Eagle #24, 1955

William H. Grace, the Scoutmaster during my time, was employed at my father's firm, Farrand Optical Company and later became the President of the company.

After Bronxville, I attend Cornell University for my undergraduate degree and Duke University for my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology. I married a girl from Chelmsford, MA and lived there from 1968 through 1997. We are currently living in Fountain Hills, AZ, the most north-east portion of the Phoenix area valley. We have run our own computer based business since 1976. Our son Jeff is the Asst. Manager of the Prescott, AZ municipal airport; our daughter Sharon lives in MA and has recently started a e-business with books; our grand daughter lives in the Phoenix area and visits regularly.

I have always appreciated the values and skills that the scouting movement taught me. It was a pleasure to find the web site and see the Troop 1 continues to thrive.

Keep up the good work.

Bob

These are recollections, not in necessarily any order, that relate to my experiences with Troop 1. 

Having skipped a grade in school, I was year younger than most of my classmates.  So, when I finally turned 12 (the minimum age to be a Boy Scout in those days) and joined, they had all been in for a year or more.  Unfortunately, some problem had developed between my classmate scouts and the Scout Master.  I am not sure what is was and may have been as minor as disagreement over who should be a patrol leader.  In any case, shortly after I joined in January 1951, most of my classmates quit.  The only classmates I can recall were Jim Carroll and Fred Janes. Understandably, for the next few months, things were is quite a mess. Don't remember how long the Scout Master stayed, but think he left before summer 1951.

My father had agreed to serve on the Board that oversaw the Troop's activities -- and while away on a business trip and not able to decline -- was elected Chairman.  In this capacity he got to know the new Scout Master, Bill Grace, quite well and ended up hiring him as an engineer at Farrand Optical, where he was Chief Engineer.  It must have been a good decision because, many years later, Bill became the President of the company!

The Assistant Scout Master during this period was Ron Smith (I think that was his name, but am not sure, something like that -- perhaps you can look it up). While he spent time with the scouts, his fiancée was ill with cancer and died. He took this very hard, and while he never showed us any signs of his grief, committed suicide.  Fred Janes and I represented the troop at his funeral.

Fred Janes and I were the overnight caretakers of a "camp site" that was set up at the Bronxville railroad station during Boy Scout Week.  Things were going well until around midnight some high school kids decided that they would wreck the place. Not about to let that happen, I grabbed a good size stick and, as he tried to attack me, got one good hit on the kid's hand.  And he howled.  They left with threats of "He's going to get you tomorrow".  But, nothing every came of it, Jim Carroll, mentioned above from my class, became a NYC Homicide Detective, served twenty (or more?) years on the force, retired and now raises and races horses at his horse farm near Monticello, N.Y.  Don't think anyone in Bronxville every got a merit badge for "Horsemanship".

The motto, "Be Prepared" was well honored.  One Fall weekend, we were guests of the famous minister, Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, at his large farm in Conn.  His grandson, Steve Downs was a troop member.  While climbing an old stonewall, one of the stones -- or better "boulders" -- dislodged and landed on a scout's foot. (I think it was Atmore Baggot, who you have listed on your Eagle's List, but would not swear to it.)  I ran back to tell Bill Grace that Atmore had hurt his foot.  Bill said: "A boy scout must be prepared to handle emergencies".  I told him:  "A boy scout must be prepared to know when it is beyond his limited capabilities!"  Atmore was taken to the nearest emergency room with a pretty badly crushed toe.

Camp Waubecca was a wonderful place.  Located in Copake, NY, about 100 miles up the Taconic State Parkway, it was a couple of hundred acres with a good size lake for boating and swimming, lots of fields and woods, general cooking and eating facilities and four separate camp sites with four cabins per site. During the summer, camp was held for two-week periods with the focus on earning merit badges.  Every morning started with the whole camp gathering down at a central field for raising the flag.  The camp Scout Master would yell "Bugler, sound off" and the bugler would play revelry as the flag was raised. He played quite badly.  One time the Scout Master yelled "Bungler, sound off". I am not sure if we stopped laughing long enough to even raise the flag that morning.

One weekend the troop drove up to camp at Bear Mountain.  Due to the weather, which was supposed to go below -20 overnight, we were not permitted to camp. Instead we drove down a scout camp located on the West side of the Hudson across from Ossining.  Boy was it cold!  Very cold.  As we all huddled in one tent trying to keep warm, Bill Grace -- always prepared -- passed out some whiskey! This was the first "booze" I ever tasted, and while I did not like the taste at all, the medicinal value was "warmly" appreciated.

There were many complaints and concerns when the scouts dropped the minimum age from twelve to eleven years.  Many thought the eleven year olds were too young to go on hikes and camp outs.  We did camp at Bear Mountain with a bunch of the tenderest of feet, so to speak.  This was their first camp out and for some their first night away from home.  Everything went pretty well.  Tents were pitched, meals cooked, songs sung and everyone went off to bed.  It was not even too bad when it started to rain.  Really rain.  That is, until the youngest scouts found that they could write their names in water on the inside of the tents.  Of course, everything was soon drenched and most campers spent the night -- miserably -- in cars.

I was privileged to be sent by the Council to the National Scout Training Camp at Camp Schiff when I was 15.  The camp is located on a wonderful site in New Jersey.  We lived in tents, worked, cooked, ate and learned as patrols and had a great time.

