8J Sunday Gazette-Mail, February 13, 2011

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By Sara BusseStaff writer

Its roots are ancient, but thelocal members of the Order ofDeMolay for Boys think the or-ganization is totally modern.

Chapter “Dad” Bruce AlanWilson said they have boys fromSisssonville, George Washing-ton and Capitol high shools aswell as West Virginia State Uni-versity in the local chapter, andthey are looking to expand.

“In order to be in DeMolay, ayoung man must be between 12and 21, have a parent/guardian’sconsent, and be recommended bytwo DeMolays and one MasterMason. The only religious quali-fication is that he believe in aSupreme Being; most of our boysare at least nominally Christians,although in the larger cities we dofind some Jewish and Muslimboys, and out in (say) Californiaeven Buddhists. If an interestedboy doesn’t know any Masons orDeMolays, we can arrange intro-ductions,” Wilson explained.

The group meets at the Ma-sonic Temple building on HaleStreet in Charleston, but meet-ings are only a part of what theydo. Wilson described the group’sother activities.

“They do whatever they wantto, as long as it is safe, sane, andlegal,” Wilson said. “We do funthings like bowling and white-water rafting and paintball. Wedo community service, like workfor Habitat for Humanity. De-Molay is all about youth em-powerment; unlike some youthorganizations, we don’t have aprogram that the adults presentand put the boys through — theboys decide what they want to

do and how to do it. They alsoplan and execute fundraisers.”

There are several governingbodies for the group: DeMolay In-ternational (www.demolay.org)and Mountain State DeMolay As-sociation (www.wvdemolay.org).There’s a sister organization, TheRainbow Girls (gorainbow.org/home/home.taf). Wilson said whileit’s not too active, they, too, arepursuing new members.

Wilson recently described thebeginnings of the organization.

“DeMolay was founded in1919 in Kansas City, Mo., by aman called Frank Land. Mr. Landloved children, but he and hiswife never had them. He was aMason, and one of his lodgebrothers died, leaving a 14-year-old son. Land took the boy un-der his wing, and the kid broughtsome of his friends over, and theLands’ kitchen sort of became aplace for boys to hang out.

“The group got too big — andperhaps Mrs. Land got tired of

the boys eating cookies as fastas she could bake them! — sothey moved to the Masonic Tem-ple. Apparently, what with WWIon the one hand and KansasCity being a railroad town, therewere a lot of boys who eitherdidn’t have fathers, or whose fa-thers weren’t around much. (Youmust remember, the Boy Scoutswere just getting started in theU.S., and were still mostly anEast Coast organization; if theyhad gotten to Kansas City by

then, they weren’t very big.“This was before television, of

course, and even radio and themovies were in their infancy;one of the ways Land enter-tained the boys was by tellingthem stories. Land didn’t havemuch formal education — henever graduated high school —but he loved to read, and he toldthe boys stories from the Bible,from Greek and Roman andNorse mythology, from the KingArthur legends, from history.One story that the boys lovedwas that of Jacques DeMolay,the last Grand Master of theTemplars, who was condemnedto be burned at the stake in1314 rather than betray hisfriends. When they decided tomake their club more formal,they decided to take DeMolay astheir patron.

“One of Land’s lodge botherswas a journalist, and Land com-missioned him to write the rit-ual of the new order. The manprotested that one wanted apoet or a dramatist to do that,but Land averred that he didn’tknow any poets or dramatists,and the man was the only pro-fessional writer he did know.

“The ritual consists of two de-grees: the Initiatory Degree andthe DeMolay Degree. The former

teaches the Seven CardinalVirtues of a DeMolay: love offamily; respect for sacred things;courtesy; comradeship; fidelity;cleanness; and patriotism (rep-resented by the seven candles).The latter is a play or pageantabout the trial and death of De-Molay. The first degree has onlybeen changed a little since then— one or two phrases have hadto be updated; the latter hasbeen revised to tone down theanti-Catholic rhetoric of the orig-inal.

“Today, we have DeMolay inall 50 states, the District of Co-lumbia and Puerto Rico. It alsoexists in about a dozen foreigncountries; the ritual has been of-ficially translated into Spanish,French, German, Italian, Por-tuguese (DeMolay is big inBrazil), Turkish (no chapters inTurkey now, but did at onetime) and Japanese, and mayhave been unofficially translatedinto more.”

Wilson said the late SenatorRobert C. Byrd was a memberof DeMolay.

Inquiries about DeMolayshould be directed to Wilson atcapitoldemolay@gmail.com.

Reach Sara Busseat sara.busse@wvgazette.com

or 304-348-1249.

DeMolay for Boys has ancient roots, modern activities

Courtesy photo

Brett Elliott, Cody Walker (junior counsellor), Hunter Thaxton (senior counsellor), and Michael Scarbor-ough are part of DeMolay.

“DeMolay is all about youth empowerment; unlikesome youth organizations, we don’t have a programthat the adults present and put the boys through —the boys decide what they want to do and how to

do it. They also plan and execute fundraisers.”_______

BRUCE ALAN WILSONChapter “Dad”