On a September Sunday morning, just prior to a Green Bay Packers victory that afternoon, five Brothers from Northeast Wisconsin gathered and visited Brother Robert Vits, a 33rd Degree Mason and Brother from both the Manitowoc and Sturgeon Bay’s Henry S. Baird Masonic Lodges.
Brother Vits celebrated 65 years as a Mason during the pandemic back in 2020. Now, at a young 96 years of age, Brother Vits is actually a 68 year Brother and loyal member of our fantastic fraternity!
The visiting Brothers spent nearly two hours at Brother Robert’s beautiful home on the Fox River in De Pere as he talked about his personal and Masonic histories. His great-grandfather was a hero of the Civil War, his grandfather served as a postmaster general under President Grover Cleveland and in the Wisconsin State Legislature, and the aluminum factory his family founded and operated in Manitowoc, Mirro Aluminum, supplied the metal shell casing for some of the most important munitions in World War II. The factory is more famous, however, for it’s mass production of cookware, aluminum boats, and metal circular snow gliders (as seen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation).
Brother Vits is a living legend – and we are so proud to have him as a fellow Brother and member of Wisconsin Freemasonry!
