E. Urner Goodman

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E. Urner Goodman is best known as 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.

Goodman, a native of Philadelphia, was born May 15, 1891. A member of the Presbyterian Church, he was active in church work, and focused primarily on the religious education of Presbyterian youth. He first became involved in Boy Scouting in 1911 when he became Scoutmaster of Troop 1, the first Scout Troop in the city. In 1913 he took a position teaching at the Potter School in the Philadelphia school system. Before he left for the service in 1917 he became a Freemason by joining Lamberton Masonic Lodge No. 487 in Philadelphia. He was also a member of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs.

He entered the professional service of Boy Scouting in 1915 as a field executive (interrupted only temporarily between 1917 and 1919, when he served as an Army 1st lieutenant). He was scout executive at Philadelphia from 1919 to 1927, and at Chicago from 1927 to 1931. He was National Field Scout Commissioner, and was National Program Director from 1931 until his retirement in 1951. During this time period he wrote the Leaders Handbook for the B.S.A. He eventually was awarded a doctorate in humanics from the Missouri Valley College of Marshall, Mo. The degree was the first such degree awarded in this field of humanics by the college. Goodman died March 13, 1980 at the age of 88.

[edit] Order of the Arrow

The Order of the Arrow is a recognized official program activity of the Boy Scouts of America, intended to recognize those scouts who best exemplify the Scout virtues of cheerful service, camping, and leadership. The two men most involved in its creation were camp director Dr. E. Urner Goodman, and his assistant Carroll A. Edson. It was founded in 1915, when Goodman was just 25 years old and just seven years after British General Sir Robert Baden-Powell invented scouting in the United Kingdom. The Order of the Arrow is the uniquely American "honor society of scouting".

The Scouting movement was already flourishing in an America still at peace in 1915, while young men in Europe were dying in horrific numbers in World War I. Boys in the United States seemed to be donning scout uniforms everywhere as membership grew rapidly. Prominent businessmen, civic and religious groups, and politicians were embracing the organization.

Goodman wanted to develop methods to teach boys that skill proficiency in Scoutcraft was not enough. Rather, the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Scout Law should become realities in the lives of Scouts.

Goodman and Carroll were director and assistant director, respectively, at a Scout camp on Treasure Island, in the Delaware River near Philadelphia. It had come to their attention that many other camps had created honor societies for Scouts who had attended them. They were also inspired by the use of Native American culture by Ernest Thompson Seton in his Woodcraft Indians program. They decided to create an honor society of their own.

As a means of accomplishing this in a manner fitting a boy's interest and understanding, Goodman would utilize the appeal of Indian lore and the recognition of the scout's peers. He devised a program where troops would choose, at the conclusion of their summer camp, those boys from among their number who best exemplifyied the ideals of scouting. These scouts would be honored as members of an Indian "lodge". Those elected would be acknowledged as having displayed, in the eyes of their fellow scouts, a spirit of unselfish service and brotherhood.

Assistant Camp Director Carroll A. Edson helped Goodman research the traditions and language of the Lenni Lenape (also known as the Delaware Indians) who had inhabited Treasure Island. They combined these traditions with fictional characters from James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans to develop dramatic induction ceremonies for the Order of the Arrow. Even today, these rites make a lasting impression on scouts who have been elected to the Order of the Arrow.

By 1921, Goodman and Edson's idea had spread to a score of scout councils in the northeast and the first national meeting of the Order of the Arrow was held. The organization was initially viewed with suspicion by many scouters as a secret society and as an affront to the egalitarian ideals of scouting. For many years, the "OA" was considered to be an "experimental" program only. Not until 1948 was E. Urner Goodman's innovation fully integrated into the Scouting program. As of 2006 every BSA council has an OA lodge except for two councils who run similar programs of their own.

[edit] E. Urner Goodman recognitions

A scholarship and camping award have been named in Goodman's honor.

[edit] References

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