What It Means to Be an EAGLE SCOUT A new bookexploresthe impact-from WorldWarII to the present and beyond-of men who earnedScouting'shighestrank.

s a prisoner of war in Vietnam, EagleScoutGeorgeCoker LEGACYOF HONOR: refused to write a statement denouncing America. And so The Values and Influences of he was forced to stand against a wall, arms over his head, America's Eagle Scouts A for 13-hour stretches, day after day after day. By Alvin Townley Coker tried everything to survive those long hours: praying, 256 pages Legacy counting to himself, thinking about his family.By the end of two Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95 ofHonor months, however, he could barely remember his own name. www.thomasdunnebooks.com The ValuesandInfluence of America's EagleScouts it really matter- AJvinTOI'illley ed? I wanted to find out, and I did." Townley was so committed to finding out that he quit his job, sold his house, and spent a year as a self-described "home- less vagabond:' crisscrossing America in search of Eagle Scouts. In all, he traveled 40,000 miles and interviewed well over 200 Eagle Scouts and Scout leaders. The Eagle Scouts Townley profiles Townley's interviewees in Legacyof Honor-men who earned included Eagle Scout their badges over a span of eight de- and Sept. 11 NYPO hero Scott Strauss; cades-are a study in diversity, reflect- Charlie Chapman, ing every race and embracing many who showed how the creeds and political persuasions_ They badges of his Eagle include Christians, Jews, and Muslims; Scout son, Jonathan, Democrats, Republicans, and indepen- survived Hurricane Katrina; and BSA dents. Some would seem right at home Florida Sea Base Eagle I in a Norman Rockwell painting, while Scout staffers Jeff ~ others are less conventional (like the Ea- Zavatsky, James gle Scout Townley met who had sported Agnor, Chris Hoover, a Mohawk haircut, earrings, and tattoos. and Gary Heimbach. at his Eagle Scout court of honor). But he remembered the Scout Oath. terial for his book, Legacy of Honor: The "There are Eagles of every stripe, "The very last thing I could consciously Values and Influences of America's Eagle shape, and color; yet they all have this hold onto was the Scout Oath:' he said. Scouts. The book was published at the common thread:' Townley said. ''And "By the end, I could only get out the end of last year by Thomas Dunne that to me is the great thing about the first verse: 'On my honor I will do my Books, a division of St. Martin's Press. story." best: That forced my brain to function An Eagle Scout himself, Townley set Townley's highly readable book falls and say,'I willdo this again.I willnot do out to gauge the lasting significance of neatly into two halves. The first focus- what they want me to do.'" Boy Scouting's highest rank. "After I was es on achievements, past and present, 1\ Coker's remarkable story is just one several years removed from Scouting, I telling of Eagle Scouts who served in of dozens Alvin Townley uncovered as really began to wonder what it means the military and the government, who he traveled the country, interviewing to be an Eagle Scout when you're not founded and led Fortune 500 compa- EagleScouts of all agesin gathering ma- wearing a uniform every day:' Townley nies, and who became heroes on Sept. said in an interview. "Beyond that, what 11,2001, and in the aftermath of Hurri- BYMARKRAY difference has the program made? Has cane Katrina. Many have familiar names,

12 SCOUTING .. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 ------including , Bill Marriott, Sam Walton, and Jim Lovell. The book's second half focuses on Eagle Scouts who are building a legacy for the future by conserving natural habitats, leading colleges and universities, and serving as camp coun- selors and Scoutmasters. This part of the book also explores how the legacy of Scouting lives on in so many families. For example, Townley introduces one Nevada family in which all 11brothers became Eagle Scouts. Their mother, Sher- ry Thomas, explains that she had to motivate only her first four sons to reach Eagle. "Especially when we got to number 10 and 11, the older boys really put pressure on the younger ones:' she says."They weren't going to let the tradition end!" In Search of Eagle Scouts And Their Stories third-generatiOn EagleScout, Alvin Townley earned his

Eaglerankin Troop. 103ofAtlanta,Ga. . A Leaving behind a career in business and college ad- ministration and teaching, he set out on a 40,000-milejourney across the country to discover the. legacy of America's Eagle Scouts, recordingthe personal stories of such Eaglesas attorney and father of Microsoft'sfounder Bill Gates III, Bill Gates Sr.; formerbasketball star and congressmanBillBradley;hotel scion J. W.(Bill) MarriottJr.; businessman ; NewYorkCity MayorMichael R. Bloomberg; Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer;TreasurySecretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.; and fonner astro(laut Jim Lovell.Heeventually met with EagleScouts from every walk of life, including decorated veterans, teachers, ath- letes, volunteers, doctors, and longtime Scout leaders. Townleycurrently resides in his native , where he works and coaches at Marist School. He also serves on the board of directors for Reach for Excellence, a not-for-profit education program benefiting talented, economicallydisadvan- taged middle-school students.

Anecdotes like that are sprinkled throughout Legacy of Honor. Readers will meet a U.S. representative who can still recite the ceremonies he led as a Scout and the Scouter who took an FBI team with him on a Phil- mont trek.They willread about a Scoutmasterwho helped 75 boysbecome EagleScouts over 44 years and the camp staffer who surviveda divingaccident,thanks to a Scoutto whom he had taught the skillsto earn the Lifesavingmerit badge. Butmost ofall,readerswilllearnabout EagleScoutswho are givingbackto their communitiesin waysboth largeand small. "The people I met with are doing an incredible range of different things in different places:' Townleysaid, "but they all have this sense of duty to other people and are all linked together by that. And that fact has given rise to an incredible legacyof service:' Townley called this legacy"an untold and absolutely in- spiring story:' Thanks to Legacyof Honor, readers now have the chance to see just how Eagle Scouts have served, loved, and led America for nearly a hundred years.0

MarkRay;5afrequentcontributortoS,outingmagazine.