On the Town: Masonic temple installs new officers, makes new appointments
For the 111th time since it received its charter from the Grand Lodge of California, Burbank Masonic Lodge 406 installed its elected and appointed officers.
Gathering at the Masonic center on Jan. 11, more than 200 local Masons and guests were on hand to show their appreciation to outgoing Worshipful Master Jesus Valdiviezo, and their support to Gary Glass, who was sworn-in as the lodge’s Worshipful Master for 2020.
Glass proclaimed the theme of his term to be “Choose Masonry,” which he considers a be a call to action for his local Masonic brothers to choose brotherly love, relief and truth, the three principal tenets of Masonry.
The installing team consisted of installing officer Elvan “Al” Moen, master of ceremonies Jeffrey W. Yates and chaplain Arthur S. Beddoe.
The event also saw the installation of Armen Khalafyan as senior warden, Nishan Matossian as junior warden, Peter Babaian as treasurer, Ricardo Cervantes as secretary, Tommy Quiroz as chaplain, Jesus Valdiviezo as assistant secretary, Ben Lupu as senior deacon, James Castro as junior deacon, Karl Warren as marshall, Sheldon Mazo as senior steward, Edwin Quitiquit as junior steward, and Armin Schulhof as tiler.
Dignitaries in attendance for the installation ceremony included Mayor Sharon Springer, Vice Mayor Bob Frutos, and Julianna Barnes, who serves as Miss California Job’s Daughters 2020 and is a Burbank resident.
Burbank Lodge 406 held its first preliminary meeting in 1908, even before Burbank had been chartered as a city.
The Grand Lodge of California granted a dispensation to the Burbank Lodge on June 28, 1909, and the first meeting was held on July 1, 1909, while under dispensation.
Initial membership applications were received from five ranchers, five farmers, a doctor, a carpenter, a teamster, a butcher, a teacher, an oil driller and a railroad worker, and the lodge continued to grow.
Today, with more than 200 members and more than a century of service to the community and charitable organizations, local Masons are currently supporting the causes of the national Masonic organization as well as local groups and organizations.
Specific groups that the Burbank Lodge supports include the Raising a Reader and Masons4Mitts charities as well as their youth orders, the L.C. Kelley chapter of the Order of DeMolay and Bethel 97 Job’s Daughters International.
