ALUMNI ALIVE!
New Name. New Look. New Features.
Newsletter for Alumni and Friends SPRING 2017
Check it out!
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
2 The real meaning of Scouting and being a Scouter.
4 Top Alumnus named for 2016.
6 Did you earn the title of “Alumni Spelling Bee Champ?”
7 Grow your reach through alumni efforts.
9 You’re going to win with these survival hacks!
13 Can you see the difference in these Scouts?
A Message From The Director Charles Kettering, who held 186 patents and developed the electric starter for automobiles, once said, “My interest is in the future. I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” Sounds like a good idea. The youth we serve in Scouting are going to spend a lifetime influenced by the values, habits, interests, and spiritual growth they’re experiencing now. A number of people play a part in this future: parents, schools, and churches. Scouting serves all three of these foundations of society. It is not uncommon to hear a successful leader say, “I was a Scout, and I’ll never forget it,” or “I don’t remember my teacher’s names, but I remember my Scout leader’s name,” or “I use skills from Scouting every day.” Volunteer Scouters, you help shape the future. My guess is that Scouting alumni do this more than they know. As we look ahead to the summer months—a time during which so many valuable Scouting memories are made—Scouting Alumni and Friends (formerly known as the Scouting Alumni Association) aims to help shape the future of Scouts at the upcoming 2017 National Jamboree. Our exhibit will welcome all visitors, and will offer training sessions on how to conduct an alumni event, as well as best practices for working with Scouting alumni. Recently, I was asked to provide a report to our national committee covering what is new with the Boy Scouts of America. After some consideration, I decided that the most important “new” things aren’t the new training materials, program improvements, or even camp development on which I ought to report. I thought, instead, about the life that was saved through Scouting skills; about the new units that were organized and what they mean to boys and families; about the experience of a young person mastering a mile swim or passing an Eagle Scout board of review or facing a fear and riding the zip line at the jamboree. These are the important new things. All of these things—and many more like them—are the real new experiences of Scouting. I hope to see you on the trail. On behalf of our millions of Scouts, thank you for your support of and service to Scouting.
Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni and Friends
ALUMNI NEWS New Name, Same Mission Since its founding in 2011, the Scouting Alumni Association (SAA) has accomplished many things. It has developed the Scouting Alumni Network 1.0, where Scouting alumni can find one another. It has gained approval of the Alumni Award square knot. And, it has offered members at the Pathfinder level a host of benefits, ranging from discounts on insurance to free Scouting magazine subscriptions. Unfortunately, it has also sown a bit of confusion, thanks to the central word in its name: alumni. While SAA leaders have always been quick to point out that the group uses an expansive definition of the word—one that encompasses anyone who’s been touched by Scouting—confusion still exists, as SAA Chairman Ray Capp learned firsthand. “I asked 15 of the most involved people and another dozen people who are peripherally involved, and nobody could tell me what an alumnus of Scouting was,” he says. “We had a wide disparity of who the organization was trying to serve and what it was for.” To reduce the confusion, the national SAA committee in February approved a new name: Scouting Alumni and Friends. The new name makes it clear that the group is open to everyone who wants to help further Scouting’s mission.
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Much of the confusion Capp encountered stemmed from the fact that there is not a defined time that someone graduates from Scouting. Is it when they turn 18? Is it when they earn the Eagle Scout Award? What about a young woman in Venturing who might earn the Summit Award at age 20? The new name sidesteps those questions. More importantly, however, it eliminates the idea that you could graduate in the first place. As Capp notes, “You never graduate from Scouting. You might walk away for a while, but you’re still involved.” The new name and logo will be formally introduced at the National Annual Meeting in May. At the same time, Scouting Alumni and Friends are looking to unveil a new service award, one that recognizes those who have—so far—served 25, 50, or 75 years. You can follow Scouting Alumni and Friends on their social media channels to keep up with the lastest news.
Top Alumnus Named for 2016 Astronaut. President. Senator. Scientist. Statesmen. Athlete. Justice. Explorer. Hero. Those are just some of the roles held by alumni of the Boy Scouts of America.
podcast, “The Way I Heard It”—created in part as an homage to broadcasting legend Paul Harvey—is now in its second year and can be heard at http://mikerowe.com/podcast/.
