Rockford Area Knights Honor Ed McMahon at Degree Day
January 11, 2018
ROCKFORD—St. Rita Parish, here, hosted a Knighthood Degree day for District 48 of the Knights of Columbus on Nov. 19. Twenty-eight men completed their journey to full Knighthood.
Dignitaries from both Supreme and state organizations also attended to honor Knight Ed McMahon on his lifetime of service to the Knights of Columbus.
McMahon has acted as conferring officer for the John Paul II degree team at 264 formation and Knighthood degrees over 32 years.
As one of the longest serving members of the degree team, he has been brought in at the Supreme level to teach generations of degree team members.
Through his efforts, he has touched the lives of thousands of new Knights, according to a council press release.
McMahon stepped down as conferring officer after Nov. 19 degree day.
McMahon joined the Knights of Columbus at the age of 20 in Chicago with the Father Perez Council 1444 in 1960 after serving in the Marine Corps.
In 1961, he took his fourth degree. He transferred to Rockford in 1968 and became a charter member of the St. Rita Council 7624 on June 26, 1980.
He was our first Advocate. Ed served as Grand Knight in 1983 and the council was honored as the most outstanding council by the state that year. Brother Ed joined the John Paul II Major Degree Team in 1988 and started as the Conferring Officer. Over the course of the next thirty-two years Brother Ed would participate in 335, 2nd and 3rd degrees, acting as the Conferring Officer in 264 of those degrees.
He has worked with every degree staff in Illinois and has traveled in excess of 52000 miles throughout the state as a Conferring Officer. Here at home, Brother Ed has served as the Chancellor for the St. Rita 1st Degree team for the last thirty-seven years. “One of my proudest moments as a Conferring Officer occurred in March, 2012, when I was asked by Supreme to go to Dallas, Texas to serve as Conferring Officer, presenting the new version of the 3rd degree to the Supreme Directors and State Deputies from the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other areas. Serving as a Conferring Officer allowed me to interact with Knights from all areas.” – Sir Knight Ed McMahon.