George Clarke Ober, Grand Master, 1910
Brother Ober,
son of the late John and Frances Ober, is a native of the
jurisdiction over which he has presided. Born in Washington,
April 17, 1860, he was educated by private tutors and graduated
at the Emerson Institute in 1878. The following year he entered
upon the study of medicine at the Medical College of the
Georgetown University, from which he graduated with the highest
honors of his class in 1882. After serving a year as resident
physician of the Children's Hospital, in 1883 he engaged in
private practice, in which he has won distinction and success.
From 1891 to 1903 he was Professor of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics in the Medical Department of the National
University. Upon the passage of the Medical Practice Act in 1896
and the organization of the several Boards authorized thereby,
he was appointed by the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia a member of the Board of Medical Examiners, elected
Secretary thereof, and served in that capacity for nine years,
when he was elected to the office of President, which he still
holds. He is an ex-President of the Board of Medical Supervisors
of the District, and for the last four years its Secretary. He
has also served as Secretary and as First Vice-President of the
Medical Association of the District of Columbia; as Chairman of
the Judicial Council of the American Therapeutical Society, and
is an ex-President and for many years a member of Board of
Counsellors of the Medical Association of the District.
Brother Ober is a ready, easy, and
forceful speaker, a man of dignified yet pleasing personality
and polished manner, and possessing, as he does in an unusual
degree, a judicial mind and sound judgment, has won an enviable
reputation as an able executive and presiding officer. These
qualities have brought to him the rather unique distinction of
having filled, in addition to the office of Grand Master, the
positions of Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons and Grand
Commander of the Grand Commandery, K. T., of the District of
Columbia, being the incumbent of the latter office at the date
of this publication. It is also sufficiently unprecedented to be
worthy of note that from May until December, 1910, he ably
filled both the chairs of Grand Master and Grand Commander.
M. W. Brother Ober was made a Master
Mason in Naval Lodge, No. 4, April 18, 1889; exalted to the
sublime degree of Royal Arch Mason in Washington Naval Chapter,
No. 6, May 29, 1890; knighted in Washington Commandery, No. 1,
September 23, 1891, and became a charter member and the first
Captain-General of Orient Commandery, No. 5, October 19, 1895.
He was Master of his lodge in 1899, High Priest of his chapter
in 1894, and Commander of his commandery in 1898, and his term
of service as presiding officer of each body was notable for its
prosperity.
In the Grand Lodge he served a full
term in every chair from Junior Grand Steward to Grand Master.
He was elected Grand Commander in May, 1910, after serving
successively in the various subordinate offices. In the Grand
Chapter, R. A. M., he filled every station from Grand Master of
the Second Vail, with the exception of Grand Captain of the
Host, and was Grand High Priest in 1904.
He 19 Past President of the
Convention of High Priests and a member of Adoniram Council, No.
2, R. and S. M., of the Masonic Veteran Association, and of
Almas Temple, Mystic Shrine.
AHGP
District of Columbia
Source: History of the Grand Lodge and
Freemasonry in the District of Columbia, compiled by W. Brother
Kenton N. Harper, 1911.
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