Longtime Scouting service leads to prestigious national award

Bill Davies has been involved in Scouting since becoming a den leader in 1984. He is being recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with the National Duty to God Award. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Bill Davies of St. Louis Park grew up near Waukesha, Wisconsin, on a farm, so involvement in Scouting wasn’t possible. When troop meetings were held late in the day, he was milking cows. “When the kids were off to camp, I had to bale hay or do other chores,” he said.

But as an adult, his dedication to Scouting has spanned about 40 years — so far.

The Boy Scouts of America recently recognized Davies with the National Duty to God Award. Created in 2016, the award recognizes up to four individuals each year who have demonstrated a history of exemplary service and leadership to faith, and a steadfast commitment to promoting religious duty in Scouting as essential for guiding the moral, spiritual and social development of youth.

Nominees may belong to any faith tradition recognized by the Boy Scouts of America. Davies, a parishioner of St. Gabriel the Archangel in Hopkins, said he is the fifth Catholic to receive the award.

Now retired, Davies, 78, studied agronomy but worked as a manufacturer’s representative starting in 1970. During his career, he was a member and served as president of St. Louis Park’s Rotary Club. Aside from four of his wife’s five brothers being Eagle Scouts, his first contact with Scouting occurred years ago when he worked with a Scouting career awareness program to place Rotary members from varying careers as speakers in schools.

Once his older of two sons started in Cub Scouts in 1984, Davies served as a den leader. He later served as advancement chair for his son’s Scout troop.

He had a front row seat to the value of Scouting as both sons became Eagle Scouts. Davies recalled sitting with his older son during an interview to earn a spot at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. His son passionately wanted to become a pilot, with his interest starting as early as earning a Boy Scout aviation merit badge. Being captain of the swim team didn’t seem to impress the interviewer, so Davies leaned over and asked his son, “Matt, weren’t you in Scouting?”

While his son went on a campus tour, Davies talked with the interviewer and asked why Scouting experience was important. The interviewer told him it was an indicator of leadership skills, adding, “We need people to fly a 500-million-dollar airplane.” Today, Matt is a commercial pilot.

Davies said his younger son, Michael, had difficulty in school but thrived in Scouting. In seventh grade, Davies took him to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico where Michael went on a five-day backpacking trip. “He was the only one who had Scouting skills,” Davies said, and it gave him confidence. Today Michael has a master’s degree and teaches special education students.

Davies’ involvement with Scouting forms a near-dizzying list — from decades of local volunteering to positions at the national level. He chaired the National Catholic Committee on Scouting for six years. That committee awarded him the Brother Barnabas Founders Award in 2018, a special recognition for long and meritorious service that has significantly affected the course of Catholic Scouting.

He also chaired the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Catholic Committee on Scouting from 2016 to 2019. Parishes in the archdiocese charter about 150 Scout units, he said.

“The main purpose is to promote Scouting as a youth ministry,” Davies said. “It’s a way to further instill that desire in their service or their belief in God.”

Having a parish charter a Scout unit provides a ready-made youth ministry program without the need to recreate the wheel, Davies said. “Scouting meets all the goals and objectives of youth ministry as outlined by the bishops (the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops),” he said.

Davies has seen changes over four decades. A recent one invites girls to join Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. “I had no problem allowing girls into the program,” Davies said, noting they had been part of Scouting for years, such as in Exploring and Venturing programs.

Girls and boys might work together on certain badges, he said. He recalled going to meetings where parents who were leaders brought a daughter. “We had a lot of kids who were earning the religious emblem,” Davies said, “but we couldn’t recognize them.”

In a different development, by year-end 2020, more than 95,000 people had filed sex-abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America. Scouts BSA reported it needs to settle its ongoing bankruptcy case by this summer or it might not have sufficient cash to keep operating.

Davies noted that every adult leader needs to take the Scouts’ youth protection program and undergo a background check every two years.

Davies said he is humbled by his most recent award. His nominator, retired Army Col. John Halloran, 68, himself an Eagle Scout who has known Davies for about 40 years, said he couldn’t think of a better person to recommend. In addition to his written nomination, Halloran said a number of other people in leadership positions in organizations wrote supporting letters about Davies’ merit for the award.

Halloran, who has been involved with Boy Scouts since 1967, is a parishioner of St. Theodore in Moss Bluff, Louisiana (Diocese of Lake Charles). He also mentioned Davies’ contributions to his parish, his archdiocese, his community and his country. Davies served in the military, including in Vietnam with the Army’s 101^st Airborne Division.

“He was just so dedicated in the movement and trying to get relationships, membership going,” Halloran said of Davies’ commitment to Scouting.

“I’ve lived, like many of us in Scouting, to the Scout oath and Scout law to the best of our abilities as our guiding light,” Halloran said, “or as our compass pointing north, to make us better citizens and positive, contributing members to society.” He said even though Scouting “has had its issues sometimes,” it still is a very worthwhile program for youth, both boys and girls.

The spiritual aspect of Scouting will never be removed, Halloran said, because the organization would lose about 70% of its membership — the faith-based organizations that charter Scouting because of the program it offers.

“They know that duty to God is a critical, key element of the program,” Halloran said. “And they’ve never thought about change. They’ve had people who tried to sue over it, but they’ve never been successful in trying to take God or the Supreme Being out of Scouting.”

Today, Davies’ older grandson, Will, carries on the Scouting tradition. The 17-year-old is completing his Eagle Scout project — a specially designed wooden collection box to hold retired U.S. flags. He was inspired by a local Legion post where visitors sometimes tossed trash into the same box as the flags.

Will, whose family belongs to St. Patrick in Edina, is a member of Troop 123, which is chartered by Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Edina.

Davies’ history with Scouts is indicative of his dedication to his parish, where he has served as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion, weekday lay reader, sacristan, usher, chair for the Catholic Services Appeal and Endowment Committee, Religious Education Committee and Finance Council.

“I do my duty to God and help young people form a direction,” he said of his commitment to Scouting. “I am still a firm believer that of all the problems that we’re having, if we get back to … having a family where they eat supper together every night … we’d eliminate a lot of problems in the world today.”