High-profile role for Scouts at Ford funeral

December 28, 2006 by Muir Scouter.

High-profile role for Scouts at Ford funeral

Updated: Dec 27, 2006 05:36 PM

Gerald Ford speaks at his 90th birthday celebration.

Gerald Ford stands next to a statue in honor of his days as a Boy Scout.

By ANNE SCHIEBER

WALKER — One group that will be paying special tribute to former President Gerald R. Ford is the Boy Scouts.

Ford was a tireless promoter of the Boy Scouts because he was one; and a top one. He has been the only President to earn the Scouts’ highest honor of Eagle Scout.

Ford’s family has asked that West Michigan Boy Scouts have a prominent role in the funeral in Grand Rapids. Thousands are expected to line the streets of the motorcade along Fulton Street. Eagle Scouts will be saluting the motorcade along Pearl Street, right before the Ford Museum where Ford will be laid to rest.

President Ford has left an indelible mark on Scouts in West Michigan and around the country.

“People knew he had a lot of honor and that Eagle Scout just added to that piece of honor,” says Blair Laackman, author of Gerald R. Ford’s Scouting Years.

President Ford never forgot his roots as a Boy Scout. It was one of the first things he mentioned at a Grand Rapids celebration of his 90th birthday.

“I was sitting there waiting to make a comment or two and I wondered what I was doing 78 years ago. I’ll tell you what I was doing. I was a young Boy Scout in Grand Rapids,” said the former President.

Ford became an Eagle Scout at age 16. Few Boy Scouts make the rank. It requires self-initiative and commitment to earning merits and ranks.

“If you can’t make it by 18, and you’re too busy doing sports or something, that’s it, you’ll never get the chance again,” says Laackman. . . .

http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=5864166

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