William James Coulson, Jr.

William James Coulson, Jr., was born in Houston on May 4, 1913. He received his degrees in Gray Lodge: the Entered Apprentice on October 6, 1939, the Fellowcraft on November 22, 1939, and the Master Mason degree on April 1, 1940. He was Senior Steward in 1940–1941 and Senior Deacon in 1941–1942, then served in turn as Junior Warden and Senior Warden. He was installed as the 73rd Master in 1944 by Past Master Bryan Funderburke, Sr., with Past Master Tom Sawyer as Marshal, and Frank Willford, Jr., spoke that night on Masonry’s part in education in early Texas.

The last year of the war brought a surge of new Masons. With so much degree work, called meetings were moved an hour earlier. Brother Gus E. Roesler was thanked for refinishing the gavels of the several stations and for building a frame to hold additional portraits of the Past Masters. In August 1944 a group of Master Masons applied to form a lodge that would meet in the daytime, which became Daylight Lodge No. 1288, and the Grand Lodge simplified its balloting procedure so that a separate ballot for advancement was no longer required.

The property of the Humphrey Benevolent Fund was sold and the proceeds placed in government bonds. On March 1, 1945, the Grand Master spoke to the Masons of the 30th District at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on their duty to brethren in military service and on helping them readjust when they came home. The lodge placed a marker on the grave of Mrs. W. R. Tuttle, a ward of Gray Lodge who had died at the Home for Aged Masons.

On May 16, 1945, the lodge created a sinking fund, starting with $10,000 and its government bonds, to retire the Building Certificates of the Gray-Temple Masonic Corporation, with strict safeguards on any withdrawal. The war in Europe had ended on May 8, and the year closed with the hope of peace in sight.