Harry Joyce Green, Sr.

Harry Joyce Green, Sr., was born at Lockhart, Texas, on October 2, 1903, and moved to Houston about 1924. He was a bookkeeper for the Acme Radiator Shop and a member of the Christian Church.

He became a Mason in Gray Lodge in 1943, receiving the Entered Apprentice degree on February 8, the Fellowcraft on March 26, and the Master Mason degree on April 27. Appointed Junior Steward for 1943–1944, he served as Senior Steward and Senior Deacon, then was elected Junior Warden and Senior Warden. He was installed as the 77th Master in 1948 by Past Masters Roe E. Brewer and Bryan Funderburke, Sr., and Wm. H. Scott spoke that night on “A Mason’s Belief in God.”

The Houston Masonic Board of Relief reported itself in good condition, and the lodge asked each member to pay his share of the Grand Lodge’s extended assessment for the new Grand Lodge Temple, whose cornerstone was leveled at Waco on October 7, 1948. The lodge adopted a plan to redeem about $90,000 in Gray-Temple Masonic Corporation certificates at roughly $10,000 a year, paying needy holders first, then the heirs of deceased members, then the rest in numerical order. It approved the petition for the new Anson Jones Lodge, and new Grand Lodge rules required petitions to lie over two months instead of one.

Brother Coy Shows presented globes for the lesser lights, each with a square and compass glowing inside, and J. F. Kopriva gave a set of silver-plated jewels for the officers. District Deputy Grand Master Frank B. Bayer commended Gray as the only lodge in the 30th District with a CPA audit. Brother R. C. Taylor of Park Place Lodge gave the lodge a program from its Golden Anniversary celebration of January 27, 1921, and fifteen Past Masters attended Past Masters’ Night in May. The lodge mourned Past Masters Joe A. Hudson, who died October 7, 1948, and John Bertram, who died January 8, 1949.

Brother Green was a member of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, the Grotto and Arabia Temple. He was serving as Eminent Commander of Ruthven Commandery when he died on August 23, 1957. He was buried in Forest Park with Masonic rites by Gray Lodge and was survived by his widow.