Harold Van Buren Voorhis

Harold Van Buren Voorhis (January 3, 1894 - May 23, 1983) was a chemist, noted Masonic author, and executive at Macoy Publishers and Masonic Supply Company.

Education and Career

Voorhis was born January 3, 1894 to Thomas Voorhis and Mary Peck Bates Voorhis at Rector Place, Red Bank, New Jersey. Voorhis attended Red Bank High School, graduating in 1912. He attended Cooper Union College from 1912-1913 and Columbia University Teachers Extension from 1913-1916. He worked as a chemist at Bull & Roberts, in New York, NY from 1912-1920, and returned there later for a succession of positions starting in 1943: Secretary-Treasurer (1943-1959); Assistant to the President (1962); and Consultant (1963-67). He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I from January 1, 1917 to February 13, 1919. He later became Vice President of Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. from 1946-1970.

He married first Lucille Maria Hottendorf on July 2, 1932 in Elkton, Maryland and second Ethel Rita Landau on October 20, 1953 in New York, NY.

Masonic career

He was Worshipful Master of Mystic Brotherhood Lodge 21, F. & A. M. of Red Bank, NJ in 1937, and served in many other capacities in many other Masonic groups.

elected Writings

*"A History of Organized Masonic Rosicrucianism" - (1935); reprinted 1983
*"The Eastern Star - The Evolution From a Rite to an Order" (1938); reprinted 1976
*" [Negro Masonry in the United States] " - (1940) reprinted 2003
*"History of Knight Templary in New Jersey" (1944)
*"Facts for Freemasons" (1951)
*"100 Year Celebration of Mystic Brotherhood Lodge No. 21, Free and Accepted Masons" (1952)
*"Masonic Organizations and Degrees" - (1952)
*"Masonic Rosicrucian Societies" (1958)
*"Masonic Rosicrucian Societies in England, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Canada and the U.S.A" (1958);
*"Our Colored Brethren" (1960)
*"The Royal Order of Scotland" (1960)
*"The Red Cross of Constantine" (1963)
*"The Story of the Scottish Rite" (1965)
*"The History of the Scottish Rite in New Jersey" (1970)

References

*Hinks, Peter P., [http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/64.1/hinks.html "John Marrant and the Meaning of Early Black Freemasonry."] The William and Mary Quarterly 64.1 (2007): 25 May 2008 .

* [http://www.nymasoniclibrary.org/collections/special.htm The Edward R. Cusick Collection of Historic African-American Masonic Materials] at the Livingston Masonic Library contains correspondence between Cusick and Voorhis in addition to a collection of Voorhis books.

*Perlman, Daniel. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2992(197107)56%3A3%3C181%3AOOTFNI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S] "Organizations of the Free Negro in New York City, 1800-1860"] The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 181-197.