Daniel Calvin Jenkins was born at Shawnee, Perry County, Ohio on October 24, 1911, the son of Daniel Calvin and E1izabeth Dawson Jenkins. He was graduated from the high school in New Lexington, Ohio, in 1929. During the next four years he was a student at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, where, in 1933, he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree. After three years’ attendance at the College of Law, University of Cincinnati, he received the bachelor of law degree in 1936. He practiced law at New Lexington until 1941 when he volunteered for service in the Army of the United States and was inducted as a private in the infantry.
He received his commission as a second lieutenant at The Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1942 and remained there as an instructor for the following eighteen months. As a captain he was assigned to the XII Corps headquarters at Columbia and Fort Jackson, South Carolina, as an assistant G-3. After graduation from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he continued his service with XII Corps in the European Theater of operations as a major. He was separated from the service in 1945 and continued to serve as an instructor in the United States Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel until his resignation in 1955.
On July 31, 1943, he was married to Katharine Jean Montgomery, a graduate of Wellesley College, and a resident of Newark, Ohio. They were the parents of four children.
After his return from the army he resumed his practice of law in New Lexington. In 1948 he was elected judge of the Probate and Juvenile Courts of Perry County, Ohio, an office he held for thirty years before retiring in 1979.
His civic activities have included: member of New Lexington Village Council, president of the Ohio Association of Probate Court Judges, Scout-master, vice-president of the Zane Trace Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, and county chairman of Red Cross drives. He was a member of The First United Methodist Church of New Lexington. He has served The Methodist Church as chairman of the board of trustees and lay leader of his own church, lay leader of Zanesville District, member of the Ohio Conference Board of Lay Activities, delegate to Jurisdictional Conference, member of the General Board of Social and Economic Relations, organizing committee for the Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio, and as a member of the board of trustees of Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio.
He is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Perry County and Ohio State Bar Associations, Judicial Council of Ohio representing the probate judges in Ohio, Phi Delta Phi, legal, and Phi Gamma Delta, social, fraternities.
He was made a Master Mason in New Lexington Lodge No. 250, F. & A.M., New Lexington, Ohio, on April 20, 1933, and installed as Master in 1946.
In the York Rite he was exalted a Royal Arch Mason in New Lexington Chapter No. 149, on August 11, 1933, and installed as High Priest in 1938; was received as a Royal and Select Master in New Lexington Council on August 15, 1933, and installed as Master in 1938; was created a Knight Templar in New Lexington Commandery No. 57 on September 22, 1933, and installed as Commander in 1939.
He became a member of each of the bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in the Valley of Columbus at the November reunion in 1938. He served as Commander in Chief of Scioto Consistory from 1969-1972.
He was created an honorary member of the Supreme Council, 33°, at Buffalo, New York, September 23, 1959.
He was also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Holy Royal Arch Knights Templar Priests, Red Cross of Constantine; Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
In October of 1948 he was appointed by M. W. Brother L. Todd McKinney to serve as District Deputy Grand Master for the Thirteenth Masonic District of Ohio and served in that capacity for three years. M. W. Brother Ed. W. Kuns, appointed him Junior Grand Deacon in October, 1954, and he subsequently served in the various appointive and elective stations and places in the Grand Lodge of Ohio line until elected and installed as Grand Master in October, 1961, at Toledo, Ohio.
He served the Grand Lodge for many years as the Chairman of the Jurisprudence Committee.
He served 10 years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Masonic Home, and was Vice President when he resigned a few months ago.
Religious services were held May 19 at the First United Methodist Church, New Lexington, with interment in New Lexington Cemetery, New Lexington, Ohio.