Nobel Prize. Pulitzer Prize. Medal of Honor. Presidential Medal of Freedom. Emmy. Grammy. Oscar. Those are just some of the accolades earned by those who first earned Bobcat badges and Tenderfoot pins.
Larson says he is happy that Rowe repeated in 2016, but he would not mind seeing a new winner in 2017. “I am waiting for a group to launch a campaign for their Scoutmaster, since there are no real restrictions,” he says. “I would think that would be pretty neat, but I haven’t seen it done yet. Maybe in the future … who knows?”
For more than a century, Scouting alumni have excelled in every arena of human endeavor. Although it is all but impossible to rank alumni by accomplishment, the Scouting Alumni Association has tried over the last two years to identify America’s most famous Scouting alum. “Scouting alums are being recognized for accomplishing interesting things all throughout the year,” says Associate Director Ryan Larson. “So we came up with a little contest where individuals can vote for the most famous alumnus or alumna of the current year. We set no restrictions on who individuals can vote for, other than that we limit the amount of times they can vote to 10 submissions.”
Check Scouting Alumni and Friends’ Facebook page (https:// www.facebook.com/ScoutingAlumniFriends/) for information on the next round of voting.
For 2016, the winner was TV personality Mike Rowe, who narrowly beat Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and astronaut Neil Armstrong. (Rowe also won the inaugural contest.) When told the news, Rowe was both humbled and, well, not so humbled. “Obviously, I’m flattered. It’s always nice to win, even when there’s no trophy to be had,” he said. “But I’m also mortified— and concerned that those voting may have overlooked the presence of Neil Armstrong, whose accomplishments, as I recall, were slightly more remarkable than my various explorations of America’s sewers. Happily, I can still lord my victory over Rex Tillerson, who at present is the only secretary of state I’ve ever bested at anything.” An Eagle Scout who is best known as the host of TV’s “Dirty Jobs” series, Rowe has more recently made a name for himself as a passionate advocate of the skilled trades, which are often overlooked in the push to get every student into college. He has testified before congressional committees several times about how to close America’s widening skills gap, and his mikeroweWORKS Foundation (http://profoundlydisconnected. com/) has been instrumental in granting more than $3 million in scholarships for trade schools across the country. His popular
Mike Rowe
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Letter to the Editor Dear Scouting Alumni and Friends: In 2008, I had emergency surgery on my stomach that caused a leak. I became septic. I then slipped into a coma for thirty days, and since then have had 14 major surgeries to repair the damage; I even lost the ability to walk and talk. I now have nerve damage in both legs and a ton of scar tissue that leaves me in pain 24/7. But, I am a fighter and I push myself everyday to maintain the ability to walk with a cane, drive myself to and from doctor appointments, and take my daughter to all of her after school activities. I ultimately had to retire from my job, which to me was a big blow. I loved my job and worked hard to provide for my wife and daughter. My wife is the main reason I am still alive. She had to make decisions on my behalf to ensure the doctors and nurses were taking good care of me. I don’t think I would have even reconnected with Scouting if it wasn’t for her. The recovery was very difficult due to infections and pain. One night in the hospital, she told me to get back into Scouting. I thought there would be no way I could do it. I called my old Scoutmaster and asked him what he thought. Soon after, I jumped right into it at the district level as advancement chair, Eagle mentor, merit badge counselor, and even completed Wood Badge. My whole family has been very supportive through all of the progress and set backs I have had since becoming sick. My wife believes that Scouting saved my life– mentally and physically. I tend to agree. I truly believe that the Scouting movement made me strong enough to overcome and deal with my health issues. If there is anything I could do to help the organization, please don’t hesitate to ask. I like to keep myself busy and enjoy helping the boys reach their Scouting goals. I am 47 years old and I plan on sticking around to help people as much as I can. — Philomen Reyes 5
Top photo: Philomen Reyes (far right) and fellow patrol members receive their Woodbadge beads. Bottom photo: Mr. Reyes with his wife, Parinya (Bee), and daughter, Racheal enjoy dinner in Bangkok, Thailand.
