Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: April 1968 Volume 15 Number 1, Pages 17–17

Resolution of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club on the Death of John Alden Mason

Page 17

Whereas the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club of Berwyn, Pennsylvania has lost by death on November 7, 1967 its high­ly valued member and long-time Editor, Dr. J. Alden Mason, who faithfully served this organization in several important capacities during the last 30 years of his life;

And Whereas our late President, Miss Myrtle Wandless, as one of her last official acts, appointed a Memorial Committee to prepare a brief statement of this loss;

Be it therefore remembered and recorded that John Alden Mason joined this Society in June 1937, during the first year of its existence. He served as a member of the Editorial Staff from the very beginning of the publication of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club Quarterly throughout its thirty years of publication. He was Editor of this Quarterly from 1954 until his death - from Volume 8, No.2, through Volume 14, No.4 the last published issue. Besides his activities on may other committees of this club he also served a term as President of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club in 1944.

During this long association with the Quarterly, Dr. Mason contributed six editorials, an inspiring poem setting forth the ideals and goals of the club, six articles on the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas, three biographical sketches of local people, one article on the folklore of Chester County and two important articles on the history of organizations with which he had been long associated; The Men's Garden Club of Berwyn and the Main Line Unitarian Church.

To this History Club he brought a warmth and enthusiasm. As a local historian, he looked at the present and the future more often than at the past, securing good speakers for the meetings, encouraging the young, and speaking out for the new & fresh ideas.

It was a great honor to this Society and to the local community as a whole that a man of such international renown as an anthropoligist and archeologist, who served as Curator of the American Section of the University Museum and as President of so many important learned societies and organizations, still found time to devote a large share of his life to his local community, his neighbors and friends, and give so many years to the recording of local history. In this devoted service he will long be an inspiration to the members of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club.

Be it therefore resolved that the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club record in its minutes this acknowledgment of its loss in the death of John Alden Mason, and send a copy of this Resolution to his widow and our dear member, Florence Roberts Mason and to her family.

The Memorial Committee