Scouting, Volume 62, Number 6, September 1974 Page: 46
112 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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and son could learn Scout-
ing together. (Today an
Eagle Scout who also wears
the Silver Beaver, Joe Wil-
liams has seen four of his
sons — Ralph Williams'
grandsons — join Troop 20;
two of these Williams Scouts
have also made Eagle.)
For Scouter Ralph Wil-
liams life has been whirling
along like a fast-spinning
kaleidoscope: 14 years as
Troop 20's Scoutmaster, 24
years its chairman ... 10
V
Leo Perlis is director of
AFL-CIO Community
Services. It was under his
leadership that the George
Meany award was de-
veloped. Mr. Perlis is also
a member of the BSA
National Executive Board.
years as skipper of Sea
Scout Ship 220 ... 25 years
a Vigil member of the Order
of the Arrow . . . two years as
Norwela's national commit-
teeman . . . two years as
council Senior Scout Repre-
sentative.
"It seemed like anytime
anything came along in
Scouting I was in it," Mr.
Williams said. And while he
"didn't know a thing" about
Scouting when he became
Troop 20's Scoutmaster, his
union experience soon
proved a wealth to be
shared.
For the past 36 years a 30'
x 60' cabin has served as the
meeting place for the 30-40
boys who have belonged to
Troop 20 each year since the
unit was started. The cabin,
which stands on the Louisi-
46
Ralph A. Williams
(above right) as he
received one of the
first George Meany
awards for union
leadership in Scout-
ing. The occasion — the
17th AFL-CIO Con-
ference on Community
Services in Washing-
ton, D.C. L. C. Morgan
(left) representing
the Louisiana AFL-
CIO, made the pre-
sentation at the
opening session.
William Sidell (center)
General President of
the United Brother-
hood of Carpenters
and Joiners of Amer-
ica, presided at the
session.
ana State Fair Grounds in
Shreveport, was built by
troop members and adult
volunteers working under
Williams' leadership.
"When we built that build-
ing I needed all the help I
could get," he reminisced.
"Now, I know that a good
union man is not a good un-
ion man unless he keeps ac-
tive in the thing; I've found
out that you've got to keep
him needed. I say, 'You're
going to have special duties
and I don't want anybody to
say yes unless he's going to
work.
"So I set out to get me the
men I was going to need for
specific jobs. I needed
somebody in the city govern-
ment who'd know about
legal entanglements. Got
another fellow there be-
cause he was an electrician;
another because he was in
another trade. In a couple of
days time I got about 15 men
on the troop committee."
Even more than Troop 20's
cabin with its fireplace of
petrified wood and its
wagon-wheel chandelier,
Ralph Williams is proud of
the Troop 20 boys he has
watched grow into men —
and of what Scouting has
done for them. He has seen
Shreveport evolve from a
sleepy cotton town on the
Red River to a petroleum-
and timber-oriented city of
some 200,000 people; Barks-
dale Air Force Base lies
across the river. Many of to-
day's city leaders belonged
to Troop 20.
"More people today, we
need more Scouting," Wil-
liams said. "What attracts
the boys the most is the out-
door program. Boys today
are more crazy about camp-
ing than they ever were. But
our city has grown up here
now. When I first took that
troop we could hike two
miles and be out in the
woods. Nowadays those
boys have to get in the car
and ride at least 15 miles.
"If you give boys a chance
to get into Scouting they'll
want to get into it — boys are
natural joiners — and boys
today need a program like
this to keep on the right
track in their thinking. What
we've got to do is to get the
adults in behind the pro-
gram. If we can get enough
adults, we can help this
country out a whole lot."
Mr. Williams considered
his entire career as a
Scouter:
"I've been working on the
adult-level, the boy-level. I
like being with boys rather
than the adults. I love the
boy-level best."
"I do not like to raise
money," he said. "But if I'm
needed, well, I don't mind
serving."
Mr. Williams retired in
1966 from his job as ad fore-
man for The Newspaper Pro-
duction Company which
turns out ads for both The
Shreveport Journal and The
Shreveport Times, and since
then, he has been devoting
most of his time — and con-
siderable energy — to
Scouting.
While continuing to serve
as Troop 20's chairman,
Ralph Williams is a Scout-
master again — of a troop of
mentally retarded boys. He
responds to all calls for help
with the organization of Cub
packs, (continued on page 86)
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 62, Number 6, September 1974, periodical, September 1974; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353624/m1/46/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.