Page 218 - PGM Compendium

The insight into his views upon this subject given by this passage was amplified by his subsequent work
on the committee having it in special charge, and I am sure his efforts along this line have produced a
lasting influence upon the members of our Institution in this Jurisdiction.

Our Most Worshipful Brother’s service extended beyond the Blue Lodge. He served as High Priest of
Seattle Chapter, No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; Illustrious Master of Seattle Council, No. 6, Royal and Select
Masters; and Most Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Council of Washington; Wise Master of
Washington Chapter of Rose Croix, and Commander-in-Chief of Lawson (now Washington) Consistory,
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. He was elected to receive the rights and honors of a
Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, October 21, 1919, and was coroneted an Inspector General
Honorary of the Thirty-third Degree February 16, 1924.

Most Worship James Howarth Begg was called form labor on June 18, 1932. These words were written
in tribute as an obituary:

"When a man has given virtually all the years of his adult life to the service of a single worthy cause, his
name deserves all the reverence that can be paid to it; his memory must be forever enshrined in the hearts
of his friends. It matters not that he may have attained neither to riches nor to such public honors as fall
within the grasp of men whose diversified efforts cover a more general scope. To have established a fixed
course in life, a course of service to others, and to have held it to the last,is a record worthy of enduring
and grateful remembrance.

James Howarth Begg leaves such a record. In early manhood he became a Mason. The ancient landmarks
of the Craft and its ritualistic nobility made instant appeal to his fine mind and sensibilities; he adopted its
principles as rules for his personal guidance; he became at once the student and in time an outstanding
exemplar of its philosophy. He lived, acted, worked and talked accordingly. For many years and to the
time of his passing away, he was recognized as the Pacific Northwest's foremost authority on Masonic
history, law and morals.

Free of all prejudice, broadly tolerant of beliefs and opinions running contrary to his own, he lived simply,
gently, usefully. His helpful admonition, his wise counsel, available to all within his reach, have smoothed
the pathway for many. He was a scholar who ever felt his studies to be unfinished, and so kept on. Even
with illness gradually mastering a naturally frail physique, his work, of special value to the order of which
he was an ornament, was no less well done. Masonry will miss him sorely; and in his death all Seattle
suffers the loss of a citizen of the best type, high-minded, diligent in duty, faithful to the end.

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