Granted, Hiram isn’t exclusively Masonic and you may have seen other names that have a familiar ring to a Mason but have no Masonic connection. But there are others that are unmistakeably, exclusively Masonic, and certainly recognisable to anyone in the fraternity. And that’s the case with a radio correspondent during the War.
The man’s name was Royal Arch Gunnison. As a fan of Old Time Radio, someone with a bit of familiarity with the radio news industry, and a Royal Arch Mason, I’ve been curious about him and his name. Gunnison, like most war correspondents, had a story to tell. In his case, it was a very personal one. In the December 13, 1943 edition Time magazine, the radio column begins:
When the Japs came into Manila, Royal Arch Gunnison, Mutual Network war-caster, was still there. He had stayed on the air until U.S. Army engineers blew up the transmitting station and equipment a jump ahead of the Japs. As a result, 34-year-old Gunnison and his wife spent 17 months in Jap concentration camps outside Manila and Shanghai. They reached the U.S. last week on the Gripsholm, bringing fresh news about radio and the war in the Orient.
Gunnison and his wife Marjorie were repatriated from China with 1,438 other internees.Much like people plugging movies and records on TV talk shows, Gunnison made the rounds to be interviewed. His story appeared in Life on the 20th and in Billboard on the 11th, where he outlined what entertainment was like in prison camps. He wrote a book on his experiences called “So Sorry, No Peace” published in October 1944. A radio show was based on it. This is from the ‘Radio Roundup’ of the Kingsport Times, March 26, 1945.
The horrors inflicted on prisoners of war and civilians in Japanese internment camps will be related in “So Sorry—No Mercy,” [sic] the dramatization on Cavalcade of America Monday (8 p.m. NBC-WKPT). The role of Royal Arch Gunnison, American reporter who was interned for eighteen months, will be played by Movie Star Pat O’Brien. Gunnison, who was thrown out of Germany in 1934, left for the Pacific and quickly realized the Japs were headed for war. He was warned by the Japs to tone down his dispatches, returned to this country and then went back to the Far East in 1941. He made his last broadcast from Manila December 31, 1941, and was taken prisoner by the enemy on January 2, 1942. Filth, bad food and general misery prevailed in the internment camp.
Gunnison returned to this country on the Gripsholm. Formerly foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and the North American Newspaper Alliance, Gunnison will speak on the Cavalcade program from New York.
Gunnison returned to this country on the Gripsholm. Formerly foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and the North American Newspaper Alliance, Gunnison will speak on the Cavalcade program from New York.
A far cry from writing sports for the Christian Science Monitor from San Francisco, which is what Gunnison was doing in 1937 into early 1940.
Though he survived the ordeals of a war prisoner, he didn’t survive an accident that took his life. Gunnison headed back to Asia in June 1946. Three months later, he was dead.
ARCH GUNNISON DIES IN CRASH
New York, Sept. 26 (INS)—Mutual Broadcasting System was informed today that Veteran News and Radio reporter Royal Arch Gunnison was among the 19 persons killed yesterday when an RAF Dakota transport crashed in a take-off at Hong Kong airport.
Gunnison, who also represented the North American Newspaper Alliance, was en route to Singapore when the big transport shattered itself against a hillside boulder.
Mrs. Gunnison also received similar word from the British Air Ministry in London. She is reported visiting relatives and friends in the Boston area.
Gunnison was born In Juneau, Alaska. In his younger days, he was torn between conflicting desires to be either a lawyer or an actor. In Geneva, he met several U. S. overseas correspondents, then decided to become one himself.
The veteran reporter was in Manila at the beginning of the Japanese war. He and his wife, the former Marjorie Hathaway, declined an invitation from Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave for Australia, preferring instead to cover the fall of the Philippine capital.
As a result, Gunnison and his wife spent 22 months in captivity. On the basis of this, the reporter wrote a book “So Sorry, No Peace.” They were returned to the United States in an exchange of prisoners and after resting up, Gunnison again returned to the Far East as a radio and news reporter.
Gunnison, who also represented the North American Newspaper Alliance, was en route to Singapore when the big transport shattered itself against a hillside boulder.
Mrs. Gunnison also received similar word from the British Air Ministry in London. She is reported visiting relatives and friends in the Boston area.
Gunnison was born In Juneau, Alaska. In his younger days, he was torn between conflicting desires to be either a lawyer or an actor. In Geneva, he met several U. S. overseas correspondents, then decided to become one himself.
The veteran reporter was in Manila at the beginning of the Japanese war. He and his wife, the former Marjorie Hathaway, declined an invitation from Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave for Australia, preferring instead to cover the fall of the Philippine capital.
As a result, Gunnison and his wife spent 22 months in captivity. On the basis of this, the reporter wrote a book “So Sorry, No Peace.” They were returned to the United States in an exchange of prisoners and after resting up, Gunnison again returned to the Far East as a radio and news reporter.
Nowhere can I find a reference about whether he was a Mason. But he was named by a Mason who had been named by a Mason. For his father’s name was also Royal Arch Gunnison, and was a man who fits the 19th-early 20th Century stereotype that “all prominent men were Masons.” His father was a lawyer who was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt to be a district judge in Alaska in 1904 before going into private practice in Juneau five years later. He drove the last spike of the Valdez-Yukon Railway. He was coroneted a 33° member of the Scottish Rite in Seattle in 1916 and, before arriving in Alaska, was a Past Master, a member of the Knights Templar and, yes, a Royal Arch Mason. A DeMolay Chapter in Juneau was named for him in 1932.
And Royal Arch’s father was named ‘Royal Arch’ by his father for a specific reason. Denslow’s Famous Freemasons reveals:
On the evening of June 24, 1873, his father, Christopher B. Gunnison, attended a meeting of his chapter, Binghamton No. 139, and returning home, found that he was the father of a boy whom he promptly named “Royal Arch.”
It may seem odd to young people that a husband was not with his wife for the delivery (this seems to have been something which became popular after the 1950s) and that a father would arbitrarily name his son without the mother having a say in the matter. But, remember, this was in an era when a wife didn’t have voting rights.
Denslow mentions the son but does not mention a Masonic membership. So, it’s quite possible the heroic war correspondent and prisoner of war was not a Mason.
But in considering the ordeal of being interred for 18 months, one can’t help but think of the fortitude needed to survive. Masons in some parts of the English speaking world are reminded:
Fortitude is that noble and steady purpose of the mind, whereby we are enabled to undergo any pain, peril or danger, when prudentially deemed expedient. This virtue should be deeply impressed on the mind of every Mason as a safeguard against any attack that may be made to extort from him any of those valuable secrets with which he has been so solemnly entrusted upon his first admission into the Lodge.
We, as Masons, can find the lessons of Freemasonry in everyday living. Even by contemplating on something as simple as a name.
