Famous Freemasons

An overwhelming number of the world’s best and brightest have been or are Freemasons. These groups give you far from a comprehensive list — they're just a sampling:

• Founding fathers: America’s most famous Freemason, George Washington was initiated in 1752, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Other founding fathers who were also Masons include Benjamin Franklin, Marquis de Lafayette, Robert R. Livingstone, John Hancock, and Aaron Burr.

• U.S. presidents: Fourteen U.S. presidents are definitely known to have been Freemasons: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Gerald R. Ford.

• Explorers and adventurers: Freemasons who blazed new trails include Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, Christopher “Kit” Carson, Lewis and Clark, Charles Lindbergh, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.

• Science and medicine: Many Freemasons have played an important role on the scientific and medical frontiers, among them Edward Jenner (discoverer of the cure for smallpox), Joseph Lister (the man who pioneered the concept of antiseptics in medicine), and Alexander Fleming (won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin).

• Actors and entertainers: The entire entertainment industry has had its share of Masons, including the Ringling Brothers, jazz great William "Count" Basie, John Wayne, Harry Houdini, Richard Pryor, and Mel Blanc.

• Athletes: Famous athletic Masons include “Sugar Ray” Robinson, Jack Dempsey, John Elway, and Scottie Pippin.

• Businessmen: Henry Ford, a titan of American industry, was a Freemason. Ford shared the ties of Masonic brotherhood with Walter P. Chrysler, Nathan Meyer Rothschild and John Jacob Astor, Charles Hilton, Colonel Harland Sanders, and Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computer).

• Statecraft: Masons have made great world leaders. Among them are Sir Winston Churchill, Fiorello Laguardia, Kalakaua (King of Hawaii), and many English kinds (including William IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII, George IV, and George VI).

• U.S. Civil Rights leaders: Masons who’ve been active in the quest for equal rights for all citizens of the United States include Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, and Medger Evers.

• Arts and letters: The world of art, music, and literature wouldn't be the same if it weren’t for the contributions of the Masons Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Aleksander Pushkin, Jonathon Swift, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alex Haley, and Mark Twain.