A man of simple tastes. He was born on the 5th of May 1910 at Nichols, Georgia, USA. Twenty-two years later he came to the Philippines as a member of the US Armed Forces. Immediately after his honorable discharge, he went into business in this his adopted home, his. “Emerald Archipelago.” In business, he found his fortune. In Lucban, Quezon, he found a wife – nee Mary Gordon – with whom he had three children. He sought initiation into the Mystic World in 1931; in 1936, Worshipful Master of his mother lodge he came to be and, in the 34th Annual Communication of the Philippine Masonic jurisdiction, he was overwhelmingly voted by his Brethren as their 33rd Grand Master. This man of simple tastes firmly believed that Masonry – “has always endeavored to propagate the truth to prepare men individually, so that they in turn may shed the beneficent rays of the light it diffuses in their individual and everyday contact with the rest of mankind.” For him, furthermore, Masonry’s aim is: …to make of its members men who will always subdue their passions to the dictates of their reason; fearless men of conviction, who will fight evil wherever it may be found; men who, with faith in God and a firm belief in those self evident truths taught within our lodges, will go forth and preach them outside, in words as well as in deeds. These fundamental concepts and tenets of Freemasonry, Grand Master Bennett swore would be his constant guide in continuing the magnificent work already started by his predecessors. Cliff, in addition, was an honorary member of several Sister Lodges as well as a member of the Philippine Bodies, A and A.S.R. He was, too, a member of Rosario Villaruel Chapter No.2, OES. Hard working, he was. Yet he did not allow his crowded schedule to bar him from meeting his Brethren. Together, he averred, Masons can really turn into valuable assets for progress, right living, and good citizenship of whatever community or country they may be, or belong to, Cliff, the 33rd Grand Master, was a universal man, a veritable cosmopolite. But, above all, he was very Masonic in his philosophy of life.