Brent Morris, 33°, is Managing Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal of the Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jurisdiction U.S.A., the largest-circulation Masonic magazine in the world. He became a Master Mason in 1971. He is thrice Past Master (1979, 2000, 2017) of Patmos Lodge No. 70, Ellicott City, Maryland, Past Grand Director of Ceremonies of the Grand Lodge of Maryland (1980), Master (2007—2008) of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London, one of the forty Fellows of the Philalethes Society, a Fellow of The Masonic Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Phylaxis Society, Editor of Heredom, the transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society, and Grand Abbot of the Society of Blue Friars, Past High Priest of Zeredathah Chapter No. 35, Royal Arch Masons, a member of the Royal and Select Masters, the Knights Templar, the Red Cross of Constantine, the Royal Order of Scotland, the Allied Masonic Degrees, and Chief Adept, IX°, Maryland College Societas Rosicruciana In Civitatibus Foederatis.
Brent has a B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. in mathematics and an M.S. in computer science. His doctoral dissertation is on the mathematics of card shuffling, and he worked his way through college as a performing magician.
He retired in 2000 after 25 years as a mathematician with the U.S. federal government, has taught at Duke, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington Universities. He has been invited to lecture at Royal Holloway College, the Manchester Statistical Society, the Worshipful Livery of Makers of Playing Cards, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mathematical Association of America, and at over 100 American universities.
His technical publications include two patents, eight refereed papers, and a book on the mathematics of card shuffling. He is author or editor of eight books on Freemasonry, most recently Allegorical Conversations, The Most Secret Mysteries of the High Degrees of Masonry Unveiled, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry.