Plez Avery Transou

Plez passed away on March 25, 2017 at the age of 90. He was born in Winston-Salem, NC, the only child of Plez Alexander Transou and Hattie Farrington Transou. He graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School in 1943. After a year at Georgia Tech University, he joined the U.S. Navy and served on the Destroyer Minesweeper DMS-41, the USS Doran, in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he attended and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Plez spent his college summers hitchhiking to Kansas where he spent long hours working in the wheat fields. After graduation, he began a 39-year professional career in the furniture business, and became the Sales and Marketing Director for the Myrtle Desk Company in the Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico territories where he fell in love with the southwestern lifestyle and culture. He moved from North Carolina to Dallas in 1955, where he married the love of his life Diane Parkins of Dallas.

In 1950, Plez began his Masonic career in West Bend Lodge No. 434, Lewisville, NC. In 1970 he affiliated with Dallas Lodge No. 760 where he served as Worshipful Master in 1976-77. In 1987, he co-founded Claud L. Austin Lodge No. 1450 and served as its Secretary until 2005 and its Worshipful Master in 2011-12. In the Grand Lodge of Texas, he served as District Deputy Grand Master in 1980, and as Grand Senior Deacon in 1987. Plez was the recipient of the coveted Golden Trowel Award from Dallas Lodge, Texas Lodge of Research and Claud L. Austin Lodge. In 2004, he was awarded the John Sayles Award by the Grand Lodge of Texas for his lifelong contributions to Freemasonry. And, in 2015, he was the recipient of the Grand Lodge 65-Year Service Award.

An internationally recognized Masonic scholar and author, he was a Charter member of Texas Lodge of Research, and served as the lodge's twentieth Worshipful Master in 1979-80. He was the author of the book, “Masonic Almanacs and Anti-Masonic Almanacs”, published in 1982 by The Masonic Book Club. In 1989, he was elected Secretary of Texas Lodge of Research, and served in that office for fifteen years. He was recognized by TLR in 1989, when he was elected the Lodge's tenth Fellow in Masonic Research. In 1991, in Washington, DC, he was organizing Secretary of the newly created Scottish Rite Research Society, and served in that office for ten years, when he was named the Society's "Founding Secretary Emeritus."

Among his many affiliations, Plez was a member of the DeMolay Legion of Honor; York Rite of Freemasonry; the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry; Hella Temple Shrine; St. Mark's Conclave of the Red Cross of Constantine; the Grand College of Rites, U.S.A.

He was a Thirty-third Degree Scottish Rite Mason, and was elected General Secretary of the Dallas Scottish Rite in 1989, serving in that office for over thirteen years. He also served for many years as an Advisory Trustee of the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

Late in life, Plez earned a Texas Peace Officer's License, and became a Reserve Constable for Dallas County Constables Precinct One. A large part of his inspiration to perform this public service was the fact that each of his sons were involved in law enforcement. Bryan was in the US Secret Service, Eric retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Scott is a member of the Dallas Police Department. In retirement, Plez enjoyed traveling to Santa Fe and North Carolina to visit family and friends, shooting handguns with his friends, baking, photography but most of all spending time with his grandchildren.

Plez was a dedicated husband, father, grandfather and a loyal and trustworthy friend to all that knew him in those capacities.

Plez was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Diane, and young grandson, Jack Louis Transou. Plez is survived by his three sons; daughters-in-law Kristy, Janet and Mandy; and eight grandchildren, Plez Maxwell, Plez Matthew, Amanda Lauren, Patrick Daniel, Ryan Douglas, Taylor Nicole, Blake MacKenzie and MacKenzie Kaufhold. Plez will be buried with his wife at the DFW National Cemetery.