Anniversary Lodge of Research No. 175
Free and Accepted Masons
Grand Lodge of New Hampshire
Most Worshipful Brother Richard Rory Schanda, Past Grand Master – Remembered
by Brother George Van Dyke, P.G.M., Rising Sun Lodge No. 39, Nashua
It was a warm cloud-free Sunday afternoon, July 3, 2005, when the Masonic dedication of the Richard Schanda Conservation Park, named in honor of our late Past Grand Master, rook place on the banks of the Lamprey River in downtown Newmarket. With the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, Brother David J. Lamprey, Sr., presiding, the Grand Lodge Officers performed the ceremony before a crowd of Masons and townsfolk numbering over two hundred. The focal point of the proceedings was a large granite bench engraved on one vertical side:
IN MEMORY OF
RICHARD R. SCHANDA
1998 M.W.G.M. 1999
On the opposite side of the bench, which was designed and fabricated by Brother Roger J. Pellerin, P.M., owner of Gate City Monument, Inc., of Nashua, appears:
SIT AND REST AWHILE WITH “JOE DIXX”
On the highly polished top is a colored etching of our late Brother Schanda standing in his boat shucking the Great Bay oysters for which he was especially well known.
Renowned within the fraternity for his many Masonic accomplishments in New Hampshire, Brother Schanda, who lived his entire life in Newmarket, was also the author of many columns on numerous nature topics writing under the name of “Joe Dixx.” His articles regularly appeared in six state-wide publications for nearly fifty years. He also wrote Masonic plays which have been performed by members of the Major General William Whipple Military Lodge as well as the First Newmarket Militia, both of which he was a founding member.
The Richard Schanda Conversation Park, situated adjacent to the town boat ramp from which he would depart on his daily excursions to great Bay in search of his treasured oysters and other salt water delicacies, will be a lasting memorial and testimony to a great Man and Mason whom many were privileged to call a true Friend and Brother.