W. Howard Coop, 32°

President Teddy Roosevelt became a Master Mason the same year he took the oath of office as President of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt visited a Masonic lodge in Spokane, Washington in 1912 (right) and the Scottish Rite Temple in Little Rock, Arkansas (below). He was an strong supporter of the fraternity up until his death in 1919. Photos from Valley of the Craftsman, Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America’s Southern Jurisdiction, 1801–2001

Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office and became the twenty-sixth president of the United States on September 14, 1901, following the assassination of President William McKinley. In that same year, he was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason in Matinecock Lodge No. 806 in Oyster Bay, New York. During the years of his presidency Brother Roosevelt was active in Masonic affairs and an ardent supporter of Masonic activities.

It has been reported that John Morley, English statesman and man of letters, visited the United States during the early years of the twentieth century when Theodore Roosevelt was President of this country. After finishing the visit and returning to England, Morley wrote, “I saw two tremendous forces of nature while I was in the New World—one was Niagara Falls and the other was the President of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt. And I am not sure which was the more powerful.” What a tribute to a man!

With poor health during his childhood years, it has been written that Roosevelt’s “determination to rebuild his strength later had a marked effect on his character.” According to the biographical information about him, he was a man of great achievement. Roosevelt, whose policy was to “walk softly and carry a big stick,” has been characterized as “one of the most energetic men who ever lived.…”

Attitude, I believe, is the key to the accomplishment of this energetic man. That attitude was made clear in his own words: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Accomplishment, in any area of life, is not the result of playing it safe and living in “the gray twilight” where almost everything is safe and secure. It comes as the result of willingness to live in the real world and to take risks that require action when duty demands it. All of my life I have heard the old adage that says, “A man doesn’t know what strength he has until he has to use it.”

W. Howard Coop is a retired United Methodist Minister, a 53-year Mason, a Past Master and present Chaplain of Lancaster Lodge No. 104, Lancaster, Kentucky, and a member of the Louisville, Kentucky, Scottish Rite Bodies since 1956. He is also a member of W. R. Selby, Chapter No. 4, Danville, Kentucky. Contacts: 111 Dogwood Drive, Lancaster, KY 40444; hkcoop@aol.com, and www.hometown.aol.com/hkcoop.