Famous People Who Were Scouts
Its pretty amazing when you stop and think about all that our Pack does to remain an active Pack. We are probably one of the few Cub Scout Packs in the area, maybe even the region that do the types of things that we do. First and foremost, we camp more than most Packs do and even more than some Boy Scout Troops do. Our thought process is that every campout is an opportunity to continue to prepare boys for life. There is a long line of "famous" people who are tied to the scouting program - and I want to share them for you so that you can see - even some of your childhood heroes had some scouting experience.
FAMOUS EAGLE SCOUTS
(Note: In the lists below, we've omitted "Former" from all titles.)
Gary L. Ackerman - U.S. Representative from NY
Bill Alexander - U.S. Representative from Arkansas
Lamar Alexander - Lawyer, Governor of Tennessee, Secretary of Education, presidential candidate
Neil Armstrong - astronaut, first man on moon, from Wapakoneta, OH
Willie Banks - Olympic & world record holding track star
Albert Belle - baseball player
Charles E. Bennett - U.S. Representative from Florida
William Bennett - Secretary of Education
Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. - Treasury Secretary & U.S. Representative from Texas
Michael Bloomberg - Mayor of New York City, founder of Bloomberg News
Bill Bradley - Pro basketball star and U.S. Senator from NJ
James Brady - Press Secretary to President Reagan
Stephen Breyer - US Supreme Court Justice
Milton A. Caniff - Comic strip artist "Steve Canyon"
Rear Admiral Jay M. Cohen, USN - Undersecretary of Homeland Security
Barber B. Conable - President, World Bank
John W. Creighton, Jr. - President & CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company
William E. Dannemeyer - U.S. Representative from Cal.
William Devries - M.D., transplanted first artificial heart
Michael Dukakis - Governor of Massachusetts, presidential candidate
LTC Aquilla James Dyess - WWII Marine, Medal of Honor recipient (deceased)
Arthur Eldred - First Eagle Scout
Daniel J. Evans - Senator and Governor of Washington
David Farabee - Texas State Representative
Robert Edward Femoyer - WWII Army Air Force Navigator, Medal of Honor recipient (deceased)
Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey - WWII Submarine Commander, Medal of Honor recipient (deceased)
Thomas Foley - Speaker of the House and U.S. Representative from Washington
Gerald Ford - U.S. President (1st Eagle to be President) (deceased)
Steven Fossett - Flew solo nonstop around the world in a hot air balloon and in an ultralight airplane, won the Chicago to Mackinaw boat races, competed in the Iditarod dog race, and competed in several iron man triathlons, and among other things lived the Scouting mottos both Cub and Boy Scout by doing his best and being prepared (deceased)
Murphy J. (Mike) Foster - Governor of Louisiana
Robert M. Gates - Director of Central Intelligence (CIA) and Secretary. of Defense
Richard A. Gephardt - U.S. Representative from Missouri, Minority Leader
Steve Holcomb - Olympic Gold Medal winner -4 man Bobsled
Admiral Jay Johnson, USN - Chief of Naval Operations
Michael Kahn - stage director, Oscar winning film editor
William Henry Keeler - Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Baltimore
Larry Kellner, CEO - Continental Airlines
Dr. Alfred Kinsey - insect biologist, human behavior researcher
John Koncak - basketball player
Sheldon Leonard - actor, director, producer, 3 time Emmy award winner
Steven W. Lindsey - Astronaut - He was the pilot for STS-95 when John Glenn returned to space as a Senator. He made Eagle in Troop 161 in Temple City, California.
Gary Locke, Governor of the State of Washington, the first Chinese-American Governor in the contiguous United States, and selected as a Distinguished Eagle Scout by NESA
James Lovell - Navy pilot and astronaut, President of National Eagle Scout Association. Flew on Gemini 7, 12 & Apollo 8, 13 At one time had seen more sunrises than any other human being
Richard Lugar - Senator from Indiana (presidential candidate 1996)
J. Willard Marriott, Jr. - President, Marriott Corp.
CDR William McCool, USN - Astronaut, Pilot of U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia
W. Walter Menninger - Physician, civil servant
Michael Moore - Author and filmmaker, nominated for an Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine"
Jim Mora - NFL football coach
Oswald "Ozzie" Nelson - actor
Sam Nunn - U.S. Senator from Georgia
Ellison Onizuka - Astronaut aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger (deceased)
Steve Oswald - Astronaut, Navy Rear Admiral
Mitchell Paige - walked 200 miles to enlist in Marines on his 18th birthday in 1936, retired as a Colonel, Medal of Honor. Presented his Eagle award in 2003 after it was verified that he'd not received it in 1936 because he'd joined the Marines. (deceased)
Francis J. Parater - nominated for Sainthood by Diocese of Richmond, VA. died at age 22 in 1920 in Rome, while at seminary.
