What Brothers Love Most About the Scottish Rite

Fran Hart, 33°, Valley of Boston, drove all the way from Massachusetts to Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife to a Valley he had never set foot in before. He had no role in the day. He was there to meet Brothers he had never met and to witness a one-day class on a stage that wasn't his. By the end of it, he says, it felt like the same Valley he had left behind in Boston.

That feeling — recognizing your own Craft in a room full of strangers — is the closest thing to a single answer when you ask Scottish Rite Masons what they love most about the Rite. We asked five Brothers from five Valleys. They gave us five different answers in their own words. 

Illustrious Brother Fran Hart: The Brothers Across Every Valley

Brother Hart became a Freemason in 2008 and joined the Scottish Rite a few years later through the Valley of Worcester. Since then, he has acted in several Supreme Council degree productions and the Journey On anthem video, where he plays the lead Brother.

Ask him what he loves most about Scottish Rite, and he does not lead with these credits. He lands instead on the Brothers themselves. 

“Meeting Brothers from all different walks of life, all stages of life — we all have that commonality,” he says. “Some of us have our Golden Passport and some are still working on it, but we all went through the same degrees. Just that commonality in the background, I absolutely love.”

It is the reason he and his wife traveled to the Valley of Michigan, Southwest Region, in Grand Rapids. For Illustrious Brother Hart, the shared experience of the degrees is what makes Scottish Rite feel like Scottish Rite, no matter which Valley he is standing in.

Brother John Knowlton, 32°: Brotherhood, Creativity, Challenges

Brother John Knowlton, 32°, Valley of Portland, came to the Scottish Rite young. He joined DeMolay at 16, became a Master Mason at 18, and was drawn to the Scottish Rite the moment he learned its degrees were full stage productions. Sound engineering and theater were already his hobbies and part of his professional life. He has been on the Valley of Portland's stage crew for more than a decade and has worked on multiple Thursday Night at the Rite (TNR) productions, including the 5° and the 11°.

His favorite part of the Scottish Rite shows up at the intersection of those two things: the Craft and the crews. “Getting the opportunity to work with people, producing at a very high level, is very enjoyable,” he says of the Brothers he meets through TNR productions. “It brings together a lot of different perspectives and really helps us take degree productions to the next level.”

Asked to sum up what Scottish Rite means to him in three words, he does not hesitate: Brotherhood, creativity, challenges. For Brother Knowlton, the appeal is the chance to do work he loves alongside Brothers who push him to be better at it.

Brother Daniel Bradaick, 32°: The Fun Part of Freemasonry

Brother Daniel N. Bradaick, 32°, Valley of Youngstown, has been a Scottish Rite Mason for 10 years. He values his local Blue Lodge, but the Scottish Rite gave him a wider circle. Through the Valley of Youngstown, he meets Brothers from Youngstown, Warren, Cortland, and beyond; men he would not have crossed paths with otherwise.

“To me, it’s the fun part of Freemasonry,” he says. “That’s what I like most about the Scottish Rite.” The friendships are what he names first when he describes what keeps him coming back, alongside what he calls the “ton of fun” of spending time with them.

For Brother Bradaick, the Scottish Rite is the part of the journey where the circle gets bigger.

Brother Jeffrey Scott Greene, 33°: Fellowship Across a Wider Region

Brother Jeffrey Scott Greene, 33°, Valley of Philadelphia, said after years in the Scottish Rite, what he values most is how far it widens his Masonic circle.

“The most rewarding part of Scottish Rite, to me, is being with a group of Brothers whom I may not have met otherwise in just my Blue Lodge,” he says. He describes the full arc, witnessing and participating in the degrees and then sharing the fellowship that follows, as “very, very rewarding.”

For Illustrious Brother Greene, the Scottish Rite expands the map. The Brothers he met through the Valley of Philadelphia are now part of his Masonic life.

Brother Mel Hook, 33°: More Fun Than Allowed

Melvyn Douglas “Mel” Hook, 33°, Valley of Springfield, MA, does not downplay his Scottish Rite experience. Asked what his membership means to him, he answers in a single line: “Being a member of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is probably more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.”

He credits the “friendships, the Brotherhood, the participation, and the engagement” of everyone involved. He praises the leadership of his Valley and the excitement of connecting with Brothers from every walk of life, particularly during events like the one-day classes. Illustrious Brother Hook also travels often across Massachusetts and the wider Northern Masonic Jurisdiction to spend time with Brothers in their home Valleys.

If there is a sales pitch for the Scottish Rite, Brother Hook accidentally wrote it.

Across five Valleys and five different stories, the answer keeps narrowing toward the same thing. One Brother named the stage. Another named the production crews. Three named the Brothers themselves: men their home Lodges alone would not have introduced them to. The Scottish Rite, in the words of the men who have lived inside it, is what happens when the Masonic circle gets wider.