At the recently completed Imperial business session of Shriners International and Shriners Hospitals for Children, Jeff Sowder was honored with the Imperial Potentate’s Award of Merit for his lifetime achievements and dedication to the Masonic fraternity, Shriners International and Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Sowder’s Masonic journey began in 1975 when he joined Woodson Lodge #121 in Toronto. He served as Master of the lodge four times and has been an officer nearly every year since he joined. He was elected Grand Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Kansas in 1994 and served as Grand Master of Masons in Kansas in 1997.
Sowder served on the Kansas Masonic Foundation Board of Directors for twenty five years and served as President for eight years. As President of the Kansas Masonic Foundation, it successfully conducted a $15 million campaign to support the University of Kansas Cancer Center. His continued work with the Kansas Masonic Foundation has now increased that support to nearly $40 million.
He joined Midian Shrine in 1988 and served as Potentate of Midian Shrine in 2004. In 2009 he was elected to the Board of Directors of Shriners International and Shriner’s Hospitals for Children and served as the Imperial Potentate of Shriners Internation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shriners Hospitals for Children in 2019 – 2020.
He is the first and only Past Grand Master of any state to also serve as Imperial Potentate of Shriners International.
(Courtesy photo)
