Attaining Potentate
Source: Williamson Daily News
WILLIAMSON — Sam Kap-ourales was mayor of Williamson for 20 years and continues to hold important posts on the state level, but nothing has excited him more than becoming Potentate of Beni Kedem Temple in Charleston.
Kapourales was installed as Potentate in a ceremony held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Beni Kedem Temple located on Capitol Street in Charleston, opposite the Charleston Civic Center. John Arbuckle of Lewisburg, a past potentate, was the installing officer.
Approximately a dozen members of the Tug Valley Shrine Club, of which Mingo County Circuit Clerk Grant Preece is president, attended the installation.
Perhaps the fact he’s the first Mason residing in Mingo County to become head of the Beni Kedem Temple accounts for Kapourales’ satisfaction with his advancement in the Masonic circle. He said he is ready to play an important role in one of the nation’s biggest philanthropic organizations.
The only other person from Mingo County to serve as Potentate was C.P. “Curley” Justice, but he had been living in Charleston for some time when installed in that office. The late Mack Hall, an educator of the Lenore area was elected as Potentate but died before he could be installed.
Statewide, the Shrine has 3,000 members. There are 10 local Shrine Clubs in the state, including Tug Valley Shriners at Williamson. This is one of West Virginia’s Masonic organizations.
“It’s a tremendous responsibility,” Kapourales said of his election as Potentate. He was earlier elected to the Divan, which is composed of what is referred to as a board of directors.
“I am looking forward to my term as Potentate,” said Kapourales. “We do a lot of work for the crippled children. In Mingo County, the Tug Valley Shrine Club has two drivers, Franklin Cisco and “Red” Daniels, who transport, free of charge, crippled children and their parents or guardian, to the Shriners Hospital in Lexington, Ky. for pediatric treatment.
He noted that the Shriners do a tremendous job raising funds to underwrite their work with crippled children and those suffering burns. He said it costs from $15,000 to $20,000 per child when a burned child is transported by helicopter to the Burns Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Freemasonry became very popular in colonial America. Our first president of the United States, George Washington, was a Mason. Benjamin Franklin served as head of the fraternity in Pennsylvania, as did Paul Revere and Joseph Warren in Massachusetts, and other well-known Masons involved with the founding of America. Chief Justice John Marshall, another Mason, shaped the U.S. Supreme Court into its present form.
Over the centuries, Freemasonry has developed into a worldwide fraternity emphasizing personal study, self-improvement, and social betterment via individual involvement and philanthropy.
During the 1800s and early 1900s, the Masonic tradition of founding orphanages, homes for widows, and homes for the aged provided the only security many people knew.
Today in North America, the Masonic Fraternity continues this tradition by giving almost $1.5 million each day to causes that range from operating children’s hospitals, providing treatment for childhood language disorders, treating eye diseases, funding medical research, contributing to local community service, and providing care to Masons and their families at Masonic Homes.
Kapourales can identify closely with work on childhood language disorders. He is president of the Childhood Language Cen-ter in Charleston, where 60 children with speech problems receive help with their problems. “I enjoy helping people, particularly children,” he said.
Not only did he guide affairs of Williamson for two decades, but Kap-ourales tended to his business organization, Kapour-ales Properties LLC (Limited Liability Corpo-ration). He also was deeply involved in many community activities.
His aim is becoming a 50-year Mason (in four years), following in the footsteps of his late father, George Kapourales, who was active in Masonry for a half century or longer.
“I became a Master Mason in October 1962 and that same year took the York Rite and became a Shriner,” he said. The York Rite consisted of the chapter and Williamson Commandery. He next took the Scottish Rite and became a 33rd degree Mason in 1993.
Following his lengthy stint as mayor (1979-2000), he became one of three members on the board of the West Virginia Health Care Authority. The board supervises 45 employees. When a hospital in the state applies for a rate increase or a Certificate of Need to obtain equipment of $2 million, this request is directed to the Authority for approval.
A pharmacist by training and experience, as well as a businessman and public servant, Kapourales also has been a member of the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy since 1980. He has received numerous awards through the years, including the Presidential Citation awarded by the West Virginia State Medical Association to recognize the achievements of lay citizens such as Kapourales.
Among other memberships in past years, Kapourales was chairman of the Advisory Board of Southern West Virginia Community College of Nursing. He was a sponsor of the Tug Valley Area Ambulance Service, and worked to recruit needed medical specialties for Tug Valley. To aid in the recruitment process, he has even provided office space for physicians moving into the community.
Kapourales said a one-day Scottish Rite reunion and Shrine ceremonial will be held in Williamson on Saturday, June 13. The event has been held here before. This year’s activities will be tied in with the Tug Valley Shrine Club’s annual Car Show. He said members of El Hasa Temple in Ashland, Ky., are being invited to participate.
Now 73 years of age, Kapourales shows no signs of slowing down.
“I bought a farm in Monroe County with the idea that I would take breaks from my activities and enjoy the rural life, but I have been to the farm but one time,” he said.
Part of his time since 1964 has been occupied as a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Wil-liamson. He also is on the board of directors of the First Bank of Charleston in the state capital.
His wife, “Dee”. is almost as busy as her husband. She is a former member of the Mingo County Board of Education and currently is president of the West Virginia Humanities Council. She also is a member of the Wildwood Garden Club in Williamson and the Mingo-Pike Branch of American Association of University Women.
The Kapourales have two daughters: Mrs. Stephie Anna Ramsley, who resides with her husband and son, Christopher Samuel. in Baden, Pa., and Susanna Kapourales, a second-year student in the Marshall University School of Mediine, Huntington, with interest in pediatrics.
As a parting thought, Kapourales noted that the four million Masons worldwide continue to help men and women face the problems of the 21st century by building bridges of brotherhood and instilling in the hearts of men ideals for a better tomorrow.