Scouting, Volume 79, Number 4, September 1991 Page: 14
98, E1-E12, [16] p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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.tBOYSCOUTSoiAMERICA
A Man
Who Kept Asking
Questions
The
Way
It Was
As BSA director of
research, Ken Wells
rankled many with
his stubborn
challenging of
decisions, but he
helped bring about
some innovative
changes to Scouting.
By Keith Monroe
44
H
,OW DO YOU KNOW
that's true?" BSA research director Kenneth
Wells challenged Chief Scout Executive Ar-
thur A. Schuck.
Schuck, a forceful man not accustomed to
cross-examination, reddened. "I say it's true
because I sit in this chair!"
"You can say it," Wells replied, "but that
doesn't make it so."
Schuck, who headed the BSA from 1948 to
1960, could have fired Wells. But he set great
store by statistics and agreed to further fact-
finding. Like four other CSEs during Wells's
42-year career, Schuck had learned to like the
inquisitive research director from Oregon who
took nothing for granted.
James E. West, the BSA's first Chief Scout
Executive, was also the first CSE Wells im-
pressed. Still a college student, Wells drew
hard stares from West and other professionals
with his bold questions at a regional confer-
ence. West noted that the young man planned
to become a Scouting professional and asked
him to be a contingent leader at the 1937
World Jamboree in the Netherlands.
Two years later West saw Wells again.
"You're the young man from Portland who
disagreed with me at the jamboree, aren't
you?" he asked, recalling how the outspoken
Wells had boldly challenged one of West's
travel decisions.
Wells confessed that he was. "More people
should do that," West conceded.
Questioning the decisions of others was
nothing new for Wells, who even in boyhood
seemed both a straight arrow and a stray. An
Eagle Scout and senior patrol leader, he also
won a BSA essay contest. But he turned mav-
erick when Portland's new council executive,
G.H. "Obie" Oberteuffer, changed some local
advancement requirements.
The troop invited Oberteuffer to debate the
decision. "I spoke for the group which held
that his changes were intolerable," Wells later
wrote. Afterward, however, the duly-im-
pressed council executive offered Wells a job
on the summer camp staff.
To help pay his way through Portland's
Reed College, Wells worked for the council as
what today would be called a paraprofessional.
Then, in 1930, he applied to the BSA, stating
his desire to be involved in research.
Instead, he started as a district executive
under Oberteuffer, then served as council ex-
ecutive in Medford and Eugene. At a confer-
ence in 1944, asking his usual provocative
questions, he again caught the attention of the
Chief Scout Executive. This time the CSE
was Elbert K. Fretwell, a former college
dean, who subsequently wrote to Wells, ask-
ing what type of BSA job he hoped for.
"I like to play the organization game,"
Wells replied, "but I cherish the opportunity
to take part freely before the game in the
rule-making."
The job he got was assistant national direc-
tor of camping. As such, he helped run many
camping schools, but later admitted that
"camping was not really my bag."
One Wells camping project, however, a sur-
vey of how local councils boosted camp atten-
dance, impressed yet another CSE, Arthur
Schuck. "Let's get Wells in here," Schuck
would say at meetings of top staff. "He'll have
a different idea."
In 1950 Wells finally became head of re-
search. He reviewed polls, statistics, and stud-
ies for answers to questions like: Why did
boys join, and quit, Scouting? What did the
general public think of Scouting? How could
Scouting better serve minorities?
Wells arranged for a survey by the Univer-
sity of Michigan which led to innovations like
coeducational Exploring, special-interest
posts, and a change in the rule that only
women could be Cub Scout den leaders.
Retirement in 1972 didn't slow Wells's in-
quiring mind. From his home in Princeton,
N.J., he hounded retirees for news for Now
and Then, a publication he helped edit for
retired BSA professionals. He wrote a 75-year
history of the local Red Cross chapter, gave
occasional sermons at Unitarian churches, and
edited a monthly community newspaper.
He travels often to Ottawa, Canada, where
| his son is a college professor. No doubt on such
| occasions the two have many questions to ask
I each other. ■
c
©
| (Editor's note: Wells described his experi-
| ences at the 1937 world jamboree in Scout-
| ing's May-June, 1991, "Way It Was" column.)
14
September 1991 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 79, Number 4, September 1991, periodical, September 1991; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353571/m1/14/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.