Read more profiles of California Masons here.

California Freemason: As a past master, what do you enjoy most about being part of your lodge? 
Shaunt Der-Grigorian: What I’m most proud of is seeing how much our lodge has grown. Once we were able to come out of the pandemic, we hit the ground running. Things had slowed down significantly, but fortunately, last year we did 21 degrees. And all these new faces bring in fresh ideas.

CFM: Which parts of Masonry interest you the most?
SDG: Masonic education and its history fascinate me. It makes me feel connected to the past. I come from a line of musicians and teachers, and it’s a cool feeling to share the same secrets with amazing people like Mozart and Joseph Haydn. The knowledge I get from the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, blue lodge—it resonates with me differently each time. There’s a saying that what we teach is not exclusive to Freemasonry, but how we teach it is.

CFM: You won the Ritual Award for Division V recently. How did you get so good at performing it?
SDG: As a musician who works in cybersecurity, I have a natural curiosity and I’m a fan of memorization work. It’s like solving a puzzle. It was a whole process for me—repeating the ritual aloud, using different-color highlighters, looking for patterns, and a lot of repetition, repetition, repetition. If my dog could speak, he could deliver it, too. I was able to meet some of the other competitors, and you can hear their years of experience just by the way they perform it.

CFM: You’re a Grand Master’s Circle donor and a Cornerstone Society member. What inspired you to give back that way?
SDG: My father taught me the importance of giv-ing back. As an engineer, he even designed his own metal hip joint. But he chose not to patent it, so others could benefit from his design. He had this saying: As you rise, you should lift those around you.

To give back, please visit MasonicFoundation.org.