Since the Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1910, they've been known for a two-word motto - Be Prepared. And while Bill Ehmann, owner of two dozen merit badges, has been a Scout for most of his life, nothing could prepare him for what happened Saturday.
In a ceremony at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, Ehmann's mother pinned a silver medal on his chest, making him, at 50, the oldest new Eagle Scout anyone in the Baltimore Area Council could remember.
"I'm overwhelmed," he said, fighting back tears as his parents, Jean and Walter Ehmann, both in their 70s, looked on along with his wife, Paula, and their three grown daughters. "After so much time, it has been kind of shocking."
Ehmann finished the requirements for Scouting's highest accolade 35 years ago. He'd spent eight years building his credentials for the honor, one many studies have found to be a reliable predictor of success.
Why the delay? You'll have to ask someone other than Ehmann, a soft-spoken man who resists dwelling on the past. "There's no point looking back," he says. "When God closes a door, he opens a window somewhere else."
Scouting, devotees say, builds character, knowledge and a sense of teamwork. Only a few make Eagle, fewer still without strong family support. Until his Court of Honor, not even Ehmann fully realized what that meant.
In the 1960s, Perry Hall was a small-town kind of place, where Scouting was just something you did - especially if your family belonged to the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, home base of Troop 746. Most of Ehmann's friends had signed up, and his folks were frequent volunteers.
Ehmann was so shy he could barely speak to strangers. Scouting forced him to connect.
"I loved the campouts and stuff," says Ehmann, now a computer-systems expert with the Social Security Administration. "But I loved the camaraderie. ... It helped draw me out of myself."
He knocked off the merit badges - swimming, safety, citizenship, coin collecting. The tiers came and went - Scout, Tenderfoot, Star - as did the father-son banquets and jamborees. In 1973, he made the ultimate pilgrimage, traveling with 11 troopmates to Philmont, the Boy Scouts' 140,000-acre wilderness area in Cimarron, N.M. They camped in the mountains, hiked 60 miles and put their skills to the test.
