Argus Lodge #545 worshipful Master for the 2024 Masonic Year:
Mark Pesut retired from the United Stated Army on June 1, 2005 after 22 years of service. He was interested in Freemasonry most of his life from Brothers he met throughout his Military career. Upon his retirement at Ft. Carson, Colorado he decided to search and find a Lodge that he could inquire about becoming a Freemason. This led to him meeting Worshipful Richard Stewart who was a member of Fountain Valley Lodge #191 in Fountain Colorado. He then began his Masonic journey with Fountain Valley Lodge #191 A.F.&A.M. in Colorado on March 14, 2006 and became a Master Mason on June 10, 2006.
As a member of Fountain Valley Lodge #191 he held the offices of Junior Steward, Senior Steward, Junior Decon, Senior Decon and Junior Warden. He moved to Reading California on August 24, 2010 and began to attend meeting with Western Star Lodge #2 and Affiliated with Western Star Lodge #2 F.&A.M. on January 1, 2011. He has held the offices of Junior Decon, Senior Decon, Junior Warden, Senior Warden and Worshipful Master. He is also a member of the Fountain Valley #155 Order of the Eastern Star, Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction, and Al Kaly Shrine in Colorado. He served as the associate Bethel Guardian for JOB’s Daughters Bethel #31 in Fountain Colorado.
I would first like to thank my wife, Paula for her love and support in helping me to become a better man and Mason. There have been many evenings that Paula has taken on extra duties around our home to allow me to be down at the Lodge for our meetings, working with Brothers, attending committee meetings, meeting with petitioners or off on some other Masonic adventure. After 12 years together, she still puts up with me and is always here supporting me. I would next like to thank my Brothers at Argus Lodge for giving me the honor and the opportunity to serve them as the Worshipful Master of our Lodge for 2024. I will always try to do my best to earn your continued respect and support. I would also like to thank the families and friends of all our newly installed officers, members of our Lodge and guests, for your encouragement and continued support of our efforts within our Lodge and outside in our community. Lastly, I would like to thank our newly Junior Past Master, Dan Illincik for his love of the fraternity and love of our Lodge in providing his countless hours of service and dedication to the Craft.
Does anyone know that we are here? Do we really matter? Well, we do matter! And we, as a Lodge and a Fraternity, must make changes to “business-as-usual” in order to survive in the future. This year, with the support of my Brethren, we intend to turn the lights back on! Not just the physical lights under the canopy out front, but also the light within each of us. The light of pride in who we are and the services that we provide to our community. To assist in turning on the lights, we will work creating a world-class web presence telling the history of Argus Lodge No. 545 and acting as a communications vehicle to keep the members informed of events and activities in one central location. This web site is linked to social media such as Facebook and others to drive traffic to the website so that Masons from all over the world and interested individuals of the general public are introduced to our Lodge and Freemasonry in general. We must also expand our visibility in the community by becoming more involved with Masonic and local charities, as well as becoming involved in community service projects. There are other areas of our operations that we must evaluate to determine how to proceed. These areas include administration of our internal processes, facilities management, and communications, to name a few. We must challenge ourselves to look to the future and to what we can be – and refrain from holding too tightly to the past as the way things “have always been.” It will take all of us to look inside ourselves and to work together to accomplish our goals with cooperation, determination, and a positive attitude. Our past is the foundation of what we are today. We must build on that foundation for the future of both our Lodge and our fraternity.
Mark S. Pesut
Worshipful Master
Argus Lodge #545
