Portal:Scouting/Selected biography archive/2007

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• Jan 31, 2007 - Ernest Thompson Seton (August 14, 1860 - October 23, 1946) was an Anglo-Canadian (and naturalized U.S. citizen) who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and founding pioneer of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Seton also heavily influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. His notable books related to Scouting include The Birch Bark Roll and The Boy Scout Handbook. He is responsible for the strong influence of American Indian culture in the BSA.

• Feb 28, 2007 - E. Urner Goodman (1891-1980) is one of the two founders (along with co-founder Carroll A. Edson) of the Order of the Arrow (OA), an official program of the Boy Scouts of America designed to recognize Scouts and Scouters for their service, and to aid in the retention of older boys in the Scouting program. One must be elected into the OA by fellow Scouts. Goodman first became involved in Boy Scouting in 1911 when he became Scoutmaster of Troop 1, the first Scout Troop Philadelphia. In 1913 he took a position teaching at the Potter School in the Philadelphia school system.

• Mar 31, 2007 - J. S. Wilson was a Scottish Scouting luminary and friend and contemporary of Lord Baden-Powell, recruited by him to head the International Bureau, later to become the World Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. B-P met Wilson when Wilson was serving with the Calcutta police in 1921 and as Calcutta's District Scout Commissioner. Colonel Wilson ran Gilwell Park for The Scout Association in the early 1920s. He served as Director of the Boy Scouts International Bureau for 15 years, tasked with coordinating various Scout movements within countries and between them prior to the establishment of World Scout Regions. After retirement, he served as Honorary President of the Boy Scouts International Committee for a further four years. Colonel Wilson was awarded the Bronze Wolf.

• Apr 30, 2007 - Dr. László Nagy (born 1921) was the Chief Executive of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1968-1985. A Swiss citizen of Hungarian origin, Dr. Nagy is a sociologist, historian and Doctor of Political Science, a former journalist and the author of a number of books on politics. In 1966, Dr. Nagy undertook a two year critical study of the Scouting movement around the world, financed by the Ford Foundation. In 1968, WOSM invited him to put his recommendations into practice and appointed him to his WOSM post, for a three year term that eventually lasted 17 years. Nagy was awarded the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, in 1977.

• May 31, 2007 - Helen Osborne Storrow (?1864–1944) Prominent early Girl Scout leader. She was chair of the World Committee of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) for eight years. She joined the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1915 and founded the first national leaders' training in Long Pond, Massachusetts in 1917. She headed the leaders' training camp in Foxlease, England from 1917 to 1925. In 1929 she donated the first of the WAGGGS World centres, Our Chalet. Besides Girl Scouts, she was also active in prison reform; her brother was Thomas Mott Osborne who had been warden of Sing-Sing. In addition she and her sister donated a city hall to Auburn, New York in 1930. She also help found the Paul Revere Pottery (aka Saturday Evening Girls) (1906 - 1942). Her husband was James J. Storrow (1864–1926) a banker; he had been president of the Boy Scouts of America.

• Jun 30, 2007 - Juliette Gordon Low (October 31, 1860 – January 17, 1927) was an American youth leader and the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912. "Daisy", a term for a young American Girl Scout, was her nickname since childhood. A WWII Liberty ship was named after her.

• Jul 31, 2007 - George Thomas Coker is a retired US Navy commander, honored with the Navy Cross for his leadership as a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War, and a Distinguished Eagle Scout noted for his devotion to Scouting. In 1966, the A-6 Intruder on which Coker was serving as bombardier–navigator was shot down over North Vietnam. He was held as a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton" and other camps for 6.5 years (1966–1973). After his release, he continued to serve in the Navy until his retirement in 1986. He also returned to active participation in Scouting, which he serves in the Tidewater Council area. He served as a Scoutmaster for several years and currently is the Lodge Advisor for the Blue Heron Lodge of the Order of the Arrow.

• Aug 31, 2007 - Count László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (originally zsadányi és törökszentmiklósi Almásy László Ede (22 August 1895–22 March 1951) was an Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert researcher, aviator, Scout-leader and soldier who also served as the basis for the protagonist in Michael Ondaatje's 1992 novel The English Patient and the movie based on it. From the beginning he was a member of the Scout movement. In 1921 he became the International Commissioner of the Hungarian Scout Association. With count Pál Teleki he took part in organizing the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllő, where Almásy presented the Air Scouts to Robert Baden-Powell on August 9, 1933.

• Sep 30, 2007 - Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO (May 11, 1861–September 1, 1947), was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in Colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft (i.e., scoutcraft) to Robert Baden-Powell, becoming one of the inspirations to the founding of the Scouting Movement. Burnham had little formal education; attending but never graduating from high school. He began his career at the age of 14 in the American Southwest as a scout and tracker. Burnham then went to Africa where this background proved useful. He soon an officer in the British Army, serving in several battles there. During this time, Burnham became friends with Robert Baden Powell. Burnham passed his outdoor skills and spirit on to Baden-Powell. Burnham eventually moved on to a career in writing and business. His descendants are still active in Scouting.

• Oct 31, 2007 - Olga Drahonowska-Małkowska (January 9, 1888 - January 15, 1979, with her husband, founded Scouting in Poland. Olga Drahonowska was introduced to Scouting by her friend, and later husband, Andrzej Juliusz Małkowski. She became Scoutmaster (harcmistrzyni) of the 3rd Lwów Girl Scout Company (the 1st, 2nd and 4th Companies were Boy Scouts). This consisted of about twenty girls aged between 15 and 20 years. In the summer of 1914, just before the start of World War I, her health having recovered, Drahonowska-Małkowska organised the first national camp. Girls (by now renamed Guides) from the Russian and German controlled areas of Poland came to the camp under assumed names and false passports. At the start of World War II, Drahonowska-Małkowska was running a school using Scouting principles. When war broke out she took them by train to a neutral country. The train was frequently under fire from machine guns mounted on aeroplanes. Drahonowska-Małkowska claimed that the children's Scouting training saved their lives, as when the train was attacked, the children were disciplined enough to obey her order to scatter, which made them far less easy targets for snipers than other passengers who formed huddles. When Olga Drahonowska-Małkowska reached the U.K., the Girl Guides Association (now Girlguiding UK) awarded her their Bronze Cross for Gallantry.

• Nov 30, 2007 - Daniel Carter Beard, or "Uncle Dan", (June 21, 1850– June 11, 1941) was an American illustrator, author, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Beard became one of the first National Scout Commissioners of the Boy Scouts and served it for 30 years. The work of both Beard and Ernest Thompson Seton are in large part the basis of the Traditional Scouting movement. Beard is a key reason for the frontiersman aspects of the BSA.

• Dec 31, 2007 - Gerald Ford is the only US President that was an Eagle Scout. Ford always said Scouting was one of the biggest influences of his life and his family had several Eagle Scouts from all over the country at his funeral. Ford is credited with healing the US after the Vietnam War and signing the Helsinki Accords. Ford was the 38th President of the United States (1974–1977) and 40th Vice President of the United States (1973–1974). Prior to 1973, he served for over eight years as the Republican Minority Leader of the House of Representatives; he was first elected to Congress in 1948 from Michigan's 5th congressional district.