First National OA Committee Chair

G. Kellock “Kel” Hale was installed as the first Chairman of the National Order of the Arrow Committee at the 1948 National Conference at Bloomington, Indiana. The National Council, BSA, had not technically approved his position yet, but that was just a formality. The selection of Hale according to outgoing National Chief Robert Heistand was because Kel was next in line to be National Chief. The new National Chairman position was considered the post-BSA integration equivalent to the old National Chief. The similarity was the National Chief was Chairman of the National Executive Committee and the National Chairman was Chair of the new National OA Committee. Hale immediately upon installation stated that he was dedicated to increased youth involvement in the national leadership of the OA.

Unfortunately Hale’s, time as Chairman would be cut short. After barely serving a year, under strict doctor’s orders, Hale reluctantly had to give up all activities and have bed rest until his “fatigue” passed. Hale’s was the shortest tenure of any National Chairman. H. Lloyd Nelson was appointed as his replacement. Hale would continue serving on the National OA Committee until 1973.

2, OA, Scouting

G. Kellock Hale, Jr.

G. Kellock “Kel” Hale was born January 17, 1904 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He joined Scouts at the age of 12 (minimum age in those days) in 1916. During World War I, Kel sold more war bonds than any other Scout in Philadelphia. As a result of this achievement, Kel was selected as the Scout that would serve as Lord Baden-Powell’s Orderly when he came to visit Philadelphia.

Kel was inducted in the OA at its birthplace, Treasure Island, in 1918. He was one of the Council’s most decorated Scouts. By the time Kel was twenty-years old and attending the University of Pennsylvania he was an Eagle Scout with three Silver Palms (that would be at least 66 merit badges in 1924, a remarkable achievement in that era).

Following college, Hale moved to Mount Airy, North Carolina and went to work for the North Carolina Granite Company rising to the position of Secretary. In Scouting, Hale became a troop Scoutmaster, a position he would hold for 15 years until becoming District Commissioner. During his time as Scoutmaster, Hale founded Wahissa Lodge in Old Hickory Council at Camp Lasater on June 9,1938. Later that year Hale assisted with producing the 1938 National Meeting at Camp Irondale. Hale kept his Vigil receiving the name Kittelendam translated as “The Earnest” on August 10, 1940. Hale served in a leadership role at the 1940 National Meeting at Camp Twin Echo and received the Silver Beaver Award from his council in 1942.

Hale started numerous lodges throughout Region 6 (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida). In 1945 he was invited to the National Executive Committee meeting. His attendance was to assist in planning the 1946 National Meeting originally scheduled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, close to where Hale lived. However for various reasons the 1946 National Meeting had to be moved to Chanute Field, Illinois.

At the 1946 National Meeting Hale received the Distinguished Service Award. He also ran for and was elected as the Southeast representative to the National Executive Committee. In 1948, when the National Executive Committee was disbanded and the National OA Committee formed Hale was named as the first National OA Committee Chairman. Hale only served as Chairman for a year, when illness forced him to resign in 1949. Hale lamented that strict doctor’s orders required him to dispense with all activities and he was required to observe strict bed rest as the remedy at the time for fatigue.

Hale continued to serve on the National OA Committee until 1971. His last leadership position was serving as chairman of the Distinguished Service Award Committee. During the critical years of the Order when the OA fully integrated as part of the BSA, it was Hale along with H. Lloyd Nelson and Thomas Cairns that provided the essential servant leadership. Kel was a member of the BSA for 55 years and on the National OA Committee or its equivalent for over 25 years. G. Kellock Hale passed away on October 3, 1973.

2, OA, Profile, Scouting

First Meeting of National OA Committee

The very first meeting of the National OA Committee was held January 28 – 30, 1949 in Greensboro, North Carolina. G. Kellock Hale, Chairman set the agenda and discussed issues related to changes with the full integration into the BSA. One issue was the usefulness of the 12-region BSA system. Arrangements were discussed for a change in the Area system. The National OA Committee also agreed to send a letter to each lodge reminding them to send a stone to E. Urner Goodman with their lodge name and number on it to be used in construction of a fireplace for the “Brotherhood Barn”.

The most profound issue decided at the first meeting was the increased role of youth leadership under the guidance of adult advisers. To that end it was decided that each local area would select a youth chief who would be called an Area Conference Chief. That about half of these Area Conference Chiefs would gather together prior to each National Conference to plan the upcoming Conference. The chairmen of each of the conference committees would be selected from among the Area conference chiefs. Each conference committee would also have a National OA Committee member as the youth chairman's adviser. This system has remained basically unchanged to this day except that all Section Chiefs are now invited to the National Planning Meeting.

