‘Robert H. Jackson birthday’

Robert H. Jackson receives the jewel of the 33°, 1941.

    

Happy anniversary to Justice Robert H. Jackson Lodge of Study and Research, set to labor on this date thirty years ago.

There are four research lodges here in New York State, two of which are active year round, but two that are kind of mysterious. The ALR and Western New York Lodge of Research are the busy ones, but Justice Jackson is one of the others. Its meeting place is Mount Moriah Lodge 145 way up in Jamestown.

In his book Masonic Research Lodges, Bodies, and Societies, Ken Stuczynski writes: “The lodge has between 50 and 60 members, with annual dues of $15. There are no corresponding or honorary members.”

The lodge meets “a few times a year,” including its annual meeting on the second Friday in May, and a festive board every year for George Washington’s birthday, he adds.

Robert Houghwout Jackson (1892-1954) was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when he died at age 62, having advanced  through prominent federal positions during the administrations of President Franklin Roosevelt, including stints as Solicitor General followed by Attorney General of the United States. After the Second World War, President Harry Truman sent him to Nuremberg to serve as Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal.

In Freemasonry, he was at labor in Mt. Moriah 145, having been raised in 1929. Scottish Rite in New York sparingly awards its Illustrious Robert H. Jackson, 33° Award for Community Service, an honor it devised in 2004.

There is a lot more to his life story. He certainly is one of those figures in Masonic history who illustrates how little you’ve accomplished in life. I wish his namesake research lodge was more functional.