The ultimate Boy Scout

W. Richard Dukelow

Bill was born in Minneapolis nearly 100 years ago, in the spring of 1910. That was the year that William Boyce discovered the Boy Scout movement in England and brought it to the United States. By 1922, Bill had joined a local troop and was advancing through the ranks. In 1926 he earned his "Eagle" award, the highest honor that the Boy Scouts of America could bestow on a young man.

The great depression hit and jobs were difficult to get. Bill married in 1934 and moved to Great Falls where he harvested ice blocks from the Missouri river. He later described this as the hardest and most dangerous job he ever had!

He soon moved to Helena with his wife and young son where he was employed by the State of Montana. Then an event occurred that was to change his life. On the advice of a friend who was a Scout Executive (a professional who oversaw scouting activities in his area ("council"), Bill headed for New Jersey and a training period of several weeks. At the conclusion of this training he was named Scout Executive of the Billings Council.

That was in 1940 and, in those early days, executives were transferred frequently. Bill served as the Scout Executive in Devils Lake and Minot, N.D. before moving, in 1944 to St. Cloud, Minn. Bill loved his work and had a pronounced influence where ever he went. In Minnesota he had responsibility for operating the local Boy Scout camp (Camp Clyde, Merrifield, Minn.). He did so with dispatch making nightly campfires, an integral part of his operation. He would fascinate young scouts with campfire stories. One of his favorites was the story of the Indian Chief Humpity-Hump who had a battle club (Bill, of course, had the wooden club). He would point out that if you looked closely you could see flecks of blood from Humpity-Hump's enemies on the club (cleverly placed red paint applied by Bill). The scouts would examine such things with rapt attention!

Scout Executive salaries were not large and each summer, after the scout camping season was over, Bill would take his wife and young son to the camp for a week's vacation and so he could close down the camp for the winter. To his son (not yet a scout) this was paradise with access to bows and arrows, handicrafts, ropes and knots and gathering leaves of plant species. There were nightly campfires of the three of them with continuing Indian stories.

Bill had a philosophy that he would never report or teach a scouting skill that he had not tried himself. During World War II, aluminum was needed for the aircraft industry but in the late 1940s aluminum foil came on the market. Rumor had it that this material could be used in campfire cooking. Bill purchased a roll and took several ears of sweet corn and two hot dogs. With his son they walked to a nearby city park that had small fire-rings. Together they built a fire and let it settle to hot coals. They then wrapped the corn and hot dogs in aluminum foil and added them to the coals. The next week Bill began promoting aluminum foil cookery to every troop in the council!

In November of 1951, Bill's son was scheduled to receive his Eagle Award. Bill wore his Scout Executive uniform and at the appropriate time in the ceremony the Scoutmaster yielded control to Bill who proudly pinned an Eagle badge on his son. The badge was the same one that he, Bill, had been awarded 25 years before. He gleefully announced that his son would get a "new, shiny eagle badge when the ceremony was over."

A month later, Bill and his family moved to San Francisco where he served another 19 years as a Scout Executive. He retired at age 60 in 1970, and lived another four years.

His reason for early retirement reflects his dedication to the Boy Scout movement. In San Francisco he had a scout who earned the Eagle award and about a year later was arrested on a charge of murder. He was found guilty. Bill's comment was: "I have devoted my life to helping young men learn values that will allow them to be good adult men. This former scout has violated the rules!"

Such was Bill and his dedication to a strong scout movement. I knew him well, he was my father.

Richard Dukelow is a Lakeside resident and occassional columnist for the West Shore News.