3, OA, Scouting

Second National OA Committee Chair

In December of 1949 the President of the BSA appointed H. Lloyd Nelson Chairman of the National Order of the Arrow Committee. G. Kellock Hale Jr. reluctantly submitted his resignation after only one year under doctor’s orders to give up all activities and have complete rest.

The position of Chairman of the National OA Committee was virtually the same as Nelson’s old job as National Chief, when he led the steering committee of the OA. Nelson had been in Scouting in Philadelphia since 1915. He had joined Unami Lodge as a youth. He served on the National OA Committee or its predecessor committee from 1933 when he was elected a Grand Lodge officer until his untimely death while still serving as its Chairman in 1955.

3, OA, Scouting

First National Planning Meeting

On December 29 – 30, 1949 the National OA Committee met with a conference of Area Conference Chiefs (the predecessor name for Area Chiefs and then later Section Chiefs, that were elected to a full year term) for the first National Planning Meeting. In the early years of National Planning Meeting only about half of all Area Conference Chiefs were invited. The tradition of holding a National Planning Meeting between the end of the year holidays has since been repeated more than 40 times, becoming annual in 1987. The inclusion of youth Area Conference Chiefs was new and in keeping with the new direction the OA was taking since the 1948 merger of the BSA and OA. This meeting was held at Alpine Scout Camp, Alpine, New Jersey. Future meetings would be held at the location of the next NOAC so that facilities could be reviewed or be held at or near the national BSA headquarters.

This meeting marked the beginning of youth involvement in planning NOAC’s. Youth then meaning under age 21 at the time of their election. The Area Conference Chiefs also held the first election for national youth leadership. This too would become the standard model for national officer elections (with the exception of the 1952 Conference Chief). Elected, to be 1950 National Conference Chief was future National Secretary to the OA J. Richard Wilson, known as Dick Wilson of Chimalus Lodge, Washington, Pennsylvania. Today we consider a National Conference Chief to be the equivalent of the OA National Chief.

3, Elections, OA, Scouting

1950 DSA Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is presented to those Arrowmen who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. 1950 was the last time the award was limited to only three recipients. The following were presented the DSA at the 1950 National Order of the Arrow Conference - Herbert L. Gaskin, Robert H. Heistand and Wes H. Klusmann.

3, Awards, OA, Scouting

Brotherhood Barn Fireplace Completed

In 1950 a massive fireplace was completed in E. Urner Goodman’s “Brotherhood Barn” located in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The fireplace project had begun in 1948 as a tangible recognition of the admiration all Arrowmen had for the Order’s founder.

National Chairman G. Kellock Hale, Jr. and Robert H. Heistand, 1946 National Chief (as an adult) and member of the National OA Committee, shepherded the gift project. Much to Goodman’s surprise, in late 1948 and early 1949, heavy packages with postmarks from all over the country started showing up at Goodman’s Vermont retreat. The packages contained stones that were marked with the sending lodge’s name and in some cases the lodge’s number that would eventually be assembled into a fireplace. Lodges were also asked to write and mail their histories to Hale and make a contribution (if they decided to do so) of $3.00 to help with the construction of the fireplace.

The “Brotherhood Barn”, where the fireplace was built, was also of significance to the Order. In its time, it served as a “hostel for Brothers” that took the journey to Vermont. As quoted from a letter to Goodman, after visiting the barn,

 . . . speaking of the fireplace, it is a masterpiece of craftsmanship, and something we all should be proud of.

The fireplace project and completion of the fireplace was meant to serve as a cheerful reminder to our founder that ten’s of thousand’s of boys and men shared his idea of true brotherhood among men. This is where there would always continue to burn the fire of brotherhood that was kindled thirty-five years before.

2, Founders, Goodman, OA, Scouting

Second OA Nat'l Secretary

Effective June 1951, J. Richard Wilson, the 1950 National Conference Chief, became the second Order of the Arrow National Secretary. The position was still a low level BSA professional job and was not a glamour position by any means. It was a tremendous clerical and administrative job.

Outgoing National Secretary Norman C. Wood had taken another professional Scouting job in his hometown council in Springfield, Massachusetts after less than three years. Wood, only 26, decided that he preferred being a Field Executive and camp director.

Wilson was even younger than Wood when he was hired and would only serve until 1953 when he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to be a Field Executive. Wilson remains the only youth officer of the OA to later serve as National Secretary.

3, OA, Scouting

OA Patches Approved for Uniform Wear

While patches are now pervasive in the Order of the Arrow, at the beginning of 1945, Arrowmen were still prohibited from wearing any OA patch on their uniform. This was related to the independence of the Order from national BSA. The BSA Uniform Committee had not permitted WWW patches on the uniform and the National Lodge dutifully requested compliance. However as often is the case, not everyone complied.