My career in the scouts was somewhat "topsy-turvy".  Due to the lack of "older" scouts, as mentioned above, I was promoted early.  Since the most important position was really Senior Patrol Leader, the individual who actually ran the troop, this was given to the most appropriate person.  This was Tom Lange about whom I will say more later.  They wanted the Patrol Leaders to be close in age to the other members, and I was older at this time.  So, I became Junior Assistant Scout Master.  Only later, after Tom retired, did I move "down" to that post.  After my training at Camp Schiff I wanted to try out some of the things I had learned with a patrol and thought it was time for someone else to be SPL anyway, so I "advanced" to Patrol Leader.  Pretty upside-down.

At about this time I was asked to help out with the local Cub Scouts.  This ended up with me working at both end of the spectrum.  On the one hand, I was appointed Assistant Cub Master (which it turned out was against National policy) and worked with adults on planning, running major meetings etc.  On the other, I was a Den Chief for one of the Cub Dens who needed the guidance.  As I said, somewhat "topsy-turvy".  But, most importantly, I always enjoyed what I did and learned many invaluable lessons along the way. For some reason, before my time, the town's four troops had gotten the presentation of a "Community Scout Leader" award "out-of-sync".  They were always giving it to the guy who should have gotten it the year before.  When Tom Lange should have gotten it as the most active scout by far, it went to Bill in Troop 2 who had been active previously, but not during the current year. This annoyed me.  So, when Bill Grace said they were nominating me during my Senior year for the work I had done during my Junior year, I thought it was time to get things back in shape.  I told him that I did not deserve the award for the current year -- although I had deserved it the previous year -- and wanted it to get caught up and to go to one of the current candidates.

I thought that was that, until the evening of the end-of-the year award ceremonies, when Bill approached me and said that he could still arrange for me to get the award.  I again declined; basing my decision on what I felt was the right thing to do, partially based on what I had learned as a Scout.  And actually, I did feel good when the award went to someone (even though he was from Troop 2) that currently deserved it.  I was therefore overwhelmed when, due in part to my refusal to accept the Community award, that they called me up and gave me a special "one-time" medal for accomplishments over the years.  So I got the best of everything:  the satisfaction of doing what I thought was right and also being recognized for my overall contributions.

Here is what I can remember about some of the Eagle Scouts that you have listed from my generation.

Joe O'Brien was a Senior Patrol Leader when I first joined and his brother Bing was in the troop for a while.  Since he was "many" years older than I, I remember him mostly from the meetings and never really knew him personally.  He was a really "take charge" type of guy and ran an good meeting and troop.

Tom Lange had a major impact on my life.  He was the Senior Patrol Leader for several years while I was still a tenderfoot (or star or maybe life) and was a role model for me.  He was my Scout Master once or twice at Camp Waubecca.  In addition to scouting, he was also active on the Bronxville High School (BHS)  Soccer team, playing a strong center half back and was the Class Treasurer in his senior year.  He went to Cornell University to study engineering and later switched to psychology.

When I had to suddenly apply to a college due to a potential ROTC scholarship, I picked Cornell, partially because I was aware of it because of Tom and partially because he was there.  After I was accepted and visited the school, Tom was my guide.  I also started in Engineering and later switched to Psychology -- but I can give not credit or blame Tom for that!  We had a couple of classes together but lost touch after Cornell.

Atmore Baggot was a very bright guy.  He was couple of years behind me in school so we really only worked together in the troop.

Jack Northway will never forget me!  During a baseball came at the scout field, the bat managed to slip from my hand and knock out his front tooth.

I remember Jon Lovell, Bill Perkins and Craig Pause by name, but cannot remember any details about them after all of these years.

There was a great deal of press coverage about the time I was going up for my final review for Eagle.  There was a scout in another local troop who was going to be the youngest scout to ever receive Eagle.  I was honored then, when the Chairman of the Council took me aside and stated that he was more impressed with the kind of scout I had been -- one who had led, worked in the troop and for the good of the troop, and had not just focused on earning individual merit badges -- than with the "badge for hire".

One of my regrets is never working at Camp Waubecca.  I applied for a Junior Scout Master position between my Junior and Senior years and was told that they usually give these positions to scouts who have worked there way up through the ranks of kitchen help and other low level jobs.  Would I take one of the lower jobs if I didn't get the JSM position?  I initially replied that I would, but later called to tell them that it was too late in my career to take one of these and that they should give them to those who had earned them.  But, working there would have been a wonderful experience.

Writing this, I realize how much these are really personal remembrances, but I guess that is not to surprising 50 years after joining the Boy Scouts.  Perhaps some of this will be of interest to you and the scouts, perhaps not.  As I said at the start, it’s up to you.  I have enjoyed stopping to think about the "good old days" and will probably come up with some more thoughts in the future.

One final note that you can publish or delete at your sole discretion:

 "I think the position of the National Boy Scout Council of banning boys who are gay from membership is wrong on every level.  It sends out the wrong message about what the Boy Scouts stand for.  A person can be "Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful . . . and Reverent" regardless of his sexual orientation.  I am personally as straight as they come, but feel it is my duty, something that I partially learned in the scouts, to protest.  When the original decision was announced, I considered having my name removed from the National Eagle List. While I have not taken this step yet, it is possible that I will do so in the future if this policy is continued."