by MATTHEW NASH
Sequim Gazette

A lifelong servant of the people, 96-year-old Sequim resident Harold Pomeroy received a humbling award on May 12 from the Freemasons.

 

Washington Masons Grand Master G. Santy Lascano presented Pomeroy a pin, card and certificate for his 75 years of service as a Mason.

 

“I’m humbled,” Pomeroy said.

 

“I’m very grateful to the Masonic Lodge for all they’ve done. The Masons are very meaningful to me.”

 

Pomeroy has been with Sequim Lodge 213 since 1980 and followed in his family’s footsteps back in Gays Mills, Wis., where his father and grandfather started a Masonic Lodge.

 

He told the large crowd the Masons’ impact runs deep.

 

“My father was very active in the lodge. Unfortunately, he died at 39, when I was 8. He had bone cancer,” Pomeroy said. “The last couple weeks of his life he was in a hospital bed and a member of the Masons lodge sat with him so my mother could get some rest.”

 

He later petitioned the lodge at age 21 with four other guys his age. Pomeroy remained active and was elected senior warden for the oncoming year until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, leading him to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

Accolades

Several people commended Pomeroy for his service, including Sara Maloney, Sequim Noon Rotary president. She said in 14 years, Pomeroy has sold 3,500 ducks for the annual Duck Derby, raising $18,000.

 

“He has nearly 100-percent weekly attendance and participates in everything,” Maloney said.

 

“He exemplifies our motto ‘Service Above Self.’”

 

Joe Hawe, retired Sequim police chief and Clallam County sheriff, said Pomeroy always has been one of his mentors. “We worked salmon bakes, parades and duck races together. I love his positive attitude, youthful vigor, and he could never be an old codger,” Hawe said.

 

Jerry Carlson said he joined the Rotary Club a year after Pomeroy and found him to be a prolific producer of good deeds.

 

“One thing that impresses me about Harold is that he was a part of the Yalta Conference in Russia,” Carlson said. “I never dreamed I’d meet someone who was a part of it and saw President Roosevelt in that condition of his life.”

Wartime history

In January 1945, Pomeroy and 20 other soldiers managed aircraft 40 miles from Yalta, Russia, for a meeting of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Secretary Joseph Stalin. The meeting served as strategy session for managing war-torn Europe after World War II was to end.

 

In a previous interview, Pomeroy said he saw Churchill and Roosevelt at the airfield before they left and Roosevelt was completely crippled. The soldiers were shocked to see his condition. Roosevelt died of a stroke on April 12, 1945.

Back home

Pomeroy settled in Santa Ana, Calif., for 34 years as a hardware salesman, with his wife, Noel, whom he married in 1951. They had three children. The couple retired to Sequim in 1980. Attending the recognition event were Trent Pomeroy, his son; Patricia, daughter-in-law; Hayden, grandson, and Jere Sherrard, brother-in-law.

 

To sum up the experience, Pomeroy said, “I’ve been so blessed by this all.”

 

Sequim Masonic Lodge 213, 700 S. Fifth Ave., can be reached at 683-5330.

 

A previous story on Pomeroy, “Mason for Life,” can be found at www.sequimgazette.com.

 

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.