Guy Everett Stoy

Guy Everett Stoy was born in Somervell County, Texas, on November 2, 1884. He was a builders supply dealer when he received his degrees in Gray Lodge in 1920: the Entered Apprentice on July 29, the Fellowcraft on September 7, and the Master Mason degree on October 8. He served as Senior Steward and Junior and Senior Deacon and was elected Senior Warden in 1929.

Past Master Horace L. Walling installed him as the 59th Master in 1930, with Past Master M. S. Kerby as Marshal and music by the Lions Glee Club. He led the lodge in the first full year of the Great Depression. Houston was still building and passed Dallas and San Antonio in the 1930 census to become the largest city in Texas, but unemployment was spreading, and Gray Lodge faced its own heavy building debt along with the greater difficulties of Temple Lodge No. 4.

Worshipful Master Stoy turned the lodge’s attention to its heritage. He read extracts from the minutes of 1870 and 1871 to the Brethren, and Past Master Fred J. Burkey recalled Houston Masonry of years past, including the building of the Girls School at Bellaire. The 1931 Washington Celebration featured a playlet, “Fireside at Mount Vernon,” with Past Master Norman Atkinson as George Washington and an address by Past Master John H. Crooker. At the Past Masters’ Evening, the Past Masters talked Brother Crooker into closing the lodge; he had not closed a Master’s lodge in some fifteen years but did so “in due and ancient form.” Gray Lodge also traveled to Murchison Lodge No. 80 at Hallettsville to confer a robed degree.

Grand Master James W. McClendon visited in May 1931. At Lambskin Apron Night the Master introduced a scroll listing the Brethren with the oldest dates on their aprons, headed by Past Master J. F. Massey, raised in 1896. In 1932, as a Past Master, Brother Stoy helped propose replacing the lodge’s special building assessment with simple annual dues.

He was a member of Washington Chapter No. 2, R.A.M., and Houston Council No. 1, R.&S.M. He spent his last years in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where he died on April 18, 1959.