M.W. Bro. Daniels passed away on Sunday, January 24, 2016 at the age of 78. Born in Orillia, he earned a degree in music and history from Wilfrid Laurier University, a diploma in organ performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and diplomas in both performance and teaching from Trinity College, London, England. For twenty-three years, he taught music and history at Eastwood Collegiate in Kitchener where he helped establish the Arts Program. He was founding director of the Renaissance Singers and a founding member of the Waterloo Regional Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He was awarded the K-W Arts Council Award for Music in 1991.
Bro. Daniels was initiated into Freemasonry in Orillia Lodge No. 192, affiliated with New Hope Lodge (now Mystic Tie Lodge) No. 279 in Cambridge, and was the first Worshipful Master of New Light Lodge No. 744. He also was active in innumerable other lodges and appendant and concordant bodies: Past First Principal in Royal Arch Masons, Past Most Wise Sovereign in Rose Croix, Past Sovereign Master in Allied Masonic Degrees, Honourary Inspector-General 33 degrees Supreme Council, Royal Order of Scotland, Mocha Shrine, Order of the Eastern Star, and Fellow of the College of Freemasonry.
On Aug 4, 2009 M.W. Bro. Daniels announced a project for the creation of a centre to encourage research into the significant impact fraternalism in general and Freemasonry in particular have made on our society here in Canada and throughout the world. From this project sprang the annual Sankey lectures.
Get KNOWLEDGE; get WISDOM; but with all thy getting, get UNDERSTANDING.