Chris Lapierre: I saw an ad that Rob had posted at a game store, and joined the game he was running. I kind of squeezed myself into Rob’s group of friends. I’ve got to say this about Rob: He collects people. He is a central figure of so many different groups. It’s pretty impressive. I’m not as outgoing. Rob really gets people talking about things in life, and next thing you know, you’re hanging out with his other friends.

Jim: Rob is the person who got both Chris and me into the lodge that we belong to and into the Masonic fraternity.

Beck: How did you become interested in joining the Masons?

Chris: I had a pretty severe accident when I was 9 years old. I was badly burned. I went to the local hospital, but somebody in town [who was a Mason] made phone calls and I was transferred to Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, which is world-renowned for its burn treatment. I don’t know if I ever met this guy. I spent a month there, and it was such a positive experience from something so horrific. I wanted to give back. That was my inspiration to learn about Masonry.

When I was a young person without a lot of money, I put it off, thinking it must be really expensive. Then later on, I saw a Masonic funeral service in a church. They line up around the walls and pay their respects to their fallen brother. It really hit me as an important event.

A few years later, Rob got involved. I think he knew I wanted to join, and once he was in, he was like, “Hey, you need to come join my lodge.”

Rob Lajoie: Jim and I studied philosophy and comparative religion in college. We always had questions around Freemasonry—What was it about? What did they do in the buildings? Years went by, and then they had a campaign in Massachusetts—they were going to do open houses at the different lodges. You could go and talk to the members a bit. I think that drove both of us to see what was happening at the lodge and inquire about joining, independently of each other. We each came to it on our own.

Jim: I picked up on it separately, but at one point, Rob reached out to me and said, “Hey, you remember all of our discussions way back then about Freemasonry? Well, guess what I just did!” He told me that he joined and asked me if I was interested, and of course I was.

Beck: What year did you guys join? Was it roughly the same time?

Jim: Yeah, 2007. Rob joined in January, I joined a few months later, and then Chris joined right after me.

Beck: How do you get in? Do you just apply? Are there certain qualifications?

Chris: Because it’s a fraternity, you have to be a male. You need to have a belief in God. It doesn’t need to be a certain religion as long as you have a belief in a higher power. You have to apply, then you go through a background check, and you provide references. A committee will be sent out to investigate that applicant—make sure that the person is truthful, is looking to join the fraternity for good reasons, and doesn’t have any ill will toward the fraternity. There’s a lot of conspiracy stuff out there. When you’re actually in the fraternity, there’s no conspiracy going on.