Adam Kendall Named 111th Blue Friar

by Christopher Hodapp

I was unable to attend AMD Masonic Week this year because of some personal family issues. That's a shame, because by all accounts, I've heard it was one of the best and most memorable Masonic Weeks in recent history.

The 78th Consistory of the Society of Blue Friars was convened Friday, February 11th at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia as part of Masonic Week. The Society of Blue Friars was founded in 1932 for the express purpose of recognizing outstanding Masonic authors throughout the world. 

This year's newest member of the Society is Friar No. 111, Adam G. Kendall of California. Adam is the former editor of the Scottish Rite Research Society's quarterly publication, The Plumbline, and served for many years as the curator of the Grand Lodge of California's Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum in San Francisco. He’s just recently been named as editor of the SRRS annual collection of papers, Heredom.

Adam's presentation was “The Scandals and Secret Rites of Benjamin Hyam,” which can be found in Quatuor Coronati Lodge's recent Freemasonry on the Frontier anthology.

The Society convenes each year during Masonic Week in the Washington, D.C. vicinity to induct a new Friar, and its gatherings are open to all Master Masons. Authors like Arthur E. Waite, Harold V.B. Voorhis, Dwight L. Smith, Allen Roberts, Thomas Jackson, Yasha Beresiner, Alain Bernheim, Robert G. Davis, Alton Roundtree, Michael R. Poll, Robert D. B. Cooper, Josef Wäges and Piers Vaughan are just a few prior Blue Friar honorees. In a rare moment of weakness, they even let a Dummy in.

I wasn't the only one kept away from the event this year. Sadly, Arturo De Hoyos' father passed away at the beginning of the week, and so he was unable to preside as Grand Abbot of the Society of Blue Friars this year. And so it fell to Deputy Grand Abbott Mark A. Tabbert to do the honors this year and announce this our newest inductee.