Reynolds likely nation’s oldest scout
Published: February 3, 2010
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At Camp Tuscarora in January, Ira Reynolds celebrates his 108th birthday, with Bob Delemar, right, and in back Tom Marsh and Bob Steele.
In 2006, Ira Reynolds chuckles at still being able to get in his scout uniform.
Ira Reynolds as a teen is either in his Boy Scout uniform or that of the Boys Working Reserve.
As the Boy Scouts of America prepare to celebrate their 100th birthday on Monday, Feb. 8, not very many people can speak to what scouting was like in its earliest years.
Ira Reynolds can.
The 108-year-old resident of Susquehanna joined scouting in 1914 at the age of 12, and recalls a life devoted not only to his own character development but to that of three more generations of youths.
His first scoutmaster of Troop 1 Black Bear Patrol in Dorranceton was Laurance Thompson who authored the first aid section of the original Boy Scouts Handbook.
His next scoutmaster, however, Harry Alworth of Luzerne, had a little more of an impression on Reynolds as he was also the Reynolds’ family mailman.
On Saturday night, Reynolds’ granddaughter, Erika ‘Chikkie’ Hansen, who at 53 is his primary caregiver at the Laurel Street home Reynolds has resided in since 1939, brought out a treasure trove of Boy Scout memorabilia, that includes clippings, photographs, badges, pins, uniforms and membership cards.
Reynolds said his dad, Thomas Ellsworth Reynolds, was too busy eking out a living caring for the horses used by the Honeywell undertaking business in the WyomingValley to be involved in his scouting activities when he was a boy.
Instead, Reynolds said Saturday night that his classmates and teachers “were after me to join scouting.”
He achieved the rank of Tenderfoot Scout on July 24, 1915, and then Second Class on Nov. 19 of that year. He became a First Class Scout on Oct. 18, 1916.
His scouting unit, like others across the nation, sold Liberty Bonds in 1917 to raise money to support America’s effort in the Great War, or what our generation knows as World War I.
He became part of the Boys Working Reserve – a group that attempted to train up teens to fill in as farm laborers at a time when young men had left for the military.
His granddaughter noted Saturday that by the time he finished his training, however, many of the soldiers had returned from service.
In the spring of 1918, and when only just 16, one of the Wilkes-Barre newspapers carried in full a recitation he gave from memory at that year’s Luzerne High School commencement about the Boy Scout portrayal of ideal character.
His 1918 recitation concluded: “We are at this time, each and every one of us banded together to do what we can for our government either directly or indirectly. The Boy Scouts because of their training and adaptability are prepared to lend their aid to Uncle Sam in many ways. So in lending a helping hand to the Boy Scouts of America every patriotic American will be effectively helping the government to make the world safe for democracy.”
The newspaper declared that few addresses during the commencement season “equaled the effort of young Reynolds in concise treatment of a given subject.”
Reynolds went on to PennState to study electrical engineering and from 1920 to 1923 served in the U.S. Navy where he finished his professional training.
When he returned, he found employment in 1924 at the tannery in Noxen.
One night at the boarding house where he was staying, his eyes fell upon Beatrice Smith of Hallstead, a young teacher in the old Noxen school, and eventually the two married.
They moved to her native SusquehannaCounty where Reynolds found work as an electrician in the Erie railroad shops.
Although the couple only had one daughter, Reynolds fathered the local Boy Scout effort in Susquehanna in 1934 when he organized Troop No. 81. That unit survives and this past Sunday afternoon had another Eagle Scout pinning service, signifying the highest point of achievement of a youth in scouting.
In 1949, Reynolds received the highest award that an adult can receive in scouting, the Silver Beaver.
But instead of using the signal achievement as a point of retirement, Reynolds continued to be involved with scouting, serving on boards of review and attending overnights, scout-a-ramas, camporees and even the National Boy Scout Jamboree when it was held at Valley Forge in 1950.
In 1985, Reynolds reflected on why he felt it was important for him to continue involvement in scouting: “I’ve always done my best to try to be a good scout.”
He added, “There isn’t a finer group of men to be found anywhere than the ones who are scout leaders. We emphasize fun, but while we’re doing it, it is in the back of our minds on character building.”
It is a point echoed by Thomas Slavicek, the Northeast Pennsylvania Boy Scout Council Executive.
On Friday Slavicek, an immigrant from Venezuela who went on to become an Eagle Scout, said that persons like Reynolds are scouting executives’ “dreams” because even though they have passed their prime teen years in scouting, they “are there” for scouts whose parents can’t be.
And, he noted, they continue to uphold the Scout Oath:
“On my honor I will do my best: to do my duty to God and my country and Obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
Although SusquehannaCounty’s Boy Scouts are members of the Baden Powell Council in Binghamton, Slavicek said the Northeast Pennsylvania Council recently sent a letter of congratulations to Reynolds on the occasion of his 108th birthday for not just getting his start in that council’s present coverage area, “but for continuing to spread the ideals of scouting wherever he goes.”
Hansen said that of all the places Reynolds could have his 108th birthday party on Jan. 2, he chose CampTuscarora, the council’s Boy Scout Camp near Sanford, N.Y.
Up until about five years ago, he regularly spent weekends with the boys there and is still on the roster as a campmaster.
