Episode 38. Donald Severson (Grand Master 1978-1979)

We visit with the Masonic Legend, Donald Severson

Transcript

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Hi everyone. Welcome back. This is Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries. My name is Reed Endersby joined by my esteemed colleague, John Schweitz. Hello. Esteemed. I like that. Speaking of esteemed, we are speaking of history, history. Oh, we got history, man. Oh, man. Are we honored to be joined by most worshipful brother, Don Severson. How are you, sir? I'm fine, sir. And how are you doing? Well, it's great to see you. I'm a great fan of Harry Truman. Are you? Yes. When people ask you how you are. They don't want to hear about your gallbladder. They don't want to hear about your mother in law. They don't want to hear about your They want you to lie. And what was Harry's take proper response is, I'm fine, sir, and how are you? I'm fine, sir, and how are you? There you go. Introduce that to civility school. I think that's a good call. I love that. I'm fine, sir, how are you? What if it's a lady? I'm fine ma'am, but if they're of a certain age, you might want to go with I'm fine miss. Yes. Yeah. I had a hard time with that out of the military. Ma'am was not meant to infer someone was old, but you say ma'am to someone who's under 50. That's not, no, it does not go over well. I had a problem with that for a while. I kept telling these women, sir. Oh, well, you know, nowadays you just never know. Yeah. Yeah. And once I caught on, it was ma'am. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Oh, ma'am. So the reason we have the Donald on today, we like to call him the original Donald, is, this is back by popular demand. Don was a, uh, guest on the podcast, many moons ago. One of our original guests on the, uh, Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries podcast. we had an opportunity to connect with Don and he is, in the process of touring the Masonic home, inspired by the interview that you did with, Beth Schroeder, as well as our conversation with our current Grandmaster, Foster Solem. Yes, Don and I have a very special relationship. I would consider him and Colonel letting. And maybe Chuck Dietz. My Masonic mentors if I were to put my Mount Rushmore of Masonic, influencers on a wall. It would be those three guys and my Grandpa Harry. Don raised me. Really? Yup. not many guys get raised by, uh, a past Grandmaster. But Don also, on the same night, raised me. Grandmaster Steve Johnson, the one who only served for a week as our grandmaster. But, I think Don's pretty proud of that event. And, uh, we love to look back, uh, Steve and I did the degrees together, went through the whole process and, uh, well, clearly our Masonic, success went different directions. But one of the things I love about when we, we do here is, uh, Talk about history, perspective, and memories. And we learn so much about each other and our guests when we do this and have these conversations. And for those of our listeners who may not, it'd be hard to think of anyone who may not know you, Don. However, we have a lot of non Masonic listeners who, who check us out from all over the place. And you are the current longest having served, uh, oldest living past grand master in the state of Minnesota. Yes. And what do you get with that? Well, with six bucks, you can get a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Okay, congratulations. That's great. Plus tax. I picked up Don this morning and we drove down here, he was talking about, uh, the first part that goes is the short term memory, but the long term memory still exists. Take us back, Don, to when you decided that you wanted to, uh, to become a Freemason. What was it that compelled you to take the degrees in the first place? Well, I had been a DMA, uh, and it wasn't until I was 16 that. I joined the DMLA, and it was a year and a half later I graduated from high school. So DMLA, very little activity. However, my father was the largest factor in my decision. In fact, he was the deciding factor. You and your brother are going to join. So you're going to join together. What year would this have been? 1959. Okay. And there were eight of us, and uh, of that group of eight who were raised that evening in June 26th, 1959. What lodge? Arcana Lodge. Oh, really? So you're original to 187? Yes. Okay. There is only one of us left. And that's you? That's me. We had an interesting fellow named Steve Gabrick. He was the carpenter foreman on the rebuilding of the lodge, following the fire in 57. And as you know, there is a certain device in the lodge room that's used in the raising ceremony. Sure. He kept asking, what are you going to do with, what is this thing? And he built it. Oh, no kidding. Really? That's crazy. And he was the first one to occupy it. Oh, that's pretty cool. So you have been obviously arcena the entire time. I know you've got multiple memberships in What, what's a, what's an early arcena memory that some of our, our listeners brother Masons may not have heard before? Well, one, the thing that, I like to think of is the arc is the early. leaders of Arcana Lodge. the master, the active members of the Blue Lodge line who impressed me to the point where I decided almost immediately that that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be one of those leaders. 1959, I said, in the following year, I was appointed to the Blue Lodge line. And I loved every minute of it. And when did you serve as Master? 1968. And Grand Master? 