Robert Rochester Kreeger, 33° PGM
(Nov 16, 1856-Mar 16, 1942)
1888 - Raised, Temple Lodge #299
1900 - Master, Temple Lodge #299
Grand Lodge
1908-09 - Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Missouri
1902-07 - Grand Lecturer
1903-04 - Grand Marshal
1905 - Junior Grand Warden
1906 - Senior Grand Warden
1907 - Deputy Grand Master
Scottish Rite
1908 - 32° Consistory of Western MO, Kansas City
Knight Commander of the Court of Honour
1917 - Coroneted 33° Inspector General Honorary
1899 - Capitular Degrees, Orient Chaper #102
1908 - High Priest, Orient Chapter #102
1902 - Shekinah Council #24
Occupation: School teacher, deputy sheriff, Customs office supervisor.
Past Board Member, Trustee & Bible Study teacher at Melrose Methodist Church
Alumnus: University of Missouri, Columbia
Robert Rochester Kreeger was born in Jackson County, Missouri on November 16, 1856. His boyhood days were spent on a farm. He attended University of Missouri at Columbia and taught for a number of years in his native county. In 1883, he was egaged as an assistant in the office of the Jackson County sheriff in Independence, Missouri. He then was engaged in the office of the United States Customs Service as a Special Deputy Surveyor of Customs for the port of Kansas City, eventually becoming the head of the Customs Office. He retired from the position in 1930.
Brother Kreeger was married and had three daughters. In 1888, Brother Kreeger was raised in Temple Lodge #299. In that year, Temple Lodge had the largest membership of any lodge in Missouri. In 1900, he served as Worshipful Master of the lodge. He received the Capitular Degrees at Orient Chapter #102 in 1899 and served as High Priest in 1908. Orient Chapter had the largest membership in Missouri with more than 1,100 members at the time. The Cryptic degrees were conferred upon him at Shekinah Council #24 in 1902 and was the strongest council in Missouri with more than 600 members. At the November 16-19, 1908 Convocation in Kansas City Brother Kreeger became a 32nd degree Mason receiving the degrees of Perfection, Rose Croix, Kadosh and the Consistory.
Brother Kreeger was appointed District Deputy Grand Lecturer in 1902 and was reappointed every year thereafter until 1907. In 1903 he was appointed Grand Mashall and re-appointed in 1904. In 1907 he was chosen Deputy Grand Master and in 1908 he was elected Grand Master. In 1909, at a grand masters conference in Cincinnati, he witnessed the then President William H. Taft be made a Master Mason “at sight.” At the time of his death at 85 years of age, Brother Kreeger was the oldest living past grandmaster in Missouri.
Brother Kreeger had been a Past Board Member & Trustee at Melrose Methodist Church and had formerly taught Sunday School there.
Interred: Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Kansas City, MO.