Robert L. Uzzel, 32°, P.H.A.
7041 Sorcey Road, Dallas, Texas 75249

Brother Karl Menninger was a pioneer in proving that the mentally ill could be helped.

Photo: Menninger Foundation

Dr. Karl Augustus Menninger was an outstanding Freemason who was known to the general public as the "dean of American psychiatry" and "America's greatest living psychiatrist." However, his many friends, colleagues, and patients simply called him "Dr. Karl." Through his teaching, lectures, and writings, he was credited with doing more than anyone else to bring psychiatry out of the dark ages and to show that the mentally ill can be helped.1

Dr. Karl was born on July 22, 1893, in Topeka, Kansas. He attended Washburn College, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin before enrolling at the Harvard Medical School, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine cum laude in 1917. He held an internship in Kansas City, worked at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, and taught at Harvard Medical School before returning to his hometown in 1919. There, he played a major role in the opening of the Menninger Sanitarium and Clinic, dedicated to treatment and training in psychiatry. Eventually, the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry and Mental Health Sciences, a cooperative effort between the clinic and Topeka State Hospital, was established.2

During World War II, the mounting number of emotional casualties led to Dr. Karl's appointment as scientific consultant attached to the office of scientific research and development of the Adjutant General. In this capacity, he toured U.S. military operations in Europe, assessing the need for psychiatric care for military personnel. At the end of the war, he helped establish Winter Veterans Administration Hospital as a pilot hospital and psychiatric teaching center in Topeka.3

Dr. Karl served on the reorganization committee of the American Psychiatric Association in 1945 and was a founding member of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, the Central Neuropsychiatric Association, and the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education.4

Regarding his fraternal career, Dr. Karl was initiated as an Entered Apprentice Mason on March 27, 1918, passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft on May 1, 1918, and raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason on June 21, 1918, in Topeka Lodge No. 17.5 He was a life member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge No. 385 in Independence, Missouri.6 At the 1968 Grand Aerie Convention in Houston, Texas, the Eagles presented him with the Good Samaritan Award and a $25,000 grant from the Jimmy Durante Fund.7 He was also a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Associates.8

Dr. Karl well expressed his philosophy of treatment in his testimony before the Congressional Judiciary Committee on June 3, 1971. Referring to 1948, he said: "We began to take a different, revolutionary position about mental illness. We said: These are not hopeless cases. . . . We should try to change these patients and send them home. They belong on the farm, or wherever they were; they do not belong here in the back wards of this hospital. So we set about to change it. . . . All across the nation we changed the state hospitals from snake pits to reputable places of treatment and healing."9

Dr. Karl received many professional awards over the years and was honored by President Jimmy Carter with the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. The award described him as "an acute observer and social critic" who had "put into action what he put onto paper."10 In 1979, when the Wilson Memorial Window of the Healing Arts at the National Cathedral was dedicated, this window contained his representation.11

Dr. Karl's long and productive life came to an end at Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center in Topeka on July 18, 1990.12 Funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian Church of Topeka on Saturday July 21, the day before his 97th birthday, with about 850 people in attendance.13 His pastor, Rev. W. James Richards, presented the following words of comfort: "If anything can be said about the Menninger era in psychiatry . . . it is that it has ushered in a new day of hope for those who were otherwise sealed in prisons of darkness. . . . Dr. Karl had great impatience with injustice wherever he saw it: in state hospitals and in international politics. And he spoke up. . . . I received a packet of reading material about once a week from Dr. Karl. Things he had read, which he believed his pastor should be reading. Underlined and marginally noted and emphasized. . . . Probably there is no one here who doesn't have a story to tell about this colorful man who grew up, lived and died among us and who cared so passionately about so much. . . . So it is with thanksgiving that we come to this place . . . to celebrate the lives of those who die in the faith, and therefore, thanksgiving for the life of Karl A. Menninger and for the fact that he is not only alive now in another part of God's kingdom, but whole again."14 Burial was in Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka.15

No doubt Masonic principles greatly influenced the life and work of this famous psychiatrist. As Freemasons, we should feel proud that we can claim him as one of our own.

Footnotes

1. "Karl Menninger Dead at 96 - 7/19/90," http://cjonline.com/community/menninger/archive/com_menningerobit071990.shtml, 1.

2. Ibid., 2.

3. Ibid., 3.

4. Ibid., 4.

5. Nancy Johnston, Staff Member, Grand Lodge of Kansas, A.F&A.M. Personal interview, August 21, 2002.

6. Pete Ehrmann, Editor of Eagle Magazine. Personal interview, October 6, 2002. The Independence, Missouri, Lodge's most famous member was President Harry S. Truman, Past Grand Master of Masons in Missouri, who often stated that the Eagles were his type of organization-one founded by and for the common man; see "People Helping People: The History of the Eagles," http//www.foe.com/ history.html, 2.

7. "The Houston Story," Eagle Magazine, August-September 1968, 1-4.

8. Karl A. Menninger, The Crime of Punishment (New York: Viking Press, 1968), 197. The Fraternal Order of Police Associates is "an organization formed for the purpose of increasing our understanding of the rights, duties and problems of law enforcement officers; of fostering respect for them; and of bettering conditions under which they serve society"; see "Fraternal Order of Police Associates," http://www.grandlodgefop.org/associates/index.html, 1.

9. Lucy Freeman, ed., Karl Menninger, M.D.: Sparks (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1973), 223-24.

10. "Karl Menninger Dead at 96 - 7/19/90," 4.

11. Ibid., 5.

12. Ibid., 1.

13. Vickie Griffith Hawver, "Mourners Gather to Remember Dr. Karl - 7/22/90," http://www.cjonline.com/community/menninger/archive/com_karldeath072290.shtml, 1.

14. Ibid., 2.

15"Karl Menninger Dead at 96 - 7/19/90," 1.

Robert L. Uzzel is a member of Goodwill Lodge No. 313, P.H.A.; Ferris, Texas; Dale Consistory No. 31, Dallas, and Zakat Temple No. 164, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Dallas. A Fellow and Director of Public Communication for the Phylaxis Society, he holds a Ph.D. (1995) from Baylor University in World Religions, serves as Associate Director of Adult and Continuing Education at Paul Quinn College, Dallas, and pastors Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ennis, Texas. He is a member of the Scottish Rite Research Society and the Philalethes Society. Recently, Eakin Press, Austin, published Blind Lemon Jefferson, His Life, His Death, His Legacy, Bro. Uzzel's biography of the famous blues performer. In February 2003, Dr. Uzzel was made a member of the Society of Blue Friars. Limited to 20 members, this group, founded in 1932, honors authors and editors who have distinguished themselves in Masonic publication.