A virtual collection of items and ephemera related to the Scout movement in the Kansas City area.
The First Founder’s Award
The Order of the Arrow’s prestigious Founder’s Award was formally introduced at the 1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference held in August 1981 to honor lodge members for outstanding service to the lodge. Given annually, the award is intended to recognize those that “memorialize in his or her everyday life the spirit of achievement” as envisioned by E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson, the founder and co-founder of the Order of the Arrow. Much to his surprise, Ed Hubert, Tamegonit Lodge Chief 1980-1981, was the first recipient of the award at the lodge’s annual Winter Banquet held in Kansas City, Kansas, January 1982. Ed has generously provided the following account of his experience that night:
As the outgoing two-term Lodge Chief, my final event was the Winter Banquet, which concluded with installation of the new lodge officers, including my including my successor as Lodge Chief, Kent Erickson. For the banquet that year, we had brought in the sitting National OA Chief, Brad Starr, as our guest speaker. Brad was a college student from North Carolina, and the event was the first time since the 1950s that a National Chief had visited Tamegonit Lodge. We made it a big deal, and Brad gave a great speech.
After the new Lodge Chief, Kent Erickson, was installed, I sat down in the audience – and assumed I was done for the evening. Kent gave his acceptance speech, and then to my surprise re-introduced Brad Starr to come back up and talk some more. This wasn’t in the program we had put together. I thought it a bit strange, since the whole program was supposed to end with the grand finale of Kent’s installation and acceptance, after which we were all supposed to go home. Brad came up, and started talking about the Founder’s Award, how and why it was developed, and explained the criteria. I continued to think it was a bit strange – anticlimactic, since the “big event” of the night had already happened. I assumed the award wouldn’t be presented until the next year at the earliest.
Then Brad suddenly shifted gears, and instead of talking in general terms about the award, started talking about the person who was going to receive it. I was confused for another 30 seconds or so – while I was familiar with the award, I knew that we weren’t giving the Founder’s Award to anyone. Brad must be confused, I thought. Then it suddenly dawned on me what was going on, just about the time Brad called my name. Kent and our Lodge Advisers – Jim Morey and Steve Leland – had turned my name in for the award, and gotten National Chief Brad Starr to present it to me – the first Founder’s Award ever presented anywhere in the nation, given to me the first week of January 1982. The award was so new that it didn’t even physically exist yet – that night I received a quickly thrown-together certificate and did not receive the actual award until a couple of months later. I did also eventually get a red Founder’s Award arrow ribbon to wear on my Scout shirt.
After my time as Lodge Chief, I did stay involved in Scouting and OA for a few more years as a young adult, but then was totally out of the program for 10 or 12 years. Eventually, I got back in on the local unit level with my son when he went into Cub Scouts, and have stayed active in our local troop as he has continued through Boy Scouting. When I got back in, I dug out all my old stuff, including my Founder’s Award ribbon. I always wear it – and I think in the past 10 years I have been asked about it exactly one time – by another Scouter who is a collector of memorabilia, and who knew what it was for.
The First Founder’s Award
The Order of the Arrow’s prestigious Founder’s Award was formally introduced at the 1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference held in August 1981 to honor lodge members for outstanding service to the lodge. Given annually, the award is intended to recognize those that “memorialize in his or her everyday life the spirit of achievement” as envisioned by E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson, the founder and co-founder of the Order of the Arrow. Much to his surprise, Ed Hubert, Tamegonit Lodge Chief 1980-1981, was the first recipient of the award at the lodge’s annual Winter Banquet held in Kansas City, Kansas, January 1982. Ed has generously provided the following account of his experience that night:
As the outgoing two-term Lodge Chief, my final event was the Winter Banquet, which concluded with installation of the new lodge officers, including my including my successor as Lodge Chief, Kent Erickson. For the banquet that year, we had brought in the sitting National OA Chief, Brad Starr, as our guest speaker. Brad was a college student from North Carolina, and the event was the first time since the 1950s that a National Chief had visited Tamegonit Lodge. We made it a big deal, and Brad gave a great speech.
After the new Lodge Chief, Kent Erickson, was installed, I sat down in the audience – and assumed I was done for the evening. Kent gave his acceptance speech, and then to my surprise re-introduced Brad Starr to come back up and talk some more. This wasn’t in the program we had put together. I thought it a bit strange, since the whole program was supposed to end with the grand finale of Kent’s installation and acceptance, after which we were all supposed to go home. Brad came up, and started talking about the Founder’s Award, how and why it was developed, and explained the criteria. I continued to think it was a bit strange – anticlimactic, since the “big event” of the night had already happened. I assumed the award wouldn’t be presented until the next year at the earliest.
Then Brad suddenly shifted gears, and instead of talking in general terms about the award, started talking about the person who was going to receive it. I was confused for another 30 seconds or so – while I was familiar with the award, I knew that we weren’t giving the Founder’s Award to anyone. Brad must be confused, I thought. Then it suddenly dawned on me what was going on, just about the time Brad called my name. Kent and our Lodge Advisers – Jim Morey and Steve Leland – had turned my name in for the award, and gotten National Chief Brad Starr to present it to me – the first Founder’s Award ever presented anywhere in the nation, given to me the first week of January 1982. The award was so new that it didn’t even physically exist yet – that night I received a quickly thrown-together certificate and did not receive the actual award until a couple of months later. I did also eventually get a red Founder’s Award arrow ribbon to wear on my Scout shirt.
After my time as Lodge Chief, I did stay involved in Scouting and OA for a few more years as a young adult, but then was totally out of the program for 10 or 12 years. Eventually, I got back in on the local unit level with my son when he went into Cub Scouts, and have stayed active in our local troop as he has continued through Boy Scouting. When I got back in, I dug out all my old stuff, including my Founder’s Award ribbon. I always wear it – and I think in the past 10 years I have been asked about it exactly one time – by another Scouter who is a collector of memorabilia, and who knew what it was for.
Ed H.
Ed Hubert’s Founder’s Award Certificate