Honoring my father for raising me as a scout

[IndyScouter]

Hey fellow scouts,

I am new at starting a topic in this forum so please forgive me if I don't do this correctly.  In June, my father died after living to a ripe old age of 80.  Dad was an active leader in our troop and after my brothers and I moved on to college he stuck around to help as a leader for other troops and the district.  I feel like I should honor his time in scouts in some special way.  It got me to thinking that I am sure some of you have seen or participated in some special ceremonies for scouts or scouters who have passed away.  I have a few ideas of how to praise him privately(he never liked being praised in public) and give myself some closure as well.  I would love to hear any stories you can pass along.

 

 

[ALongWalk]

My condolences to you for the loss of your father. I am so thankful that Scouting has had so many men and women like him who give so much to the movement. Is there one place related to Scouting that he truly loved? If there is, maybe have a memorial service there with his fellow Scouters and Scouts invited.I will be interested in reading other responses. 

[qwazse]

My condolences. As someone whose parents were called to the higher trail some time ago, and whose in-laws joined them recently, I can assure you that that the best way to honor the departed is to retell their stories.
For my dad, who was on my troop committee and active in the VFW, it took me a while to find the best way to do that ... given that I had moved some ways from home. Eventually an opportunity came to me. I had my kids’ troop/crew “adopt“ one of the city’s larger cemeteries to decorate veterans graves with flags for Memorial Day. During that evening, I explain that I’m doing this on faith that someone is doing the same by graves of my dad and brothers. Then while walking around making sure everyone has the supplies they need, I tell the youth (and young vets present) some of the ways he encouraged patriotism among youth in our community.
My goal is simple: to instill some of his values in them.
 

Sounds like your dad would be pleased if you did something similar.

 

[SSScout]

Over the past few years, I have been surprised/pleased and honored when folks learn my name and say'  "yeah, I knew your (Mom (or) Dad).  He/she were good people.   I remember when...."  

It is said that no one really dies until no one else remembers their name.    Write up the stories for your kids to remember gdad by. 

I hope after the tears, you can easily smile. 

See you on the trail. 

[IndyScouter]

On 7/28/2020 at 6:19 AM, ALongWalk said:

My condolences to you for the loss of your father. I am so thankful that Scouting has had so many men and women like him who give so much to the movement. Is there one place related to Scouting that he truly loved? If there is, maybe have a memorial service there with his fellow Scouters and Scouts invited.I will be interested in reading other responses. 

Thanks for the kind words.  I inherited all my dad's scouting patches, files, pictures, etc and decided to get them out to see if he had one particular area of scouting he cared about more than others.  Found tons of great memories...some that I had forgotten about and some that I had no idea about.😊  One particular item was a container that had 2 hand axes,  2 scout knifes, a whet stone, a metal file, a compass, a roll of twine, a mess kit, a small Coleman stove(coffee pot size), matches, various scout handbooks and a box of skill awards. I had forgotten that he brought this container to EVERY campout, no matter what the agenda for the weekend was going to be about. I never really bothered to look inside during all those years and see what it was.  In my opinion he created a multiple skill award box to help any new scouts earn their first skill award.  If the scout finished it during that weekend, he probably handed them their skill award at the campout.  He wanted to get them hooked on advancement on the very first campout.  Crafty old devil.  Thanks ALongWalk for helping me make that discovery.

[IndyScouter]

On 7/28/2020 at 8:23 AM, qwazse said:

My condolences. As someone whose parents were called to the higher trail some time ago, and whose in-laws joined them recently, I can assure you that that the best way to honor the departed is to retell their stories.
For my dad, who was on my troop committee and active in the VFW, it took me a while to find the best way to do that ... given that I had moved some ways from home. Eventually an opportunity came to me. I had my kids’ troop/crew “adopt“ one of the city’s larger cemeteries to decorate veterans graves with flags for Memorial Day. During that evening, I explain that I’m doing this on faith that someone is doing the same by graves of my dad and brothers. Then while walking around making sure everyone has the supplies they need, I tell the youth (and young vets present) some of the ways he encouraged patriotism among youth in our community.
My goal is simple: to instill some of his values in them.
 

Sounds like your dad would be pleased if you did something similar.

 

Qwazse,

Thanks for the advice.  My daughter and wife already roll their eyes and shake their heads at me when I tell one of my dad jokes.  I have always had a tendency to tell very bad puns and have always blamed it on my dad's sense of humor.  Did not think of it until now that I have been telling them about his "life lessons" too.  Great way to memorialize the man he was.

[IndyScouter]

On 7/28/2020 at 10:59 AM, SSScout said:

Over the past few years, I have been surprised/pleased and honored when folks learn my name and say'  "yeah, I knew your (Mom (or) Dad).  He/she were good people.   I remember when...."  

It is said that no one really dies until no one else remembers their name.    Write up the stories for your kids to remember gdad by. 

I hope after the tears, you can easily smile. 

See you on the trail. 

SSScout,

I wish I had thought about writing down the stories earlier this summer.  I am just about ready to go back to work(teacher) and I could have used some of my free time for writing stories.  Ok, I will try to outline as many stories I can remember now and save the grunt work for winter or summer break.  Great suggestion too!