The Team
Geoffrey Counter
USA - founder
Geoffrey Counter is a charter member and currently the Master and Past Master of Anchor Bell Lodge #868. He is also a member of the World War 1 Historical Society.
Geoff has presented on various topics including Masonic history and philosophy around the Los Angeles area and, in August 2019, presented the Project’s research on the Saint-Nazaire Masonic Club and US/French Banquet of 10 February, 1919 in Saint-Nazaire, France.
We are forever thankful for the contributions of our team to this most important research.
Susan Mitchell Sommers, PhD, FRHistS
usa - resource
Dr. Sommers is a Professor of History at Saint Vincent College.
Dr. Sommers has been a great friend of the Project and an invaluable research resource. We are very honored to have Dr. Sommers assisting us.
You can read her Curriculum Vitae here: https://www.stvincent.edu/docs/default-source/cv/susan-sommers-cv.pdf?sfvrsn=47aaa249_10
Adam Kendall
usa - contributor
Adam Kendall is Past Master of Phoenix Lodge No. 144 and former Master Northern California Research Lodge. He is an editor at The Plumbline Magazine and also the former Collections Manager of the Henry W. Coil Library and Museum of Freemasonry in San Francisco, CA. He is a full member of Quatour Conorati Lodge in London, England.
Francois Cavaignac, Ph.D.
france - contributor
François Cavaignac, born in 1948, is a retired senior civil servant (civil administrator). After starting his career at the Ministry of National Education, he was notably Director of the administrative and financial services of the Public Establishment of the Musée d'Orsay (Ministry of Culture), Deputy Secretary General of the CNRS (Ministry of Research ), and Secretary General of the Interministerial Commission of the Château de Vincennes (Ministry of Defense). Holder of two master's degrees (Public Law and Letters-History), he also holds a doctorate in history with a thesis defended in 2001 at Paris/Panthéon-Sorbonne on Eugène Labiche. A Freemason since 1979, he has participated in the creation of several lodges, serving on various occasions as venerable symbolic lodges and chair of workshops of the Scottish Jurisdiction. His main research themes concern the history of Freemasonry, the perception of Freemasonry by the secular world through certain institutions (theater and literature) and the hermeneutics of Masonic rituals and myths. Since 2004, he has regularly published several articles and books on these subjects. He is a member of the editorial board of Chroniques d'Histoire maçonnique (GODF).
Paley Downs, PGBB
new zealand - contributor
Paley Downs, Past Grand Bible Bearer of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand, is a member two lodges and a Masonic researcher in New Zealand.
Daniel Navama
USA - research assistant
Daniel Navama is charter member of Anchor Bell Lodge #868. He is the lodge historian and former chairman of Collegium Salvitor Ambulando (a philosophocal society) of Hollywood Lodge #355. He is a former Junior Warden of the Southern California Research Lodge. As an independent researcher he has completed architectural history work for the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, regarding the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, CA. He has also completed cultural heritage work for the Museum of San Fernando Valley, covering the history of Lankershim/North Hollywood lodge #542.
Eric Bertrem
france - contributor
Eric Bertrem is an independent researcher from Western France.