Stephen Doan: The Mastermind

In a capstone to a remarkable life and career in Freemasonry, R. Stephen Doan is the 2024 Recipient of the Grand Master’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

By Ian A. Stewart

If you want to get a sense for Stephen Doan’s impact on the fraternity, look no further than the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of California for the year 1993. There you’ll find then–Grand Master Doan’s remarks, ranging from his thoughts on Masonry in the 21st century to religion, education, and his recommendations to his successors for the years to come. In recent years, such messages have run about six pages. Doan’s entry is nearly 200 pages long.

At 74, Doan remains a prolific writer, speaker, and thinker within the world of Freemasonry. As grand master, he was one of the people most responsible for shaping the Grand Lodge into today’s professional enterprise. He authored some of the most meaningful decisions of any modern head of the fraternity and has mentored generations of leaders behind him. For half a century, he’s also been the organization’s go-to legal mind, one of its most generous donors, and something like the official keeper of institutional knowledge. “I call him the bridge between generations,” says David Ferreria, a member of Santa Monica-Palisades № 307, who has served since 2006 on the Grand Lodge jurisprudence committee with Doan. “We all look up to him.”

This fall, the fraternity to which he has devoted so much of his life will recognize him with the Grand Master’s Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s an opportunity to salute a figure who has, directly or indirectly, touched the lives of thousands of Masons in California and beyond.

A Lifetime in Masonry

In many ways, Doan was destined to leave a mark on the world of Freemasonry. Along with his brother David, Stephen is the product of five generations of Masons before him, including his father, Robert, a member of Triangle № 548. Stephen grew up in DeMolay, eventually becoming the jurisdiction master councilor for Southern California before joining Triangle Lodge (now Sunset № 369) in 1970. By 1975, at 26 years old, he was elected lodge master and joined his first Grand Lodge committee. (He has served on at least 10 other boards and committees since then.) He became a Grand Lodge officer in 1978 as grand bible bearer under Grand Master Donald Ingalls.

So began what has been one of the most distinguished careers in California Masonry. In 1984, Doan was appointed as grand orator. Around the same time, he joined the boards of the Mason-run homelessness nonprofit Midnight Mission and the Los Angeles Scottish Rite, and in 1989, at age 39, was selected as junior grand warden, making him the second-youngest person ever to hold that office in state history.

That selection was a reflection of Doan’s status as a rising star—in his professional life, he’d been made partner at the law firm of Adams, Duque & Hazeltine—and his family connection to an older generation of leaders. It was also the result of tension within the Grand Lodge, which at the time was grappling with a sharp decline in membership, questions about the direction of the Masonic Homes, and concern over its financial stability. Between the old guard and a younger group eager for change, “I was acceptable to both of the camps,” Doan explains. “I’m a consensus builder.”

Making Changes

Doan didn’t waste time in effecting the change he sought at the Grand Lodge. That included clearing a $200,000 debt and establishing an endowment to guard against future deficits; creating guidelines for the establishment of each year’s budget; and updating fraternal rules on fundraising that had threatened to bankrupt the Shrine.

Other of his decisions were geared toward opening the fraternity to the wider world. Doan issued grand master’s decisions encouraging members to more freely discuss Freemasonry with nonmembers and allowing candidates to use holy writings other than the Bible during degrees. But most significantly, he issued the directive that allowed for mutual recognition with the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California. “It was about, What are the essentials that make us Masons, and what are the things that are not essential?” Doan explains.

Past Grand Master Larry Adamson, who has known Doan since they were both DeMolays at Triangle Chapter, says, “Steve made major changes to improve the craft. He and I share a belief that if you’re going to make progress, you have to have the infrastructure in place or it’s meaningless.”

Ferreria says Doan certainly accomplished that. “He essentially rewrote the California Masonic Code,” he says. “He put it all together in a way that made sense.” The result was a more financially stable organization staffed by a team of full-time professionals. And thanks to his ruling on Prince Hall, the fraternity was opened to more people than ever before. “He has an incredible lens that draws on not only the current state of [Masonic] law but also the historic traditions of grand lodges in the past,” Ferreria says.

That ability to thread the needle between change and tradition has remained a hallmark of Doan’s ever since.

A Career of Mentorship

Today, relatively few members are old enough to remember Doan’s term as grand master. But over the past three decades, he’s done anything but fade into retirement. In addition to his work as chair of the jurisprudence committee, he has also made a point of mentoring Masonic leaders as they climb the ranks.

When Past Grand Master Jeff Wilkins first met Doan, he says, “Our relationship wasn’t like a teacher and pupil. He was a true mentor: He’s asking how he can help me develop into the best me I can be.” Now, Wilkins says he considers the Doan family, including wife Donna and their children, Robert and Stephanie, as well as her husband, Brian Bezner, to be part of his extended family.

In that way, Adamson says, Doan has also rewritten what it means to be a past grand master.

“As I left office, Steve told me, ‘Our greatest contribution isn’t what we did as grand master, but what we do to build the future of this craft,’” Adamson says.

As a true polymath, with an interest in the arts, philosophy, and symbolism, Doan in many ways represents the quintessence of the search for Masonic knowledge. “Steve Doan is one of those unique human beings and unequivocally one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Adamson says. “He’s not driven simply by knowledge but by understanding. He always asks why? and that’s why Freemasonry absolutely fits him so well.”