Captain Selah Reeve Van Duzer was the Founding Director of Ceremonies of the Lodge in 1909.
Born in 1880, he went to Wellington in 1895. He was in the Benson, a Prefect and in the VIII before going up to Trinity College Cambridge.
He was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge No 859 whilst up at Cambridge. Isaac Newton was a popular lodge among OWs with Bryant, Rapahel, Larmour, Stoney, Stephenson, and Coles all being members.
He went on to have a broad and varied masonic career, also founding Rosemary Lodge No 2851 (now the lodge associated with the special forces), America Lodge No 3368, and joining Jubilee Masters Lodge No 2712. He also joined Euclid Chapter at Cambridge. He was appointed Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in 1927.
Van Duzer went into business in London, but served as a Territorial Officer in the Great War with the 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion of the York & Lancaster Regt, rising to the rank of Captain.
He was the son of Fredrick Van Duzer from Newburgh NY, who was a significant figure in Anglo-American Masonry and Founder of AMULL. The history of American Lodge tells of Frederick Van Duzer as:
“the first American to wear a collar of Grand Office in England. He was a founder of five lodges, three Royal arch chapters, two lodges of Mark Master Masons, two Preceptories of Knights Templar, a Chapter of Rose Croix, (ancient and accepted rite), and a Chapter of Improvement.
He was also a member of the Grand Lodge National pour La France and a founder of a Lodge under that Grand jurisdiction; a member of the Arc Mariners, Red Cross of Constantine, of the Allied degrees, Royal and select Masters, Royal order of Scotland, and of the Society of Rosicrucian’s in England. He was an honorary member of nine lodges, four lodges of Mark Master Masons and three Preceptories.
It should also be added that he was the representative at the Grand Lodge of England of four American Grand Lodges, and representative from seven Grand Councils of Royal and Select Masters in America to that of England. He was a patron of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, and that for the Boys, the Benevolent Institution and of the Mark Benevolent Fund. In November 1929 it became known that the highest degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite, that of Grand Inspector General 33°, had been conferred upon W Bro Frederick C Van Duzer. He was the first American to attain that distinction in England.”
The Minutes record that he was a frequent visitor to the OW Lodge in its early years.