‘The Moose has Been a Part of My Life for as Long as I Can Remember’
Don Eisel recalls how he learned what a Family Fraternity was all about—years before the term was even coined
By MICHAEL McCULLOH
> Supreme Governor Don Eisel has many happy memories from his childhood in Ohio’s capital city of Columbus. Most of these memories revolve around simple times with his family—and the Moose.
As far as Eisel is concerned, the two are inseparable.
Eisel has basically lived and breathed Moose activities as long as he can remember. His father, Arthur Eisel Sr., was active in the Moose at Columbus Lodge 11 and “talked Moose all the time,” Eisel said. His father would frequently take young “Donny,” and big brother Art Jr., into the Lodge when they were youngsters in the late 1930s and early ’40s.
“It was truly a Moose Family Center, long before we ever coined the term,” he said. “My brother and I would play games, relax and hang out with friendly people,” he said.
Art Eisel Sr., who worked in Ohio state government, continued to be active in the Moose, ultimately being conferred with the Fellowship Degree of Honor.
A big thrill came for Donny a few years later in 1947, when he was just 13. The International Convention came to Columbus for the first time that year, and Don and his brother got an idea just how big the Moose fraternity was. The town was abuzz with 20,000 Moose men and women in that hot and humid third week in August, and it was truly a sight to see, Eisel recalls. One member from northern Ontario had even hauled two full-grown Moose to the Convention!
The enterprising Eisel boys weren’t about to let an income opportunity pass, and got their father’s permission to set up a shoeshine stand at the Dexler-Wallach Hotel, where a majority of the Moose members were staying.
Among the dignitaries whom Eisel saw was Mooseheart’s founder himself, attending what was to be his last Moose convention, Director General James J. Davis, in frail health at 73.
“Not many people are around who can still say they met him,” Eisel said. (Davis, speaking in an un-air-conditioned hall, collapsed at the lectern that week; he died that November.)
Five years later, Eisel was married to his childhood sweetheart Dolores, just weeks after graduating from high school in 1952. Their first child, Pamela,was born a little more than a year later; Don was just 19 and Dolores 18. Eisel was determined to get past his youthful apprehensions, working hard to help support his growing family.
He got himself trained and certified as a plumber/pipefitter, soon going to work for the Columbus office of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Eisel ultimately was named HUD’s Director of Mechanical Operations for the Columbus area in 1975. He was in charge of 7,000 housing units, and supervised a staff of 150.
He was always on call, with three phones at his side, and it would not be uncommon for Eisel to be awakened in the wee hours, with a call that a water line had broken.
For the first seven years of their marriage, Eisel had to direct his full efforts to his family, training and career, but at age 25 in 1959, he found he had the time to join Columbus Lodge 11 and become active. He was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms shortly after joining, and in spring 1962 he became the youngest Governor in Columbus 11’s history, winning election over several competing candidates in a 2,800-member Lodge. He was just 30 in 1964 when he received the Fellowship Degree of Honor; by 1972 he was President of the Ohio State Moose Association when he was called to receive the Pilgrim Degree of Merit that spring.
From 1972-1980, he served as Secretary of the Ohio Association, then from 1980-1989 he became its full-time State Director—and during his tenure in that post, Ohio Moose membership grew to 92,000 male members in 111 Lodges! (Today, Ohio has 121 Lodges and 103,000 men.)
Among his Moose mentors was the late Jay Stoehr, who served as Director of Membership from 1974-1988. Stoehr, a fellow Buckeye from Steubenville, taught him an important lesson: even though you might be in a hall of 3,000 people, the most important person is the one whom you’re speaking right at the moment.
Eisel’s Moose career briefly brought him to headquarters at Mooseheart in 1992-93, serving as Assistant Director of the Membership Department under William B. Airey.
As Supreme Governor, Eisel plans on doing his best to promote Mooseheart and Moosehaven, increase the fraternity’s membership—and promote the “Donny Moose” program, involving a cuddly stuffed Moose with a grey chinbeard, designed to comfort senior citizens.
Eisel is asking the fraternity to distribute them to nursing homes, convalescent centers, hospitals and other facilities where the elderly may be residing. Click here for more information.
“I sincerely believe in the Moose program because of all the philanthropic endeavors our members are involved with every day across the continent,” he said.
Jim Grandy has served with Eisel in the Ohio Association for more than 15 years, and could not be happier to see him become the fraternity’s chief presiding officer.
“In my mind, if you were to look up the definition in the dictionary for Moose, you’ll find a picture of Don Eisel,” Grandy said. “If any man knows the Moose program in Ohio, it has to be Don.”
“Don is suave and debonair, presenting himself well whether a representative of the Executive Board or a member of the International Softball Committee,” Grandy added. “I look for Don to serve this coming year with distinction.”
Don and Dolores Eisel are the parents of five sons and daughters and the grandparents of ten more children.
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Please click on any photograph below to view a larger image.
Supreme Governor Don R. Eisel
Eisel (second from right, seated) was a member of Columbus Lodge 11’s state champion Ritual staff in 1968; this photo dates from 1962.
Eisel (left) was already a rising young star in the Moose fraternity by 1973, when, as Ohio State Moose Association President, he met with then-Director General Paul P. Schmitz (center) and Ohio State Director Loyd Hawley.
Eisel (left) received the 1981 “Fraternalist of the Year” award from the Ohio Council of Fraternal and Service Organizations— whose president that year was Eisel’s longtime friend and colleague Bill Airey (at that point more than seven years away from succeeding Jay Stoehr as the Moose fraternity’s Director of Membership). |
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August/September/October 2004
