Growing up within Freemasonry

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EL PASO – For most of us childhood memories consist of lives involved with friends, family, school – precious memories we hold dear as we grow old. But what kind of memories do people treasure when their fathers are involved in Freemasonry, one of the oldest fraternal organizations in the world and what effect does it have on their lives? “Growing up with my father being a Mason was very enjoyable for me,” said Steve Miller, the current Worshipful Master for Fraternity Lodge 1111 and 2012 Potentate for the El Maida Shrine. “It made my days in school shorter. Yes, I had to keep my grades up in order to do what was required to go on the trips that my mom and dad and I used to have to go on.”

But what is Freemasonry?

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is located at 301 W. Missouri Ave. (Christine Villegas/Borderzine.com)

Man of a thousand funerals lives for his work

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EL PASO – Most people go to only a few funerals in their lifetime, so it is hard to imagine going to hundreds, but Norman Miller says he has performed 1,000 Masonic funeral services. The 93-year-old Freemason has been conducting funeral services for the Freemasons for 48 years. “The military and Masonry have been my life,” Miller said proudly as he sat just feet away from a chapel-like room where Masonic paraphernalia is displayed in the Scottish Rite building in downtown El Paso. “I came in to the Masons in 1958… In December of 1963, I did my first Masonic funeral on an old gentleman, Mr. Pandelities.” Freemasons refer to the funeral ceremony they conduct as an orientation. The ceremony itself is very similar to non-denomination funeral services in large part because of the Freemason’s ambiguous belief in a supreme being.