[T]he Scouting movement saved my life– mentally and physically. Do you have an amazing Scouter story you would like to share with Scouting Alumni and Friends? We want to hear it! Send your story and pictures to bsaalumni@scouting.org.
Alumni Spelling Bee Champions C o ng ratu lati o ns to this qu ar te r ’s wi n ne r s ! If you wou ld l i ke to b e fe atu re d i n a fu tu re e d i ti o n of A LU M N I A LI V E , watc h you r i nb ox fo r details .
Ron Plunkett
Rob Bartlett, Jr.
Charter Organization Representative for Pack 519 and Troop 519, Holy Cross Church, Daniel Island, SC
Mustang District, Troop 652
William E. Schneider IV
Ken Davis
Pack #800
Eagle Scout, Troop 244, Kenner, LA
Scoutmaster
Frontier District Training Chair Marshfield, MO
Committee Member of Troop 231, Metairie, LA
Houston, Texas
Coastal Carolina Council Charleston, SC
Neisha Rogers Webelos Den Leader
Sam Houston Area Council
Troop 135 McKinney, TX
Pelican District Advancement Chair Southeast Louisiana 6
HAPPENINGS Learn How Alumni Efforts Can Grow Scouting The Philmont Scout Ranch has hosted the Reconnecting Scouting Alumni conference during most summers since 2009. The event brings together professionals and volunteers for a week of exploring how to reconnect with—and reengage—those who have benefited from the Scouting program in the past. The conference is back on the schedule for this June, but it is sporting a brand-new name. That name—Alumni: The Key to JTE Success—is designed to emphasize how successful alumni programs support successful councils. So what’s JTE? It is the abbreviation for Scouting’s Journey to Excellence, the balanced-scorecard measurement tool that the BSA uses to encourage and reward success at the unit, district, and council levels. For councils, the 2017 scorecard includes 18 measures across the areas of finance, membership, program, unit service, and leadership and governance. Of those 18 measures, 16 are directly or indirectly impacted by alumni efforts. That’s why faculty member Rick Bragga says, “Alumni will change the face of your council.” Bragga, who helped devise the original alumni conference and will be back for this year’s edition, even says a case could be made for linking the other two JTE measures to alumni efforts. “We didn’t want to get carried away,” he says. “Sixteen out of 18 is like 88 percent; we’ll settle for that. What else can you name that will change 88 percent of your JTE score if done properly?” The new alumni conference, much like its predecessor, is built around what Bragga calls the 6 Ms of alumni activity. The most obvious of those Ms in money, but Bragga says it is also last on the list (something that may reassure those who only hear from their college alumni associations during fundraising campaigns). Bragga offers four reasons to attend this year’s alumni conference (beyond finding out what the other five Ms are): • You’ll go home with a detailed, customized one-year plan for implementing what you have learned, whether your goal is to start a council alumni committee or to form a camp staff alumni group.
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• You will spend the week with Scouters who have been successful with alumni programs, both at the local and national levels. Besides learning from these Scouters during the week, you will be able to lean on them as you put your alumni plan into action. • Yo u w i l l g e t t o p r a c t i c e w h a t y o u ’ r e learning. You will leave the classroom to try engagement activities with other people at Philmont, then return to the classroom for feedback and assistance. • You will be at Philmont, and will quickly learn why those who have been there start planning return trips almost as soon as they return home. Alumni: The Key to JTE Success will be held the week of June 18-24. The cost for the conference is $540, which includes housing (in wall tents with electricity), meals (in the PTC dining hall), and all conference materials. PTC also offers family programs for all ages from infant to adult. For more information or to register, visit http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/PTC.aspx.
