PA DeMolay Honors 2018

Once a year, we are given the chance to recognize the people who work hard for our great youth  organization, both our youth and adult leaders. This year at the annual DeMolay International Sessions held in Alexandria, Virginia, several deserving members and Advisors were designated to be named a Chevalier, a Cross of Honor, or a Legion of Honor recipient.

The Chevalier is the highest honor that an Active DeMolay can receive. Although a Senior DeMolay can also receive the Chevalier, all of the recipients for Pennsylvania are in fact Active members, or were at the time of submission. The 2018 Chevalier recipients are:

Alejandro Rodriguez - Allentown

Dimas Rodriguez - Allentown

Aidan Patterson - Carlisle

Andrew Santilli - Chester Pike

Sean Summerfield - Chester Pike

Kody Anderson - Elizabethtown

Brandon Whited - Northeast

A.J. Lee - Susquehanna

Mitchell Holmes - Templar

Dylan Kirk - Westmoreland

David Smith - Westmoreland

The Cross of Honor is an honor that is specifically given for outstanding service as an Advisor of a DeMolay Chapter. All of the recipients are currently serving for a Chapter, and we thank them for their hard work. The 2018 Cross of Honor recipients are:

James Kline - Carlisle

Michelle Martin - Carlisle

Brett Otto - Carlisle

Beth Haney - Chester Pike

Theresa Crawford - Elizabethtown

Kristine Spence - Elizabethtown

Scott Gilligan - Northeast 

Alexander Swift - Northeast

W. Thomas Moyer - Pilgrim

Michael Bell - Reading

Matthew Blaisdell - Riverside

Angie Chappell - Riverside

Mark Johnston - Templar

Robyn Smith - Westmoreland

The Legion of Honor is the highest honor conferred by DeMolay International. The Active Legion of Honor is given to a Senior DeMolay for continued service to DeMolay or outstanding overall leadership. The Honorary Legion of Honor is given to a Mason for meritorious service on behalf of the Order. The 2018 Active and Honorary Legion of Honor recipients are:

Active

Arthur Bartholomew - Chester Pike

Ronald Carson - Elizabethtown

Friendship-Bray - Jeffrey Green

Robert Smith - George Washington

John Dominicis - Personal Nomination

H. William Moyer - Reading

David Matheny - Westmoreland

Honorary

John Cook - Carlisle

Dennis Stuckey - Elizabethtown

Leonard Juliani - Northeast

Irwin Kohler - Personal Nomination

George March - Personal Nomination

David Auchey - Pilgrim

Bruce Neubauer - Westmoreland

Congratulations to all of this year's recipients! 

Until next time - "Dad" Joe Pullin

The Temporal Value of a Memory

Earlier this week, I received an email that is not all that uncommon. In it, a gentleman was inquiring as to the value of some of DeMolay Merit Bars that had belonged to one of his family members. The man had fallen on hard times and was hoping that it might have some value that could help him with his situation. Sadly, Merit Bars don't have much of an after market, so I had to break it to him that the piece he had didn't have much worldly value.

However, in his email, the man discussed the history of the set of Merit Bars; how it had belonged to an important family member and it had become an heirloom to himself and his children. It was obvious that the thought of parting with the piece to help his situation was tough on him. Fortunately (at least in one way) the value of the piece to he and his family far, far outweighed the value of resale. Thankfully, the bars will stay with him and be passed down to the next generation of his family.

This story brings up a good point. What is the value of the regalia that we obtain? Sometimes, it can be quite valuable monetarily, being composed of precious metals or precious stones. More often, it is simply an outward display of our dedication, rendered in metal with enamel and made to look quite impressive. The regalia has value, not because it's worth money, but rather because it represents the hard work, time, and effort that went into earning it. The medallion and cordon of a Chevalier or a Legionnaire are pretty much nil in terms of metal and materials. But, the sentimental value they retain is priceless for nearly every recipient.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we'd like to thank all of those who have labored on behalf of DeMolay and may have earned an honor or award. In that same vein, we hope that those who have received awards and honors are thankful - not for the physical emblem they have received, but rather for the experiences they've passed through to earn it.

In the words of our motto for our 90th Anniversary - "It's not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage that you leave behind."

Frat! ~ "Dad" Seth Anthony

Finding the Founder's Cross

Here we are at Day 3 of Blog Week, and this is a doozy.

This post has been in the works for several months and I'm excited to be able to share it with you. I also hope that all of you out there in DeMolayland can help me with this project. It's something I've become quite passionate about and I hope to be able to complete in the years to come (yes, I said years; it's that big of a project!)

Previously, on this very blog, we've talked about the Founder's Cross. For those that may not know what a Founder's Cross is, we'll take the description from the 9th Edition DeMolay Handbook for our starting point:

The Founder's Cross is the most prized and highest distinction that could possibly come to anyone connected with the DeMolay movement.

