Most Worshipful Brother Fred Morgan Nye

Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Utah 1926.

Apparently the Grand Lodge of Utah was so well pleased with the business man who served as Grand Master two years ago, that the experiment was thought worth repeating. At all events, in Most Worshipful Fred Morgan Nye the Craft selected one of the strong, active, successful business men of the state as their leader for the present year, 1926. And a glance at the present line-up of Grand Lodge officers discloses the fact that further experiments are to be made, along the same line. The writer hastens to add that the foregoing is not intended as a reflection on the professional man!

The subject of this sketch comes of good old New England stock.

A forbear of his, Benjamin Nye, came to America in the staunch ship, "Abigail," in 1635, and settled at Lynn, Mass. He is a native of Kansas-not the first from that state, by the way, to serve Utah Masons in the exalted station of Grand Master.

Brother Nye was born at Eureka, Kansas, February 13, of the Centennial Year, and so, at the date of writing these lines (February 13, 1916), has just turned the half-century mark in his career. For him, apparently, the Sunflower State was a good point to start from, and so, early in the year (April) 1891, he came west, to Ogden, which place has since been his home.

In that city, at the old "New West Academy," he did his college preparatory work, graduating from that institution in 1895. The following two years were spent in Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, where he completed the work of the sophomore year. The lure of a business career was too strong to be resisted, however, and in the spring of 1898 he established the F. M. Nye Co., retail clothiers, of Ogden, in which he has continued to the present time.

But the new Grand Master is too capable and energetic to permit of being restricted to a single line of endeavor. He has wide business interests, which include among others, banking, industrials and fruit farming, and he is no less active in civic affairs; no movement is launched for the betterment and building up of the city, that does not include his name among its promoters and count on, and receive, his active loyal support. In 1924 he was president of the Ogden Chamber of Commerce and of the Weber Club, and is a director of the Chamber of Commerce at the present time.

In 1903, Grand Master Nye married Miss Margaret Buchmiller, and to them four sons have been born: Ralph, now a senior in Harvard University; Robert, a student in the University of Utah, and Ira and Alan, who are in the public schools of Ogden.

His Masonic record is as follows: Initiated in Weber Lodge No. 6, September 3, 1908; passed December 10, 1908, and raised February 18, 1909. Dimitted from Weber Lodge, December 7, 1911, to become a charter member of Unity Lodge No. 18, of Ogden, taking office as Junior Deacon. Two years later, in December, 1913, he was elected Worshipful Master. He was exalted in Ogden Chapter No.2, R. A. M., in 1910. In the A. & A. S. Rite, he was made a Master of the Royal Secret May 18, 1916, and at the meeting of the Supreme Council, Washington, October, 1925, he was elected to the rank and decoration of a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor.

In Grand Lodge he served as Junior Grand Deacon, 1914; Grand Pursuivant 1915; Grand Marshal 1921 and 1922; Junior Grand Warden, 1923, and was then regularly advanced till his election as Grand Master, January 20, 1926.

Grand Master Nye is well known and popular throughout the jurisdiction and he takes over the duties of this responsible position with every promise of a successful administration.

Utah Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1926.

PGM, Fred Morgan Nye died on October 18, 1952 in Ogden, Utah. Utah Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1953, page 99.