Cross & Crescent

Charlie Cumpstone (Purdue 1962) received countless standing ovations at the recent Shriners of North America annual convention in Tampa, Florida.

After serving 40 years with the organization, Cumpstone officially retired in July as the Shriners’ executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“Quite honestly, it got quite old,” Cumpstone says very humbly. “After you’ve been thanked and had standing ovations, you say enough.”

The Move to Tampa

In 1966, Cumpstone began his four-decade career with the Shriners as an assistant to the executive director in Chicago, Illinois, after graduating from Purdue University.

After being with the Shriners for a little more than a decade, Cumpstone became one of the driving forces behind moving the Shriners’ headquarters from Chicago, Illinois, to Tampa, Florida, in 1979.

“Tampa is a wonderful town to live in,” he says. “In Chicago, we were not really a big player as there were so many organizations. In Tampa, it’s allowed me to get heavily involved in the internal operations of the city. It’s given us a lot more visibility.”

Today, there are 191 Shrine Temples, or chapters, located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Republic of Panama; while more informal Shrine Clubs are located around the world.

The Tampa, Florida, headquarters has 212 employees, which includes staff for both the Shriners of North America and the Shriners Hospital for Children.

Shriners History

Shriners was founded in 1872 by two Masons and it is rooted in Freemasonry. It is open only to members of that brotherhood, which was a very successful formula in the first half of the 20th century when Masonry was booming.

In the years after World War II, men returned home looking for the kind of camaraderie they had enjoyed while enlisted. Shrine founders saw Masonry as the perfect pool from which to recruit members.

The Shrine was founded as a fun alternative to Masonry. The founders believed in the serious nature of Masonry but wanted to stress “fun and fellowship” and eventually added “philanthropy.”

This is one reason the fez was used — to lend an exotic, party atmosphere and add intrigue.

Improving Recruitment

Like most service clubs, Shriners’ membership has declined over the past two decades. In 1979, Shriners included nearly 1 million men. Today, they are less than half as strong at approximately 411,000 members.

“We see the biggest problem is the baby boomers, who simply didn’t join things,” Cumpstone says.

To address the new environment for recruitment, the Shriners began testing several new pilot programs for new members, including hiring babysitters and holding family nights. Members interested in computers and golf also now have their own clubs.

“With a college fraternity, you don’t much have a chance to be ignored when you’re an associate,” Cumpstone says. “Unfortunately, in the Shrine and in Masonry, you join and there’s a tendency to ignore the new guy.”

As a result, another big emphasis is to make sure that during the first 100 days a new member attends the meetings and has someone mentoring him to make sure he gets into the swing of things, Cumpstone says.

He says the unique membership challenge today for the Shriners is similar to what many churches are facing in terms of the wide age range they must appeal to — anywhere from 23- to 75-years-old.

Only about 27 percent of Masons become Shriners, a percentage that has remained consistent during Cumpstone’s tenure.

Clowns and Motorcycles

Over the years, the Shriners has branched out to include opportunities for members to do many activities they have always wanted to do, from being a clown to riding a motorcycle. Units were formed to accommodate these groups and many joined as a result.

“It wasn’t that way many years ago; people who rode motorcycles were not bankers and lawyers and so forth,” Cumpstone says. “Now that’s all changed. Harley Davidson took care of that.”

Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted to ride a motorcycle and you were a Shriner, it was okay. If you weren’t, you were considered to be a part of the Hell’s Angels or Outlaws.

Fun with a Few Rules

With any organization, including the Shriners, members have to understand that there are rules, regulations, and codes they must follow.

“Some days you have to have a sense of humor or you’d absolutely tear your hair out,” Cumpstone says. “When you do something professionally that everybody else does for fun, you have to try to seek a balance.”

But at the same time Cumpstone did not want to take the fun out of the organization. “You do have to walk a very, very careful line,” he says.

Lambda Chi Experience

Cumpstone joined Lambda Chi Alpha after going through rush at Purdue and being encouraged by a high school friend who was then a sophomore and a brother.

About his Lambda Chi experience and being initiated, Cumpstone says it’s “one of those things in your life that definitely changes you — it really changes you.”

Since much of Lambda Chi’s ritual came from the Masonic ritual, Cumpstone says. This made the Lambda Chi Alpha initiation ceremony mean even more to him when he became a Mason.

“I enjoy the ritual,” he says. “I really do. It’s what sets us apart from many of the other organizations.”

Cumpstone was the social chairman during his years at Lambda Chi Alpha, an experience that helped him with his future job as head of the Shriners.

“It was a great education, having to put together functions, ordering materials, and do all the planning,” he says.

At the time, Cumpstone said there were about 64 members in the chapter. Unfortunately, the original house burned down in the mid-1960s as a result of an electrical fire.

He does stay in touch with many of the brothers he went to school with and recently went back to Purdue for his 40th reunion.

“I don’t have much to do with the kids that I went to high school with,” he says. “I’ve long since moved on and they’ve moved on. But with my fraternity brothers, I stay in touch with them.”

“Every time I look at my Christmas card list, the names are either family, Shriners, or Lambda Chi Alpha brothers,” Cumpstone says.

The Next Chapter

With his retirement, Cumpstone is looking forward to having his weekends off, for his Shriner duties used to occupy more than half of his weekends in any given year.

His immediate plans will include traveling with his wife and spending more time with his children and grandchildren.

Cumpstone also will spend time reflecting on all the wonderful people he has met over the years and the tremendous friendships he has formed with them.

“I hope that I’ve left an imprint on the organization,” he says. “That’s all you can hope for with anything. That you’ve left an imprint some place.”