Born and raised in Enid, Oklahoma, James Tracy Tresner II held a Ph.D. in Business Communications.
Dr. Tresner was a perpetual member of Garfield Lodge # 501 in Enid, Oklahoma, a Past Master and Perpetual Member of Albert Pike Lodge No. 162 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, a Member of the Oklahoma Lodge of Research, a Member of the Father Murrow Chapter, Allied Masonic Degrees, and the Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma. He was named the Honorary Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma – this was and remains the only such distinction ever bestowed on any Mason in Oklahoma.
Brother Tresner was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma. From 1993 until his death in 2018, he served on multiple Grand Lodge Committees and he served as the Grand Lodge’s Official Spokesman on matters of Freemasonry and Religion. He was the Publications Editor for the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma and the Editor of the Grand Lodge’s Masonic Magazine. Additionally, he was named an honorary Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, and he was awarded the Grand Master’s Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge of Kansas.
In the Scottish Rite, Jim held the 33°, the Supreme Council Certificate of Honor, and the Grand Cross of the Court of Honor. He served for many years as the Director of Work for the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple, and he served as the Book Review Editor for the nationally recognized Scottish Rite Journal.
In the York Rite, Jim was made a Knight Commander of the Temple by the Grand Encampment. He was the 1995 Anson Jones Lecturer for the Texas Lodge of Research, the 1995 Pires Lecturer for the Dallas Scottish Rite Bodies, and he was the 1996 Lecturer for the Iowa Lodge of Research. In 1997 he delivered the Jack Ball Lecture for Albert Pike Lodge # 1169 in San Antonio, Texas. In 1999 he was elected to Membership in the Society of Blue Friars, an international organization of distinguished Masonic writers and researchers. In 2001 he was awarded the Mackey Medal for Excellence in Masonic Research by the Scottish Rite Research Society. In 2005 he received the Duane E. Anderson Medal for Excellence in Masonic Education from the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. He also served on the Steering Committee and theTask Force of the Masonic Information Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Dr. Tresner’s books include Vested Glory: The Regalia of the Scottish Rite; Albert Pike: The Man Beyond the Monument; From Sacrifice to Symbol: The Story of Cornerstones and Stability Rites; The Craft’s Noyse: Composers Who Were Freemasons; Further Light; with Robert G. Davis, A Shared Spirit: Freemasonry and the Native American Tradition; and But I Digress.
Brother James Tracey Tresner II laid up his working tools of life and went to join his Heavenly Father on July 12, 2018.