On one occasion, I had recruited half a dozen instructors to bring from Northern Virginia to New Jersey for a national wilderness survival course for Scout leaders. On arrival we found that, on short notice, the course director had been sent to New Zealand. Ken, as a professional Scouter, had been brought back from the mid-west to pull things together. In the hours before the learners arrived, Ken and I sat down to assemble a course syllabus. “Who have you brought and what can they do?” We went over the list and each of my people was assigned a place in the program. Finally I was the only one left over. “Ken what is my job?” I asked. “Oh I didn’t tell you?” he replied, “You are the course director!”
For several years, I had helped Ken run a wilderness survival merit badge course for Scouts at summer camp at Camp Hines in Raymond. Later, the course was dropped at camp but one summer was held at Ken’s place. One of the requirements was using only a Scout knife and natural materials, construct a shelter and spend the night in it. We had instructed the boys and they had constructed their shelters of twigs and branches. It poured rain that night and the next morning they were a miserable lot with themselves and their clothing and sleeping bags sopping wet. With help from Ken’s wife, Lena, we ran everything through her clothes dryer and sent the boys out again to repair their shelters. Again, we had pouring rain and sopping wet boys with the addition of water-filled moose tracks in the campsite. Ken had us dry them out and sent them out again. This time, they completely rebuilt their shelters and slept dry in another pouring rain that night.
Some weeks later, Ken and I, with Green Bar Bill Hillcourt, went to Brunswick for the regional Northeast Camporee and were talking to another Scout Leader about our experiences. He said, “I had my boys out on a survival experience for a week but they were lucky because it didn’t rain. Ken replied, “No, our boys were lucky because it did. They will never sleep wet in the woods again.” Such was the willingness to overcome hardships that Ken was able to inspire in boys and in his fellow Scout leaders.
Over the 35 years that I knew Ken Cole, he encouraged and boosted the standing of those of us with whom he has worked in Scouting. Ken inspired a tremendous loyalty and willingness to drop everything to rush to his side when he had a job that needed to be done. I had been working as a lawyer in Nebraska when Ken had a position to be filled on a National Wood staff at the former Camp Schiff in New Jersey. I turned my cases over to my brother, rushed back east and never did get back into practicing law. Working with Ken in Scouting paid incomparably more in satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
Charles Martin Sr.
Springfield, VA
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