Images from the 1938 National Meeting at Camp Irondale, Missouri confirm that there were already OA patches being worn on the uniform. In 1945 the BSA Uniform Committee finally relented and for the first time OA patches could be worn on the Scout Uniform on the right shirt pocket (not the pocket flap). Flaps were not authorized until 1954.

3, Insignia, OA, Scouting

350th Lodge Formed

Maka-Ina Lodge of Chillicothe, Ohio became the 350^th lodge to charter on August 20, 1946. Notwithstanding the fact that the Order had always grown on its own merits, the OA was meriting a new lodge at the rate of almost a new lodge a week.

3, OA, Scouting

Third Group of DSA Recipients

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is presented to those Arrowmen who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. The following were presented the DSA at the 1946 National Meeting. The number of awards was increased from three to six to compensate for not having a 1944 conference - Joseph A. Brunton, Jr., George W. Chapman, G. Kellock Hale, Jr., William E. Hoffmann, W.E. Vaughan-Lloyd and Robert L. Wolff.

3, Awards, OA, Scouting

DSA Profile

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) was created in 1940 to honor those who have rendered distinguished and outstanding service to the Order on a sectional, regional, or national basis. It is given primarily for dedicated service to the Order and Scouting over a period of years.

The first recipients were recognized at the 1940 national meeting at Camp Twin Echo Pennsylvania in celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Order. E. Urner Goodman, Carroll A. Edson and nine others were the first recipients. Chief Scout Executive James E. West was one of the first recipients but did not receive the award until December 29, 1942, presented at the 28^th annual meeting of Unami Lodge. Ten of the original 11 were current or former professional Scouters, the lone exception being H. Lloyd Nelson.

The award is a sterling silver arrowhead, bearing an arrow pointing upward and to the wearer’s right. Originally the ribbon was dark green to “to remind us of the great outdoors in which the program was centered.”

Between 1942, 1946, 1948, and 1950, the national lodge posed a tight limit on the number of awards with only three to six presentations for certain years. At this time in our history as a national organization, the award was rare.

During the December 1960 National OA Committee meeting at Indiana University, members discussed and agreed to change the color of the DSA ribbon from its forest green to explore a new color combination. The last awards presented with the forest green ribbon were at the 1965 National OA Conference (NOAC), which at that time there were only 111 recipients.

In 1966, during a National OA Committee meeting in Dallas, Awards Chairman Kellock Hale reported, “that at last the new ribbon was available.” The new design was a white ribbon with four embroidered red arrows on each side. The National OA Committee mailed all former recipients with the green ribbon the “new” replacement ribbon. The Class of 1967 was the first recipients to receive the new ribbon during their presentation.

The DSA is traditionally part of the pageantry at NOAC. During the early years through the mid-1970s new recipients were not announced until the show, which was a mystery to even the new awardees. In later years a formal announcement has been made beforehand and a formal letter was mailed.

Professional and adult Scouters received most of the awards in the formative years. Youth area chiefs, the forerunner title to a current section chief, were invited to help plan the 1948 National OA Conference. This opportunity allowed more youth to get involved nationally and to help plan their local area conferences, which became known as conclaves nationwide. The first youth recipients did not occur until the mid-1950s. National officers and national conference vice chiefs were elected at the planning meeting, which at the time was every two years to plan the upcoming NOAC. Participation for youth to help plan a national event is a unique and special opportunity, and afforded more youth leadership responsibility.

In the modern era of Scouting there is more opportunity for both youth and adult to serve on various levels: NOAC staff, National Jamboree, NLS, and the high adventure programs.

The DSA is the only award in the BSA that youth, adult volunteers, and professional Scouters can receive. Recipients that have been awarded include section chiefs who have contributed high-quality program to their respective sections, adult volunteers of the National OA Committee, Scout Executives, Chief Scout Executives, and Presidents of the Boy Scouts of America.

Gradually more DSA presentations were awarded, as there were more opportunities to serve in the increasingly diversified OA national programs. Between 1981 and 2012, there have been groups of DSA recipients presented at a NOAC ranging in size from 39 to 69, and a total of 908 awards have been presented in history. The total number may sound high, however, one has to consider the total BSA membership of over 800,000 and the national OA membership of over 171,000.

A special newsletter for recipients was started in the fall of 2008 called "The Silver Arrowhead". One goal of the newsletter is to reach out to former recipients, as many are not active in Scouting. Another goal is to share narratives about early recipients to share their story.

Awards, Background, OA, Profile, Scouting