Talk:E. Urner Goodman

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	E. Urner Goodman is part of the Scouting WikiProject, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Scouting and Guiding on the Wikipedia. This includes but is not limited to boy and girl organizations, WAGGGS and WOSM organizations as well as those not so affiliated, country and region-specific topics, and anything else related to Scouting. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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[edit] Goodman a Mason

Uh, was Goodman a Mason? I was under the impression he wasn't, and that the masonic influence in the OA came from the 'third founder'. --Emb021 20:36, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Googling on "E. Urner Goodman" + mason turns up 45 hits, many of which are not even relevent. These include one source saying he was: [1]

And one that says he wasn't: [2]

Given the small number of hits and the discrepency between sources, it is probably safest to leave out the line that says he was a mason unless better evidence can be found. We should also make a note at List_of_Freemasons Johntex 22:08, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, I found one source that says he was a Mason, but gives a date for him joining AFTER the creation of the OA. --Emb021 22:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Attention tag

Here's one user input on this article as of 23 July 2006: The article on E. Urner Goodman could use some attention. "While it mentions his many positions, it does not discuss their importance to Scouting nor what he did in those positions that made him outstanding. Independent of his founding of the Order of the Arrow, his work as an early Scout executive and first director of BSA's Program Division is probably worthy of discussion.

The article has a few points that take off from nowhere and go nowhere. The most glaring is the brief discussion of his membership in the Masons and other service clubs. While Masons like to know that their fellow members are famous people, Goodman's Masonic membership is really only important for the article because of the Masonic influences on the Order of the Arrow ceremonies. The article does not make that connection. Moreover, it is clear that, though Goodman was a Mason, the very simple first ceremony in 1915 was probably mostly written by Carroll Edson (also a Mason) and had no Masonic influences. The Masonic influences in the current OA ceremonies were added about 1921 under the authorship of Dr. William Hinkle.

Readers might be interested in Goodman's "autobiography" (really just a collection of autobiographical stories) "The Making of a Life" and his biography, "A Thing of the Spirit: The Life of E. Urner Goodman." Both are available from the national Order of the Arrow office at BSA headquarters in Irving, Texas." Rlevse 14:23, 23 July 2006 (UTC)(not my input, I just posted it)

the article has been substantially re-written JGHowes 10:35, 1 March 2007 (UTC)