Report to the Nation: Fulfilling a Promise This March, ten BSA youth representatives hand-delivered the BSA’s annual Report to the Nation to government officials in Washington, D.C. In doing so, these Scouts—most of whom were born in this century—carried out a century-old mandate: the BSA’s 1916 federal charter requires that, “Not later than April 1 of each year, the corporation shall submit a report to Congress on the activities of the corporation during the prior calendar year.” “The only thing we are required to do is submit the official report to the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House,” says Keith Christopher, the BSA’s council services department manager and Report to the Nation coordinator. “We do all the other stuff basically as a relationship-building opportunity.” The “other stuff” is quite extensive. The BSA youth representatives—five Boy Scouts, one Webelos Scout, two Venturers, one Sea Scout, and one Explorer—spent nearly a week in Washington, D.C. There, they met with President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Clerk of the Supreme Court Scott S. Harris, four cabinet secretaries, and a surprising number of Scouting alumni in departments across the capital. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a Distinguished Eagle Scout and former BSA national president, spent half an hour with the group and described how his work is guided by the Scout Oath and Scout Law, which he said are “bookended with God.” Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, an Eagle Scout and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seized on the tagline—“Prepared. For Life.”—on his copy of the Report to the Nation. “Prepared for life, right?” he said. “It’s true. It works. I’m proof. The tools you’re learning really will help you across your lifetime.” Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly recalled his time at the 1964 National Scout Jamboree. “The first time I started to meet people of other colors, of other religions, of other nationalities was when I joined the Boy Scouts and went on jamborees,” he said. “It opened new vistas for me. I would tell you that my introduction to what the greatest part of America is, was through Boy Scouts.”
Christopher, who was on his ninth Report to the Nation trip, was once again impressed by the number of people who took time out of their busy schedules to meet with the Scouts—even as aides were reminding them of important appointments that were looming. “That’s always been a highlight for the Scouts: to see that these busy, busy people in very high positions in D.C. would make the time to not only take a picture, but to sit down and chat with them and show them things other people wouldn’t be able to see normally.” One dignitary, Vice President Mike Pence, actually met with the Scouts twice, even though he wasn’t on the schedule. When he saw them outside the Oval Office, he came over to say hello, a moment that Christopher captured on his iPhone. From there, the Scouts spent about 20 minutes with President Trump. “Then we walk out of the Oval Office, and there’s Vice President Pence out there waiting for us with his photographer to take a real picture with him,” Christopher says. While meeting with dignitaries highlighted the week for the participants, they also enjoyed special tours of many of the capital’s iconic attractions. On March 5, for example, the Scouts went behind the scenes at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History to explore the world of forensic anthropology with Dr. David Hunt, an Eagle Scout. The following day, four of them participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns, something Tyler Schutt, the national youth representative for Law Enforcement Exploring, called a “very powerful” experience. To learn more about this year’s Report to the Nation week—and to see video highlights—visit http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/ category/report-to-the-nation/. To read the actual report the BSA representatives delivered, visit http://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/ wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2016-Report-to-the-Nation.pdf.
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Survival Hacks with
Former President Theodore Roosevelt, once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” This is precisely what Creek Stewart, our contributor to this new series, had in mind for Survival Hacks with CR///EK. Creek gives the definition as: Sur-VIV-al Hack-ing: (v) The act of using what you have to get what you need to stay alive in any situation. He continues to say that “hacking” is making due with what you’ve got. It has three aspects: using knowledge of basic survival principles; innovative thinking; and exploiting available resources. We think he is right! Scouts are resourceful and prepared. And, they are always open to learning new things. So, take a look and maybe you will learn a new trick or two!
About Creek Stewart CR///EK Stewart: Survival Instructor, Author, Host. Creek’s survival knowledge comes from experience. His life-long study of outdoor living and survival skills is backed by thousands of man-hours in the field. Creek is a frequent guest survival expert in the media and has been featured on/in magazines, talk shows, and countless radio and online events. He is a regular contributing author to the hugely popular men’s interest blog ArtofManliness. com, and his survival writings have been featured on thousands of websites. Creek is a published author of many titles, including Survival Hacks available here. In 2015, Creek was presented with the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award (NOESA) by the Boy Scouts of America. The NOESA is a prestigious recognition granted to Eagle Scouts who have demonstrated outstanding achievement at the local, state, or regional level. Creek recognizes his experiences while earning the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge in the Boy Scouts of America as the fuel for a lifelong passion in learning and teaching self-reliant skills. Creek owns and is the lead instructor at Willow Haven Outdoor Survival School in Central Indiana. He is also the owner and curator of APOCABOX, a bimonthly subscription survival box. Currently, Creek is the lead survival instructor for the traveling survival training and competition series, ESCAPE THE WOODS.
