|
More Scouts in the News ONE SCOUT'S SPIRITS SOAR
by DENNIS McCARTHY
The way the Boy Scouts of America see it, that $2.50 has been
repaid countless times over the past 73 years by Russell Meals -
even if he disagrees.
At 87, this remarkable man stills dons his Scouting uniform every
weekend and reports for duty to help young boys grow up to become
good men.
That's where he was last Saturday, sitting in the audience at St.
Luke's Lutheran Church in Woodland Hills for an Eagle Scout Court of
Honor ceremony - ready to congratulate several boys who had obtained
Scouting's highest honor.
Russell, commissioner of the Los Colinas Scouting District, which
encompasses 75 packs and troops in the West San Fernando Valley, had
no idea the ceremony was just a ruse.
No idea that there was only one Boy Scout receiving his Eagle
Scout Court of Honor that day: 87-year-old Russell Meals.
Robin Johnson couldn't believe it. She was sitting at a Court of
Honor ceremony with Russell a few months ago when he happened to
mention he had never had his own ceremony when he became an Eagle
Scout in 1935.
Johnson was stunned. How could this man whom she and her husband,
Kent, had known for 22 years - a Scout leader who had shepherded
hundreds of teenage boys through the arduous and challenging task of
becoming an Eagle Scout - never have received his own Court of
Honor? Who deserved one more than him?
His family had moved before the ceremony was held for his
hometown troop in Sedalia, Mo., Russell told her. College was
starting at the University of Missouri, followed by five years in
the Army during World War II.
Boy Scout honors - even the highest honor - gave way to the
realities of life. He needed a job coming home from the service, not
a ceremony.
Russell got that job with the Pentagon for six years before
moving on to the private sector as an engineer with several oil
companies all over the country, including Arco in Southern
California, where he worked 33 years before retiring.
All the while spending his nights and weekends as a Scout leader
in troops all over the country, most of them with his own sons.
``Every father wants the best for his sons, and getting them into
Scouting is the best,'' Russell says. ``I've had so many wonderful
experiences and memories because of Scouting.''
Sure, Kent and Robin agreed - but it still wasn't right. If
anyone deserved a Court of Honor, it was this man who had given
nearly three-quarters of a century to Scouting.
What difference did it make that he was 87 now, not 17? Not a
bit.
Members of Meals' family were secreted in the choir loft when
Russell walked into the church Saturday.
He looked around for a printed program of the ceremony so he
could see the names of the new Eagle Scouts being honored but
couldn't find any. Odd, he thought, sitting down in a pew. There
were always programs.
Kent and Robin Johnson stood up and called for the honor guard to
escort the Eagle Scout candidates to the front of the church.
No one moved. Russell didn't notice the two men standing at the
end of his pew.
``I finally looked up and saw my son, Russell Jr., and my
stepson, Rick Pittinger, standing there,'' Russell said. ``I was
stunned.''
That's when a bad case of the sniffles broke out in St. Luke's
Lutheran Church, Kent says.
``People were crying as Russell's sons, both Eagle Scouts
themselves, led him to the front of the church to receive his Eagle
Scout Court of Honor.''
Russell sat in the seat of honor - an overstuffed chair - while
dozens of young Eagle Scouts gathered around him. Then, Robin and
Kent handed him his official Eagle Scout certificate from the Boy
Scouts of America.
To Russell W. Meals, Troop 52 - Oct. 24, 1935.
``I guess my sons were right,'' he said, smiling through his
tears. ``They've always said I'm 17 going on 87.''
Yeah, I'd say Russell Meals has repaid that $2.50 somebody
donated during the Depression in 1931 so he could go to Boy Scout
camp.
Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749
|
