Senior Grand Warden Richard Rhoda
R.W. Bro. Rhoda was raised in Monument Lodge No. 96, Houlton, on January 27, 1965. He was brought to Masonry by his father, Bro. Leslie R. Rhoda. He served his lodge as Master in 1977, 1989, 2007 and 2008 and now serves as historian and is on the Building Association Committee. He is a Past President of the Masters and Wardens Association of the First Masonic District.
Thirty-three years ago he served as Grand Junior Deacon for two years at the request of M.W. Bro. Roger P. Snelling. He was appointed Judge Advocate and also the first Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Russia by M.W. Bro. Walter M. Macdougall in 1996, positions he still retains. In 2006 he was appointed Grand Historian by M.W. Bro. Gerald S. Leighton.
In 1998 he was awarded the Josiah Hayden Drummond Medal for service to Freemasonry by M.W. Bro. Macdougall.
As Grand Historian from 2007 to 2011, Dick helped the 185 Maine lodges catch up 425 years of delinquent histories and for the first time since 1860, all lodges are current.
Bro. Dick’s commitment to new avenues of thought and action for Freemasonry has been amply demonstrated over the years. In 1994 he compiled a Lodge of Sorrow Ritual which was exemplified at Grand Lodge the following year. In 1997 he was the Grand Lodge spokesperson for the Catholic-Masonic Dialogue Committee requested by Bishop Joseph Gerry of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Portland. In 1999 he was the chief promoter for the George Washington Maine Masonic Monument. In 2010 he helped develop and implement a “Chamber of Reflection” to better prepare a candidate before taking his E.A.°.
He was a charter member of The Maine Lodge of Research in 1979, serving as Master in 1997 and receiving Bishop Joseph at a semi-public meeting on religious toleration. He served again as Master in 2008 when the lodge received a Mark Twain Award for its year long study of Mozart and “The Magic Flute”.
He belongs to all the York Rite and Scottish Rite Bodies and is a member of Anah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He served as Most Wise Master of the Bangor Chapter of Rose Croix from 1987 to 1989 and was coronated a 33° Scottish Rite Mason in 1991.
Bro. Dick became a charter member of Pacific Rim Lodge No. 12 of the Grand Lodge of Russia in 2000 and Seminary Hill Day Light Lodge No. 220 in 2010. He is an honorary member of African Lodge No. 459.
Dick married the former Cecilia Beaulieu of Madawaska on June 24, 1972. They are the proud parents of two sons, Leslie R. Rhoda, II and Daniel Patick Rhoda. He is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and has practiced law in Houlton since 1972. He also graduated from the University of Maine in Orono in 1965 and attended the University of Vienna in 1964.
Dick is a past president of the Houlton Rotary Club, Past Dad Advisor of the Houlton Chapter of DeMolay and past chairman of First Baptist Church Board of Deacons. He is a frequent contributor to the Houlton Pioneer Times and The Maine Mason.
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