Fred Waters Faris

Fred Waters Faris was born on October 24, 1907, and went to school through the eighth grade. A carpenter by trade, he became a member of Journeyman Carpenters Local No. 22 in San Francisco. He married Eunice Fay Ashcraft on October 17, 1936, and they had a son, Terry Don, and a daughter, Dorenda Gail. A Presbyterian, he later served as an elder at Pacifica, California.

He received his degrees in Gray Lodge in 1944: the Entered Apprentice on May 8, the Fellowcraft on June 19, and the Master Mason degree on July 31. Appointed Junior Steward for 1945–1946, he served regularly up the line and was installed as the 80th Master on June 25, 1951, by Past Master K. E. Gaugler, aided by Past Master Bryan Funderburke, Sr., with music by the Eastern Star.

His work took him out of town for a few months during his term, and Senior Warden Roy S. Hall stepped in to carry the load. Brother Faris never forgot it: “without Roy I would probably have given up the whole thing – he took over for me and he will probably never know how very much I appreciate it.”

It was a year of quiet good works. When the lodge learned early in 1952 that a brother and his wife were living in an unfinished house, the officers and members bought the materials and spent a weekend ceiling it and adding a partition while the Secretary cooked their noon meal. Mrs. John Retzios gave the lodge an altar cloth embroidered with the square, compass and letter “G,” and J. Collier Hurley gave $100 as a memorial to J. M. Nagel. The lodge began collecting the additional $10 on the Master Mason degree for the endowment of the Masonic Home and School, joined Temple Lodge for a program by San Jacinto High School students with school board member Ewing Werlein as speaker, and received District Deputy Grand Master James H. Goettee in May.

Brother Faris was a Past Patron of Rothwell Chapter No. 669, Order of the Eastern Star, and was once a member of the Grotto. In his later years he spent his weekends building his own retirement home.