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Cr///ek Stewart here! I am extremely excited to be a contributor to Alumni Alive and share some of my favorite survival hacks! The first will help you catch some of nature’s most elusive creatures. You can use them as bait, or to simply rid your home of a pesky nuisance. The second is bonus content! Here’s a knot that you probably didn’t see in your Boy Scout Handbook. It is super easy and you may find that you will be glad you added it to your knot arsenal. Enjoy! And remember, it’s not IF but WHEN.
Twenty-Five Cent Mousetrap I have used mice to catch everything from fish and possums to snakes and raccoons. Nearly everything in the forest will feed on mice when given the opportunity. One of the simplest mouse traps ever hacked involves just a quarter, a glass, and some bait, such as peanut butter. Place some bait at the bottom back corner of a wide-mouth drinking glass. Turn that glass upside down with its front lip propped up on the top of a quarter standing on its side. This might be tricky to balance at first, but this is the necessary “hair trigger”. You can watch me make this trap by clicking on the image or visiting, https://youtu.be/pGaD57dQQQ8.
Evenk Hitch The word “Evenk” comes from the Evenk people in Siberia. They use this hitch to tie up their reindeer. It is a quick release hitch that I use as an anchor knot when erecting a canopy shelter. It can serve as an anchor knot (first knot you tie) when stretching a rope ridgeline or as the anchor knot (on the grommet) when attaching a guyline to a tarp. The diagram to the right provides quick instructions, or you can watch me tie this knot by clicking on the image or visiting https://youtu.be/ EmEfPI8yDDo.
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Program BSA Offers New Service Award Look at a highly accomplished military officer and you’ll see a chestful of service ribbons, representing everything from where the officer served to what awards he or she has received. Scouting does something similar with “knots,” small patches worn over the left shirt pocket that represent everything from the Eagle Scout Award to the Silver Buffalo. Earlier this year, the BSA introduced a new knot, the Scouting Service Award. Despite the name, this new knot doesn’t represent a new award; instead, it’s a catchall patch for five awards that honor service to specific segments of the population. An adult who has received any of the five awards is eligible to wear the new tan-and-white knot on his or her uniform. The qualifying awards are: • The Asian American Spirit of Scouting Service Award, which honors those who bring Scouting opportunities to Asian American youth; • The ¡Scouting…Vale la Pena! Service Award, which honors those who bring Scouting opportunities to Hispanic/Latino youth; • The Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award, which honors those who bring Scouting opportunities to youth from rural or low-income urban backgrounds; • The American Indian Scouting Association Grey Wolf Award, which honors those who bring Scouting opportunities to American Indian youth; and • The (new) Special Needs Scouting Service Award, which honors those who bring Scouting opportunities to youth with special needs.
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The Scouting Service Award is not the only catchall knot that Scouters can receive. Another, the Community Organization Award, denotes that a Scouter has been recognized by one of 20 approved national chartered organization partners for Scouting service within that organization. Those groups range from the AFL-CIO and the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity to the United States Power Squadrons and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. From a Scouting alumni perspective, the Scouting Service Award and the Community Organization Award demonstrate some of the many unique ways alumni can reengage with Scouting. A former Scout who is no longer able to camp or hike, or a former Scoutmaster who no longer has the time for weekly meetings and monthly outings, could find a new way to serve through one of the avenues represented by these awards. The best starting point for more information is the BSA’s Awards Central website: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/ Awards_Central.aspx. While you’re there, be sure to check out the Alumni Award, which recognizes service to council-level alumni programs.
