E. Urner Goodman
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Edward Urner Goodman (May 15, 1891 – March 13, 1980), more familiarly E. Urner Goodman, was an influential leader of the Boy Scouts of America movement for much of the twentieth century (1911-1980). He was National Program Director from 1931 until 1951, during the organization's formative years of significant growth, and wrote the Leaders Handbook. He is best known today for having created the "Order of the Arrow", a popular and highly successful program of the Boy Scouts of America which honors scouts for their cheerful service (see Order of the Arrow, below).
Goodman took an early interest in education and youth work while barely out of his teens himself. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he initially was a popular and highly respected Sunday school teacher and leader at a local Presbyterian Church. While studying for his degree in Education, he first became involved in Boy Scouting in 1911 as a twenty year old Scoutmaster of Troop 1, the first Scout Troop in Philadelphia. In 1913, he began teaching at the Potter School there.
In 1915, he entered full-time professional service in Boy Scouting as a field executive, serving that summer as director of the Philadelphia Scout Council's summer camp, where he began the Order of the Arrow as a motivational program to recognize exemplary campers.
Following Army service as a 1st Lieutenant during World War I, Goodman resumed his professional scouting career as Scout Executive in Philadelphia from 1919 to 1927 and Chicago from 1927 to 1931. He was then named National Program Director, serving from 1931 until his retirement in 1951. Thereafter, he remained active in Order of the Arrow affairs as a source of inspiration for its thousands of members until his death at the age of 88.
Goodman was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humanics from Missouri Valley College, the first such degree awarded by the college. He was a Freemason, having joined Lamberton Masonic Lodge 487 of Philadelphia in 1917, and also was a member of Kiwanis and Rotary. He authored a book in 1965, "The Building of a Life", recounting some of his scouting experiences.
He was married to the former Louise Waygood for sixty years and they had three children.
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[edit] Order of the Arrow
The Order of the Arrow (or "OA", as it is familiarly known) 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 by membership in scouting's "Honor Society".
It was founded in 1915 by Dr. E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson, when they were director and assistant director, respectively, at a Scout camp on Treasure Island, in the Delaware River near Philadelphia.
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.
They were strongly influenced 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 at camp that summer, in a manner befitting 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 exemplified 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.
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, although many scout executives at the time were skeptical of what they called "secret camp fraternities". In its early years, the "OA" was considered to be an "experimental" program. 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.
Over the decades since the Order of the Arrow's founding, hundreds of thousands of scouts have worn the OA sash on their uniforms, denoting membership in the Brotherhood of Cheerful Service.
For them, the words of Dr. Goodman written in the foreword to the OA Handbook almost a half-century ago remain just as relevant today:
"The Order of the Arrow is a 'thing of the spirit' rather than of mechanics. Organization, operational procedure, and paraphernalia are necessary in any large and growing movement, but they are not what count in the end. The things of the spirit count -
These are of the spirit, blessed of God, the great Divine Spirit."
- Brotherhood - in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad.
- Cheerfulness - in a day when the pessimists have the floor.
- Service - in a day when millions are interested only in getting or grasping rather than giving.
[edit] E. Urner Goodman recognitions
A scholarship and camping award have been named in Goodman's honor.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service: A History of the Order of the Arrow, by Kenneth P. Davis, Ph.D. (1990) Irving, Tx: Boy Scouts of America.
- The Order of the Arrow - Scouting's Honor Society chronicles the Order of the Arrow's founding by Dr. Goodman in 1915 and its subsequent development
- A Thing of the Spirit - The Life of E. Urner Goodman, by Nelson R. Block (2000) Irving, Tx: Boy Scouts of America
- 10,000 Famous Freemasons (4 Vol.), by William R. Denslow. (1958) St. Louis, Mo: Missouri Lodge of Research.
- Scouting terms
