Orville Swain, 1920-2010

I knew Orville Swain for just the last few years of his life, from about 1993 to 2009. By that time he was slowed down some, but I knew him as the Tyler at the Waukesha Masonic Lodge and as the Outer Guard at the Juneau Lodge 21, Knights of Pythias. Toward the final years of his life he was still a loyal lodge attender, hitching regular rides into the Wauwatosa Pythian lodge with other members. I'd lost touch with him as a Mason due to my leaving the order, but he likely was loyal with them as well.

Orville was a celebrated Salvation Army bell ringer for 40 years and was credited with consistent top honors in the amounts of money for the Army he brought in through his often four and five days per week bell-ringing stints in front of stores and supermarkets. Orville's face was well-known via just that one avenue of service to his community.

He was also well known to our Uncle Lee and our father, both Masons with Waukesha Lodge 37. His final and long tour with that lodge was as the Tyler, as we said. The Tyler is like a bouncer charged with keeping miscreants, drunks, improperly certified would-be meeting attenders and the like from gaining entrance to the inner sanctum. His assignment, also held for a long time with the Knights of Pythias, as Outer Guard, saw him performing similar and mostly pretend duties there. But he stood his post and was ready.

Orville's passing adds another diminishment to the fraternal orders. My memory of him through my brief and latter-day contact was his refusal to surrender to age his attendances with his beloved affiliations. A reading of his below obituary portrays the many memberships he had through his long life.

Regrettable it is that during my brief acquaintance with Orville, at the 'outer' end of his life, his most noticeable features and characteristics were his ready smile, his prominent ears, his gentle kindness, modesty, faithfulness and his after-meeting smorgasbord appetite. He was very hard of hearing and a bit lame of step, but in the proven way of a Knight of Pythias, Orville Swain met his tests of life and kept going.


There will be many things said about Orville at his service, and a lot of blanks will be no doubt be filled in through the testimonies of those in attendance. These remarks of mine are paucious, because my knowledge of the man was thin. But I liked him, honor him, and we, his temporary survivors, bid him Adios. He should be with the Supreme Creator to Whom he gave his allegiance as a faithful and contributing member to all the organizations and works cited below.

The image we offer is unclear, but our distinct impressions and experiences we had with him are vivid.