans,
Creeds, cult and ritual are at best but dreams,
Is even to thy unworthiness made known,
Thou mayest not hide what yet thou shouldst not dare
To utter lightly, lest on lips of thine
The real seem false, the beauty undivine.
So, weighing duty in the scale of prayer,
Give what seems given thee. It may prove a seed
Of goodness dropped in fallow ground of need.

Thank you, Brethren.


Distinguished Brothers