"Only President to be an Eagle Scout?" - by Rev. Weldon Bares
Here is a good trivia question. Who is the only president to have reached the rank of Eagle in Boy Scouts? John F. Kennedy reached the rank of Star. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all in Scouts, but none of them achieved the highest rank.
The answer to my question is Gerald Ford. He earned the Eagle Scout award in 1927 at the age of 14 when he was a member of Troop 15 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I recently went to Grand Rapids to see the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. I know that it’s a somewhat nerdy thing to do, but I really enjoy presidential history and this has been on my bucket list for quite a while.
Gerald Ford’s Eagle Scout badge was on display at the museum. I probably spent more time looking at that than anything else there.
President Ford made a profound impact upon our country in the dark days right after the Watergate scandal. His steady leadership made a difference. He lived up to the ideals of Scouting his entire life.
The Scout motto is “Be Prepared.” The Scout slogan is “Do a Good Turn Daily.” Our world would be so much better is we would try our best to do those two things.
Scouting made a world of difference in my life, that’s for sure. I will always be grateful to my Scoutmaster, Mr. Wayne Prejean, for the countless hours that he gave to so many kids through Scouting.
Let’s support Scouting and ALL youth serving organizations in our community. They really make a difference, sometimes even an historical difference!
https://casinojeton.net comes to mind only because the Eagle Scout badge detail reminded me how much stock people put in official rankings, and Ford earning his at 14 in Troop 15 really does say something about character forming early. The part about spending more time at that display than anything else in the museum resonates, since the small personal artifacts usually hit harder than the grand exhibits. Steady leadership after Watergate feels like the real takeaway here, and honestly the Scout slogan about doing a good turn daily is a simple standard more of us could stand to borrow.