1978 and 1979. And remind me, who was it that appointed you to the Grand Lodge line? You know your, your history about as well as anybody I know, but Franklin Emmerich. Franklin Emmerich appointed you? Yes, and his Masonic father was Clyde Hegman. Okay. Wow. Those two brothers, most worshipful brothers. Can be given most credit for what we have today. It's known as the Masonic Cancer Center. You bet. They are legends. They did the original hard work to raise the money for the original hospital. Originally it was a hospice. Yup. They wanted to take care of Masons who were dying of cancer. Yup. Yup. It very rapidly developed into concept of a hospital, patient care, research, and education. And that was our first Masonic hospital. We recently had Dr. Douglas Yee on, who's the current, director of the Masonic Cancer Center. And, uh, we talked a little bit about Dr. BJ Kennedy. And, uh, I understand you were friends with Dr. B. J. Kennedy. Tell us a little bit about, your relationship with him. B. J. was known as the father of the subspecialty of oncology. He was, did some of the original research on testes cancer, which is a young man's disease. Yep. They went from a 90 percent fatality rate from testes cancer to a 90 percent recovery rate. And it's a young man's disease. Pretty remarkable, yeah. Very remarkable. Kennedy was a very amazing, well versed, medical doctor. Who, ironically, was taken from this world by Prostate cancer. No kidding. Can you believe that? No. And you, you served on the Masonic Cancer Center board for many, many years. 30 years. 30 years. That's before they had term limits. They did their best to get rid of me. so tell us, Donald, uh, going back through your years of Masonic history, let's take Franklin Emmerich and Clyde Hegman out of the mix. Who would you consider on your Mount Rushmore of people? Masons that you've admired over the years. Oh boy. Uh, names are a little tough, let me think. Uh, they were my mentors. They taught me the ritual. They, they worked with me to memorize the ritual. And I did. By the end of my term in the Blue Lies line, I had memorized the whole book. All the lectures. Back then, you got a new lecture every year. And you As the junior warden, you conferred the first degree, the senior warden did the second degree, and the master did the third degree. So let me ask you this. Maybe this will be easier. Who were the people that you encountered in your days that, uh, like, for example, who did you appoint to the Grand Lodge line? Ralph Hulkwood. And why Ralph? Well, he was a good friend, which is not a It's not a proper reason, but he was a very good friend. Okay. Uh, and I thought he could do the job. And who did Ralph, appoint? Jack Benson. We like to ask questions. With some regularity on, on this podcast and someone in your position, you have traveled, you have served in the highest office and everything in between Scottish Rite appendant bodies, but what's an outstanding memory for you of a Masonic travel? Maybe you went overseas where you had a communication that, what's on your top list? We, uh, every Grand Master in the world was invited to the Grand Lodge of New South Wales to dedicate a new building and conduct the Grand Lodge session. And Mickey and I went to Sydney. And it was a ten day trip Mickey was your wife, just so everybody knows. Yeah, her name was Margaret. Her father started calling her Mickey when she was a little girl. So we'll go with Mickey. She, she preferred Mickey. Okay. And, uh, she's gone. So you went to this dedication and all the grandmasters in the world were invited? And I was the third senior and they went by charters. Not that I was, I was only 49 years old. We had the oldest charter. There was the Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge of Scotland. And the Grand Lodge of Minnesota? Yes. Was the third oldest? Well, that's fascinating. 1858, I think. I think it was the same year the state became a state. And there were lodges chartered before that. Close to statehood, yes. So to be third in line in the queue in that had to be even a double honor. Well, I sat at the head table at the Grand Master. Wow. Of New South Wales. Very cool. They, uh, they had some very interesting degrees. They were different. I want to switch gears to, uh, when you served on the Masonic Cancer Center Fund Board. One of my favorite Don Severson stories is related to the, uh, the Cancer Research Building and the lettering of the building on the outside. The original lettering of the building was Masonic Cancer Research Building and it was a kind of a twin tower arrangement. And it's still there. It's still there. And they had the whole Masonic Cancer Research Building on one tower and the second tower adjacent was empty. And it was in 24 inch letters. We're not doing that. And I said, if you want the money, at the time it was 5 million. Yep. Yep. We're going to change that, well what do you mean, well, we're going to increase the size of the letters from 24 inches to 48 inches, so everybody will see it, and we're going to split it, Masonic Cancer Research Building, I know they can't see my, Masonic Cancer, one tower, Research Building on the second tower. And you can see it from 94. Yes, you can. Okay., It's part of my legacy. Among many things, that is one of, uh, I can, I can still remember the fellow, You remember the guy he's named from the university? He came to one of our board meetings. He was looking for money. They do that often. Yes. Uh, They had rooms and they had Hallways for 500, 000. You get your name on the door or whatever. It's for ten million dollars to get your name on the building. And I, and I turned to him and I said, is that figure negotiable? And he was all over me. I can't think of his name. He