The award is not a Supreme Council honor but was a personal recognition by the late Dad Land of those whom he desired to honor for their personal, consistent and conspicuous loyalty and service to him in making the Order of DeMolay the greatest youth movement of its kind in the world.

The award was established in June, 1937, and only 135 were presented up to Dad Land's death on Nov. 8, 1959. The Founder's Cross is now officially retired.

It was with that tiny block of text and a failed eBay auction, that my journey began. Over the course of my years with PA DeMolay, I've worked to recover and locate a couple of Founder's Crosses (with little success, sadly.) Knowing of my passion for this subject, "Dad" Labagh swung by the DeMolay International Service and Leadership Center in Kansas City, MO, during his last visit. He went on a hunt for information relating to this honor. With the help of Dad Frank Nordstrom, Director of Education for DI, he located a file full of typewritten papers, detailing the known recipients of the Founder's Cross.

These documents contained more information than has ever been publicly available about the Founder's Cross and the men whom Dad Land chose to honor. I devoured this information and quickly began digitizing it, putting it into a spreadsheet so that I could get a better grasp on what I was working with. The first thing I immediately noticed was the number of awards - 137. As stated above, it was thought that Land gave out 135 during his life. However, we now know that the final tally was 137. This breakthrough would be the first of many.

After digitizing the data, I began researching every person listed. Some were easy to find, as they were very prominent citizens. Others, however, have remained highly elusive. Several names only contained initials and a last name, along with a city of residence, making tracking very difficult. I persisted, eventually researching every person on the list. Now, my attention turned towards verifying what I had found and locating as many of the jewels as possible, in an effort to prevent them from coming up on the auction block or being lost to history.

With my initial investigations complete, I wrote a letter to every Executive Officer from a Jurisdiction wherein a Founder's Cross was presented, asking them to help me reconcile the information and locate the jewels. Several responded, sometimes with corrections, sometimes with more information, and in a few cases, with the locations of the jewels.

Speaking of which, the jewels themselves have turned out to contain some interesting historical nuggets as well. While at DeMolay International, "Dad" Labagh discovered a Founder's Cross jewel in the file with the documents. It was supposed to have been presented to William B. Massey, of Missouri. Massey was an involved Scottish Rite Mason and served as the Sovereign Grand Inspector General for Missouri, which is probably how Land knew him so well. The interesting part, however, is that the jewel designated to go to Massey contains the 1949 DeMolay emblem (the one we use today.) All previously known versions of the jewels used the logo from the 1930's. This indicates to us that Land had at least two "strikings" of the jewels done, one prior to 1949, and one after.

With all of this research done, I'm now turning to you, the general DeMolay public, to help me with my research and hopefully locate more of these pieces of history. If you'd like to help, or if you'd like to view the data, you can click here to download a .pdf copy of my master spreadsheet.

If you can offer any more information, such as the location of a jewel, or biographical details of a recipient, please email me at webmaster@pademolay.org. Together, we can work to restore a piece of DeMolay's history for future generations.
Frat! ~ "Dad" Seth Anthony

A Different Kind of Legion of Honor

DeMolay International met over this past weekend, with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with the annual meeting of a national organization. One piece of business that the organization must transact each year is the approval of nominations for DeMolay honors. This includes the Chevalier, Cross of Honor, and the Legion of Honor. PA DeMolay was pleased to have all of our Honors approved and a complete list will appear on the PA DeMolay website in the next day or so. However, the timing was fortuitous, as we recently came into possession of an interesting piece of regalia.

The Legion of Honor is most recognizable for its Red and White Cordons, from which is suspended the jewel of a Legionnaire. Anyone who has been around DeMolay, for even a brief period of time, will probably have seen these honors being worn by deserving men. But, there was a time, when innovations in regalia weren't all that uncommon. Enter the Legion of Honor breast jewel.

This jewel, purchased at auction, has a pin back, for affixing to a jacket or other garment. The Ribbon is white, being suspended from a top bar that says "Honorary." The Legion of Honor medallion that hangs from it is significantly smaller than the one comes on the cordons; it measures only two inches from top to bottom. The medal itself also says "Honorary DeMolay Legion of Honor," telling us that the drop was designed specifically for this award. These jewels are somewhat rare, with only a handful being held in collections across the Country (and in Brazil.) We're not entirely sure why these jewels were made or who distributed them (we presume that DeMolay International did) but it is an interesting addition to our collections.

While we are the subject of jewels and honors, we took some time to produce some high quality, high resolution images of some other DeMolay Honors and Awards, which you'll find below. You are welcome to use them in your publications and for promotional purposes. As always, you can click the image for a larger version.

Frat! ~ "Dad" Seth Anthony