By Brian French
Dedicated with love and honor to Noble Leroy French Jr.
“Not for self, but for others.” — The spirit of Shriners International
A Brotherhood Built on Giving
They wear the fez. They ride the tiny cars in parades. They march in crisp formation beneath desert sun and city sky. But behind the pageantry and the fellowship lies something far more profound — a century-long commitment to healing children, serving communities, and embodying the highest ideals of American brotherhood. They are called Noble. And for the last fifty years, the Nobles of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine — known the world over simply as Shriners — have quietly changed countless lives across the United States and beyond.
The Foundation: A Hospital System Like No Other
Perhaps no single contribution Shriners have made to American life is more consequential than the creation and sustained operation of Shriners Hospitals for Children. What began in 1922 as a single hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, grew into one of the most remarkable healthcare networks in human history — one funded entirely by Shrine fraternal dues, donations, and endowments, and one that for decades asked families for nothing in return.
For most of the past fifty years, children who arrived at Shriners Hospitals received world-class medical care completely free of charge. No insurance required. No bill sent home. Families who had nowhere else to turn found open doors, warm staff, and surgeons who had dedicated their careers to the most complex pediatric cases in orthopedics, burn care, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate reconstruction.
By the early 2000s, the Shriners Hospitals for Children network had grown to 22 hospitals across North America, including locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. These hospitals became internationally recognized centers of excellence. The burn centers — including facilities in Cincinnati, Sacramento, Boston, and Galveston — set the global standard for pediatric burn treatment, pioneering techniques that have saved thousands of young lives through innovations adopted worldwide.
The orthopedic hospitals, meanwhile, treated children with scoliosis, bone diseases, limb differences, and conditions that left families desperate for answers. Parents drove thousands of miles. Grandparents wept in waiting rooms. And children — some of whom had been told they would never walk — walked out. The Shriners made that possible.
The Burn Centers: Pioneers of Modern Healing
Among the most impactful chapters in Shriners’ recent history is the story of their burn care network. In the 1970s, surviving a serious burn as a child was far from certain. The Shriners Hospitals for Children, through decades of dedicated research and clinical innovation, helped transform that reality.
Shriners Hospitals for Children — Boston and its counterparts pioneered the development of artificial skin substitutes in collaboration with researchers at MIT, giving burn patients a fighting chance at recovery with significantly less scarring. This research, funded in large part by the Shrine fraternity, contributed foundational knowledge to modern burn medicine — and those discoveries spread into the broader medical community, influencing how burns are treated in emergency rooms and trauma centers across America and around the world.
Over the past five decades, Shriners Hospitals have treated more than one million children with burns, orthopedic conditions, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate conditions. The dollar value of that donated care stretches into the billions. The human value is incalculable.
Parades, Philanthropy, and Public Life
To the average American, Shriners are most visible in the public square — riding their signature miniature motorcycles and go-karts in Fourth of July parades, marching in full ceremonial dress, and raising money through circuses, temple events, and community fundraisers. This visibility has always been part of the Shrine’s mission: to be seen as neighbors, as pillars of community, as men who combine celebration with purpose.
The Shrine Circus, a beloved American tradition for generations, generated millions of dollars annually for children’s healthcare throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. Communities across the country looked forward to its arrival as both entertainment and an act of civic generosity — knowing that the fun they were having was also healing a child somewhere they might never meet.
Nobles have also been deeply embedded in American civic life beyond the hospitals. Shriners International chapters, known as temples, operate across the country and sponsor scholarship funds, support veterans’ causes, participate in disaster relief, blood drives, food banks, and educational programs. In smaller towns especially, the local Shrine temple has long served as an anchor institution — a gathering place for men of goodwill who believe that brotherhood and charity are not merely ideals but obligations.
Veterans, Service Members, and National Pride
The Shriners have long drawn heavily from the ranks of American veterans, and the fraternity has historically maintained a deep and authentic commitment to honoring military service. Many temples sponsor programs that support veterans’ rehabilitation, mental health, and reintegration into civilian life. The Shrine’s culture of brotherhood — where men lean on one another and no one is left behind — has served as an informal but powerful support structure for former service members who joined the fraternity after their military careers.
This connection to veterans reflects something essential about the Shriners’ character: they are men who have served, who understand sacrifice, and who bring that ethic into everything they do.
Adapting to a Changing America
The last fifty years have not been without challenge. Like many fraternal organizations born in an earlier era, Shriners International has navigated the difficult currents of a changing America — declining membership in traditional fraternities, shifting demographics, and evolving expectations. The organization has responded with reform, adaptation, and a renewed focus on its core charitable mission.
In 2010, Shriners Hospitals for Children updated its admissions policy to accept patients with private insurance or Medicaid, while continuing to ensure that no child is ever turned away for inability to pay. This change allowed the hospitals to remain financially sustainable while honoring the founding promise that has defined them for a century.
The fraternity has also worked to modernize its appeal, emphasizing that membership is not merely about ceremony and tradition but about belonging to a brotherhood that does real, tangible good in the world. The message is simple and powerful: if you want to be part of something that matters, become a Noble.
The Nobility of Brotherhood
The word Noble carries weight. It is not merely a title — it is a calling. To be called Noble in the Shrine is to accept that one’s life is not entirely one’s own, that belonging to a brotherhood means carrying one another through difficulty, celebrating one another’s joys, and working together toward something greater than any one man can accomplish alone.
For fifty years, across thousands of American communities — in hospital wards where children fought for their lives, in parade routes where crowds cheered, in lodge halls where men gathered to remember why community matters — Shriners have lived up to that title. They have been Noble in the truest sense of the word. They have driven the tiny cars. They have worn the red fez with pride. And in doing so, they have healed broken bodies, lifted broken spirits, and held together the fabric of American civic life with laughter, ceremony, and an unshakable commitment to the children who need them most.
A Final Word
The history of Shriners in America over the last half-century is, at its heart, a history of ordinary men doing extraordinary things. Farmers and factory workers, lawyers and laborers, doctors and draftsmen — all united under the fez, all answering the same call, all deserving to be remembered.
This article is dedicated with deep respect and affection to Noble Leroy French Jr. — a man who understood what it means to be called Noble, and who lived that title with grace, loyalty, and love. His legacy endures in every child healed, every brother supported, and every parade where the fez catches the sunlight and a crowd remembers, if only for a moment, that there are still men in this world who give without asking anything in return.
For the children. For the brotherhood. For the Nobles.
Shriners International — Shriners Hospitals for Children — Founded in service, sustained by brotherhood.