smoked a pipe. He didn't think I You didn't like that? Well, tell him what you did. I offered him five. This was, I'm speaking as an individual, I'm not speaking for the board. I said, would you do it for five million? And he said, sold it to you. And so the rest of the board said, okay, Stevenson, if you can't come up with the five million dollars, you're on the hook for it. Well, how about that? Mission accomplished. You got it done. Yeah, so we did 500, 000 a year for 10 years. Yeah, that was a, that was a transformational gift at the time. Yep. It was. Was probably the largest at the time. 5 million. Pretty impressive. Talk about the giver's heart. That's an unbelievable story. So, Don, let me ask you, uh, what is it about Mason Reed that you loved the most degree work. You love the degree work? Yes, I do. You're a Scottish Rite member. Yes. Is there a Scottish Rite degree that you have a particular fondness for? Not really. Okay. Uh, there's a lecture in the tenth degree that I like. Okay. Uh, thirty What is your favorite degree to perform? The third? Yes. Okay. King Solomon. King Solomon. I love it. And you still participate. I've, I've been in a couple of fellow craft degree at Arcana with you. And you were up in the Lodge education officer chair and still, still at it with that great group of brothers., So Arcana Lodge, you're very proud of where Arcana Lodge has evolved into over the last few years. Talk about those guys. There were some very special people. Justin Thompson. Billy Richards, John Wallach, Charlie Beekman, they brought that Lodge back to life. You bet they did. And the guy that really pulled it together was Justin. Justin's a pretty sharp guy. Yes, he is. I give him most of the credit. What I love is, is at Grand Lodge, I see those Arcana guys and they're, they're young, fun, You know, they love to have a good time. And, and they always invite this old 94 year old guy along to hang out with them. They don't drink too much. They drink just enough. I think they're just keeping up with everybody else. But they do, I mean, that, there is brotherly love going on there. Oh. And I just love how Big time, big time. Yeah, but they have an admiration for you that's pretty special. Uh, sometimes I wonder about that. What is that? Well, I mean, you're the Donald. You're the guy. When you give up and do When you get up and do the invocation or whatever role you're serving at the opening, it's It gets your attention. Yeah. The brothers of Arcana are so there with you and for you. And it's, it's very special. Oh, incidentally, they're going to do a ribbon cutting for the new elevator in October or September, maybe this fall. It's coming up. Yeah. Yeah. That was the time 20 years ago. And I, were writing the obituary for Arcana Lodge. Right. For starters, it's on the corner of Lowry and Central. So, that area has become a very, kind of a hot area for It's coming to life. It's coming to life. It's a pretty special place. Well, they've got, they've gotten into the philanthropic end of it big time. Or years ago, Arcana did very little. They got this Camp Bovee in Wisconsin. They go out there a couple, three times a year. Carpenters and electricians, plumbers. It's a blue collar lounge. Those guys know what they're doing. They have an association with, there's a neighborhood, I can't think of the name of it, but it's a social service group in Northeast Minneapolis that they work with. And they do a lot more now than they've ever done. And did you grow up in Northeast? Columbia Heights. Columbia Heights, okay. Is that where you went to high school? Yes. So you're, is that a Highlander? Is that what the Columbia Heights? No, it wasn't back then. What was it back then? It wasn't. They didn't have mascots back then? Well, that was before there were electricity. Yeah. The school colors used to be green and orange or green and gold. Oh, not anymore. You know why? The band never had uniforms. Really? Really. I played in a high school band. What did you play? I was a drummer. So you like to hang around musicians? Yes, I do. You know what, that's what they say. What, what, what are drummers like to do? They like to hang around musicians. Anyway. Oldest drummer joke in the book. uniform company that had a, they made a whole complete set of uniforms for 60 members and, and something happened, they couldn't pay for in the uniforms came back. So these blue and gold uniforms are bargain basement price. So they changed the school colors in Bathia. No kidding. Wow. Well, that was, serendipitous. I've got a whole bunch of friends that went to Columbia Heights High School. 47. That's when you graduated? These guys were about 40 years after that, but they're still good people. 40 years, really? So we're here with Don Severson, who was Grandmaster in 78? Yes. 1978. Incidentally, I've, since I hit 90, I am now Donald. Did I call you Don? My apologies, sir. You're Donald. How dare you. was Donnie. We're not doing that. No. No. Even if you asked us, I don't think we could do that. In the middle years, I was Don for long. Now you're Donald. You're Donald. When I hit 90, isn't that a little more distinguished? It's very distinguished. A little more it's always fun to get your, uh, voice on tape and, uh, remind everybody that we've got some pretty interesting historians among us. Some of them have lived more history than others. And I think that we're with one of the guys that's probably lived about as much history as anybody that we've encountered. Greatest of all time, Donald. Sixty five years. Sixty five years. Wow. And it was a pleasure to be here, thank you. Wonderful. And with that, off we go.