Requiescat in Pace, Frater

The House of the Temple has been used for a lot of things over the years–a tomb of sorts (there are two past Grand Commanders buried in the building), a house (one of those same GC’s lived there and his claw-foot tub is still intact), and of course its primary purpose, as a place for meetings and gatherings and Supreme Council business of all sorts.

This week it held a new purpose which, as far as I heard, was a first: that of a funeral site.

Last weekend the former Grand Commander, C. Fred Kleinknecht, passed away. He was the GC for 18 years–an awfully long time by just about any standards–and had an abundance of familial and personal connections and influence to the Scottish Rite as a general organization and to the House of the Temple in particular. Accordingly, his family requested his funeral be held at the Temple.

All of us on staff attended the funeral. There was a good deal of hasty preparations being made up until the day of–I mean, can you imagine if suddenly it was part of your job to create a proper funeral? There were of course hired funeral directors, but we printed the leaflets and handled the food afterward and all the small details that made it a smooth event.

It is a rather strange feeling, to attend a funeral for someone you did not know, especially at work. But it was beautifully done, with lots of moving and sincere speeches from those who knew Mr. Kleinknecht, and made me sorry I had not known him. Mr. Seale, the current Grand Commander, gave a particularly good speech which ended with a very brief poem and which left me in tears.

Mr. Kleinknecht’s full obituary is here: http://scottishrite.org/2011/12/ill-c-fred-kleinknecht-33%C2%B0-february-141924-december-1-2011/

You should take a moment to read it, both for the nice story of it, but also for an example of the very traditional ways Masons treat important events–the language and so on. 

I have just a couple more days left with Masons…what an interesting semester this has been!