New Merit Badge Expands Scouts’ Horizons If you watch a period drama like “Hidden Figures,” which is set in the early 1960s, you might think that the age of exploration has passed us by. But that is probably what Americans thought when Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. Or what Europeans thought when Columbus reached the New World. Or what … well, you get the idea. In reality, exploration is a never-ending endeavor. According to Distinguished Eagle Scout Michael Manyak, M.D., “We’re on the verge of an explosion in exploration because of technological advances and a greater understanding of how to use resources. The young men who are entering these fields are going to be at the forefront of some amazing things.” An expert in wilderness medicine, Manyak was the driving force behind the Exploration merit badge, which recently became Boy Scouting’s 137th such award. The badge grew out of a conversation at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree between Manyak and two other men who are both explorers and Distinguished Eagle Scouts: paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger, who was speaking at the jamboree; and speleologist Bill Steele, who was then director of the National Eagle Scout Association.
Manyak hopes the exploring bug bites many of the Scouts who earn the new badge. In fact, he envisions many of them becoming student members of The Explorers Club (of which he, Berger, and Steele are all Fellows) and continuing to explore the world professionally or avocationally. After all, as Berger writes in the Exploration merit badge pamphlet, “Yes, we humans indeed may have walked over every inch of this planet, but we have only just begun to understand what we have found there. We need to inspire a generation of modern explorers willing to combine technology with good oldfashioned exploration on the ground, and I am certain such a combination will make this generation’s explorers truly participants in the greatest Age of Exploration the world has ever seen.”
Like most merit badges, Exploration includes a healthy dose of general knowledge, history, health and safety, and career research. But the focus of the badge is on planning, preparing for, and carrying out an actual expedition. That includes everything from identifying an objective and developing a budget to selecting a team and establishing recordkeeping procedures—everything a “real” expedition leader would do. While that may sound overly ambitious, Manyak points out that discovery is more important than destination. For example, a Scout could venture into a nearby park to study the effects of climate change, incursions by invasive species, or the loss of animal habitat. “You don’t have to climb Everest or go live in a tent somewhere for a couple of weeks,” Manyak says. “There are other things you can do. They may involve a combination of those things, but there are very, very interesting things to do in science and technology that are exploration.”
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Scouts: Then and Now If we look at photos from those two phases of life, the visible changes will be obvious. The non-visible changes — more confidence, better character, stronger leadership skills — are there, too. This life-changing power of Scouting inspired Scouts Then and Now, a Bryan on Scouting (blog.scoutingmagazine.org/) blog series. The premise is simple. He shares two photos of the same Scout or Venturer: once in their early Scouting years, and again in their later Scouting years. We are continuing his project here in AlumniAlive!
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Austin from Colorado
Brian from Louisiana
Brandon from Hawaii
Kam from Idaho
We are excited to see our alumni and friends as they have progressed in Scouting! If you would like to feature your young Scout, or even yourself, in Bryan on Scouting’s blog, here’s how. Send two photos of your Scout(s) or yourself: one in their early years and one in their later years - and include their name and home state. The photos will be combined as a side-byside, so no need to fret about that. Send the images as attachments in an email to scoutingmag@gmail.com with the subject line “Scouts Then and Now.”
Richie from California
Seth from Virginia
Sarah from Kansas
Trevor from Oklahoma
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Profiles Richard Stephenson, 2017 Horatio Alger Award Winner In the years following the Great Depression, tiny Sheridan, IN, didn’t have much to boast of. There was a grain elevator, a slaughterhouse, and a handful of downtown businesses, including the drugstore where Robert Stephenson dispensed prescriptions and, when the town d o c t o r w a s a w a y, medical advice. But the 1,200-person town had a Boy Scout troop. And that troop Richard Stephenson taught Doctor Bob’s son, Richard, lessons that have lasted a lifetime. “It was singularly important as a moral and practical guide to my life that has never wavered,” says Richard Stephenson, founder and chairman of both International Capital & Management Company and Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA). Stephenson is this year’s recipient of the Horatio Alger Award. The honor is a testament to just how far he has come since his days in Sheridan, and just how much the values he learned growing up there still guide his life. “I was hugely influenced, and continue to be, by the Boy Scouts of America,” he says. Stephenson was also influenced by the men who led his Boy Scout troop, men who not only took an interest in his growth but who pulled in others from surrounding communities to serve as merit badge counselors. “I’m a merchant banker; I understand the power of other people’s money or ‘OPM,’” he says. “But the power of other people’s mentoring, another important form of ‘OPM,’ was where I first learned about the irreplaceable importance and power of relationships.” Scouting also taught Stephenson not to take no for an answer. One of the biggest challenges he faced on the path to the 15
