As the top Mason in the state of Florida, Donald ‘Don’ Cowart of Valrico travels a lot, but it was his backyard visit in June that held a special meaning for the 1969 Brandon High School graduate, who in 2006 joined Brandon Masonic Lodge No. 114.
That was 28 years after Cowart first became a Mason, having joined the Temple Terrace Lodge in 1978. On June 13, 100 years to the day the Brandon Lodge was first dedicated, Cowart, as the Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Florida, participated in the 100-year reconsecration and rededication ceremony, at 203 Moon Ave. in Brandon.
“We’re celebrating Freemasonry, and this lodge that is near and dear to my heart,” Cowart said. “The way I explain it, this country was founded on Freemasonry principles, including charity, faith and hope.”
He noted that 14 United States presidents were Freemasons, including George Washington, who, according to the Museum of Freemasonry, joined the Alexandria, Virginia, lodge as a 20-year-old in 1782, and later laid the cornerstone of the Capitol Building in Washington in a Masonic ceremony.
Jeremy Bernstein of FishHawk, at the June 13 ceremony in Brandon, said he joined the Brandon Lodge after moving to Florida from New York, and that his sons later joined him. Bernstein said he became a Mason “just to belong to something bigger than myself.”
“After being in Freemasonry long enough, it became about the brotherhood, and then it became about bettering myself,” Bernstein said. “Through allegory and symbols, we give men the tools they need to try to improve themselves.”
Cory Jones of Riverview is the Brandon Lodge’s Worshipful Master, a position that 120 Masons before him have held, including Cowart in 2013. Cowart is the state’s first Grand Master from Brandon, reportedly home to the state’s third-largest Masonic lodge, with 386 members. Jones said he became a Mason in 2011 after talking to his boss, a Mason, on and off for several years.
“I was seeking something for self-improvement, and I decided to take a shot at it,” Jones said. There is a misconception “that we’re some type of a secret society, but we are not,” Jones added. “We’re just a society with some secrets, no different than any person or business with secrets. Our main goal through our instruction and teaching is to give men the tools they need to make themselves better.”
For more information, visit www.brandonlodge.org or email secretary@brandonlodge.org.
