By Tony Sheaffer
Long before the Founder's Award was introduced at the 1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference, Dr. Carl M. Marchetti, M.D. started his Scouting journey. In fact, he helped develop the award itself.
The Founder's Award was created following the passing of founder E. Urner Goodman; it is presented locally to those who have gone above and beyond their expected duties to the lodge. An Arrowman can only receive this award once in his or her lifetime. Many of these awards, complete with a solid red arrowhead ribbon and a bronze medallion bearing the likeness of the OA founders, are presented each year by the nation's lodges. However, the man who is credited with having created the award received it just last year.
Marchetti's Scouting adventure began over 70 years ago, when he joined Cub Scouts at age nine in 1943. He was a member of Troop 33 out of Union City, NJ and was strongly supported by his mother and father, as well as his extended family. He would go on to earn the rank of Eagle, the Explorer Silver Award, and would serve as the second lodge chief of Chinchewunska Lodge.
In 1962, Dr. Marchetti was appointed to the national Order of the Arrow committee, the youngest-ever to be selected. Some of his accomplishments while on the committee include making the Order a self-funded organization, creating the trading post at national conferences and creating one-year terms for national youth officers. This doubled the number of youth that had top leadership terms of office and led to the need for annual national programs. From 1985 to 1993, Dr. Marchetti served as the Order's sixth national chairman.
With a record of service as lengthy as Marchetti's, some may wonder why he was never awarded by his lodge. After Dr. Marchetti stepped down from his position as lodge adviser in 1975, he became more heavily involved with the OA at the national level. As his involvement in the lodge waned, and with the Founder's Award not being introduced until 1981, Dr. Marchetti was unable to receive it because he had no longer been directly involved with the lodge.
Then, in 2011, thirty years after the award was introduced, Dr. Marchetti was asked to speak at a Conclave hosted by his home lodge, Na-Tsi-Hi. After that event, he once more became directly involved with the lodge. So, when the Key 3 met to discuss the Founder's Award for 2013, they decided to award it to Marchetti.
Dr. Marchetti has no plans to stop his service to Scouting anytime soon. He intends to assist the national committee in a successful capital campaign, continue to attend national Scouting functions, increase the size of the Monmouth Council Endowment Fund, and enjoy the room at the Philmont Scout Museum being named in his honor.
"For he who serves his fellows is, of all his fellows, greatest."