H. Ross Perot - Self-made billionaire and presidential candidate
Rick Perry - Governor, State of Texas
J. J. Pickle - U.S. Representative from Texas, proudly displayed his Eagle plaque inside his office (deceased)
Samuel R. Pierce - Former Sec. Housing & Urban Development
Frederick Reines - Nobel Prize winner in Physics
Gary Rogers - Chairman and CEO of Dreyer's Ice Cream
Jim Rogers - CEO of Kampgrounds of America (KOA)
Mike Rowe - Star of "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe" on the Discovery Channel
Donald Rumsfeld - Secretary of Defense
Harrison Salisbury - Pulitzer Prize winning author
James Sanderson - Vice Admiral, US Navy (Ret), Deputy Chief US Atlantic Fleet
Dr. Benjamin Lewis Salomon - WWII Army front line surgeon & Medal of Honor recipient (deceased)
Jeff Sessions - Senator from Alabama
William Sessions - FBI director
Sam Skinner - Secretary of Energy during the Bush administration and now CEO of Commonwealth Edison
Steven Spielberg - Movie producer, from Scottsdale, AZ, made a movie of his troop while getting Photography MB. Helped to design requirements for the cinematography MB.
Wallace Stegner - Writer and college professor, won Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for "Angle of Repose"
Percy Sutton - Attorney, Chairman of the Board of City Broadcasting Corp.
John Tesh - TV celebrity and pianist
Meldrim Thomson, Jr. - 3 term governor of New Hampshire (deceased)
Leo K. Thorsness - Vietnam War Air Force Colonel, POW, & Medal of Honor recipient
Sam Walton - Founder, Wal-Mart (deceased)
Togo West - Secretary of the Army and Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Edward O. Wilson - Pellegrino University Professor and curator of entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Jay Zeamer Jr. - WWII Army Air Force pilot & Medal of Honor recipient (deceased)
Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. - Admiral, Chief of Naval Operations
Eagle Facts
Just over 2 million boys have reached Eagle in 100 years (15,000 a year, roughly). Currently, around 4 of every 100 boys that joins Scouts make Eagle--that's less than 1% of the male population.
FAMOUS SCOUTS, but not Eagles
Henry Aaron - Baseball player, home run king - the Mobile Press Register quoted Henry as saying that the greatest positive influence in his life was his involvement in scouting
Richard Dean Anderson - taught Reptile Study, actor
Charles F. Barber - CEO of American Smelting & refining
Jimmy Buffett - musician and singer
George W. Bush - Cub Scout, President of the United States
Bill Clinton - Cub Scout, President of the United States
Walter Cronkite - newsman
Harrison Ford - Life, taught Reptile Study, actor "Indiana Jones" & "Han Solo"
Bill Gates - Life, founder of Microsoft Corp.
Richard Gere - Actor
Andy Griffith - Actor
David Hartman - TV personality
Dan Jansen - Olympic Gold Medal - Speed Skating
Bruce Jenner - Olympic Gold Medal - Decathlon
John F Kennedy - First US President who was a Scout - See his note to his father about an allowance increase for Scouting
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -Civil rights leader
Branford Marsalis - Life Scout, Jazz musician
Bruce Edward Melnick - Astronaut
Norman Y. Mineta - Mayor of San Jose, CA, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Commerce. Japanese-American, spent WWII in an internment camp in Wyoming, where he met Alan Simpson. (see below)
Sir Paul McCartney - Rock N Roll, Beatles (UK)
Jim Morrison - Rock N Roll
Barack Obama - President of the United States
Merlin Olson - Pro football player and sportscaster
Eddie Rabbitt - Country & Western singer
John Ritter - actor, son of singer Tex Ritter (deceased)
Richard Roundtree - actor
Nolan Ryan - pro baseball pitcher
Alberto Salazar - Life, 3 time winner NY marathon
John Schneider - Actor, Dukes of Hazard
Alan Simpson - US Senator from Wyoming. - Boy Scout in Cody Wyoming, where he visited fellow Scouts in a Japanese-American internment camp, and met Norman Mineta (see above), who became his life-long friend. Helped pass the Japanese-American Compensation Act.
Howard K. Smith - TV newsman
Mark Spitz - winner of 7 Olympic Gold Medals in swimming
James Stewart - actor, USAF Brig. General, B-17 pilot in WWII
George Strait - Singer
George Takei - actor, Mr. Sulu of Star Trek
Joe Theisman - Life, former QB, Washington Redskins
Peter Uberroth - Cub Scout, Commissioner of Baseball
Paul Winfield - Cub Scout, Actor
Until next time - Do Your Best!