Eagle Scout Award was completing the Swimming merit badge requirement to “float motionless” for one minute; he physically could not float, and only achieved buoyancy several feet below the surface. The first time he tried to pass the requirement, in a muddy Scout camp lake, he promptly sank to the bottom and had to be “rescued” by lifeguards who thought he was drowning. He argued that he could float underwater while holding his breath and was finally able to complete the requirement in a pool where, he says, “they could actually witness me floating motionless on the bottom of the pool without drowning.” Stephenson went on to earn the Eagle Scout Award, the Silver Award in Exploring, the God and Country Award, and the Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow. And if that was not impressive enough, he finished those awards while living alone as a high-schooler in Sheridan, because his parents had moved to Marion, IN, to open a drugstore. More specifically, he lived with the family that owned the local slaughterhouse, where he worked on alternate Saturdays—one of several jobs he held during high school. After graduating from Marion High School, where he won backto-back national AAU weightlifting championships, Stephenson studied at Wabash College and continued to work on the side. He graduated in 1963 and went on to earn a law degree from Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, Stephenson launched his merchant banking business. He acquired his first hospital in 1975; and in 1988 founded Cancer Treatment Centers of America®, seeking to create a model of patient-centered care that had been missing when his mother, Mary, was diagnosed with bladder cancer. “My mother wasn’t heard; my mother was devalued,” he says. “She died of cancer when there were existing therapies that could and should have been made available to her.” Today, the five CTCA hospitals operate under the Mother Standard® of care, a reminder of the care that should have been made available to Mary Stephenson. The Stephenson family, including Stephenson’s wife and his five children, are all actively involved in their father’s mission. It’s not our business; it’s our calling,” he says.
Dr. Robert M. Gates, National Alumnus of the Year Recipient Some Scouting alumni excel in their careers. Some excel in community service. Some excel in giving back to Scouting. Relatively few excel in all three areas—certainly not to the extent of Dr. Robert M. Gates, the 2017 recipient of the Boy Scouts of America National Alumnus of the Year Award. The award, to be presented at this May’s National Annual Meeting, is just the latest honor Gates has received across his distinguished career. But most of the others came in part because he first earned the Eagle Scout Award. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Gates became an Eagle Scout in 1958. Not long after that, he traveled to the Philmont Scout Ranch, where he participated in the National Junior Leader Training Camp. He has half-jokingly called it the only management training he ever needed. That training paid off as he served honorably under eight presidents of both political parties. Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1967 and later became the only career officer in the agency’s history to rise from entry-level employee to director. President George W. Bush named him defense secretary in 2006, a post he held well into President Barack Obama’s administration. (He was the first person to be asked by a newly elected president to remain in that role.) In between his stints in Washington, D.C., Gates worked in academia. Most notably, he served as president of Texas A&M University from 2002 to 2006, increasing minority enrollment and actively recruiting Eagle Scouts and recipients of Girl Scouting’s Gold Award. He also serves as chancellor of the College of William and Mary.
When Gates became BSA president, he reflected on his own experience. “As an Eagle Scout, I know firsthand how impactful this program can be and I believe its mission is more important today than ever before,” he said. “I am honored to take on this role and look forward to working on behalf of the millions of youth and adult members who make Scouting what it is today— an organization providing life-changing opportunities to today’s youth.”
Dr. Robert M. Gates
Gates, who holds a doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University, is the recipient of numerous honors. Among the most significant: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented to him by President Obama on his last day as defense secretary. Within Scouting, he has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and the Silver Buffalo Award, Scouting’s highest volunteer honor. He is the author of Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (2014) and From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (1996).
Gates’ Scouting service has been significant as well. He served as president of the National Eagle Scout Association for a decade starting in 1997, leaving only to lead the Defense Department. From 2014 to 2016, he served as the BSA’s national president. In that role, he helped the BSA work through its decision to welcome openly gay adult leaders and employees, much as he had previously overseen the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
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