Grand First Principal Most Excellent Companion John Merryweather Laing
MEC Itinerary
Biography of the Most Excellent Grand 1st. Principal 2025 – ‘26
Our Grand First Principal, born in Edmonton in 1948, received his education in that city. His journey into Freemasonry began in 1962 when he joined Edmonton’s Jubilee Chapter, Order of DeMolay.
On his sixteenth birthday, he soloed an aircraft which led to a career in aviation as both a Class 1 Flight Instructor, Designated Flight Examiner, and Forest Fire Air Tanker pilot. He and his wife own Adastra Aviation Ltd., now an aircraft leasing company. As a Captain in the Canadian Air Force Reserve, he commanded the Castlegar and New Westminster Air Cadet Squadrons.
Raised in 1997, he is a Past Master and current Treasurer of Tsawwassen Lodge and a member of Lakeside Lodge in Washington. He has served in various officer roles at both lodge and district levels, is a Past Master of the Vancouver Lodge of Education & Research (2008–09), and in 2010 he was appointed Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of South Australia and Northern Territory. 2018 saw him appointed Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of BC and Yukon, and in 2023, he served as D.D.G.M., District 25 for M.W. Bro. Arthur Smith.
Exalted to the Royal Arch in Joppa Chapter No. 31 in September 2004, he later served as its First Principal (2015–16) and joined Simon Fraser Chapter No. 40 in 2009. He has contributed to both chapters as Scribe Ezra and was elected Grand Principal Sojourner in 2017. He holds life memberships in both the Keystone of Life Foundation and the Royal Arch Masonic Home Foundation.
Having presided in the East with all four principal York Rite bodies, he is a Member of the Knights of the York Rite Cross of Honour, Past Governor of York Rite College No. 44, and serves as Recorder at Royal City Conclave No. 22 Red Cross of Constantine (Canadian Constitution). He is a Past Grand Inspector General for the Grand Council of Cryptic Rite Masons of Western Canada. He currently serves as Recorder of Zabud Council No. 1, Cryptic Rite Western Canada, which he joined in 2008. He is a Preceptor at Columbia Preceptory No. 34, having joined in 2007. He was invested as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine in 2022.
He and Moyna, his wife of fifty-three years, have lived in Delta since 1980. His interests include cruising travel, golf, garden model railroad, collecting cars, and he is also a Scuba Divemaster.