[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       TRIBUTE TO EVANS SCOGGINS

                                 ______


                       HON. GEORGE (BUDDY) DARDEN

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 23, 1994

  Mr. DARDEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Evans 
Scoggins of Summerville, GA, a man who has made a contribution of 
inestimable value to the well-being of his community. Evans has served 
for the past 15 years on the Boy Scouts of America Executive Board. He 
has been involved in the Boy Scouts for 66 years, since he first joined 
the Scouts in 1927. He later became Scout Leader of Troop 7.
  Mr. Speaker, I can think of few who are better role models for young 
people than Evans Scoggins. His enthusiasm, respect for others, and 
dedication to youth have helped to improve the quality of life in 
northwest Georgia. However, I can offer no words of praise for Evans 
higher than those bestowed upon him by former Scouts he has led. Listen 
to the words of praise for Evans Scoggins from former Troop 7 Boy 
Scouts. James ``Bud'' Jackson, who now owns the Jackson Drug Co., said 
this about Evans Scoggins: ``He's a hero * * * He is a true hero 
because he took nothing for spending his life for young people.'' Or 
how about the words of Allan Eleam, the president of Guffin and Eleam 
Insurance, Inc. of Summerville: ``I feel like what leadership qualities 
I have were influenced by him and his Christian attitude.'' And Jon 
Payne, a probate court judge and former Troop 7 Scout remembers Evans 
spent so much time trying to teach us things that we needed to be 
taught about Scouts and about life.
  Truly, no one can doubt that Evans Scoggins has distinguished himself 
in his work for young people. Evans has instilled in so many young men 
the moral and ethical principles and attitudes which are conducive to 
good character and citizenship. Most importantly, his teachings have 
stayed with these young men throughout their lives.
  Mr. Speaker, a newspaper article on Evans Scoggins recently appeared 
in the Summerville News. With the consent of my colleagues in the 
House, I would like to submit this article for the Record.

 Boy Scouting Is an Adventure--Scoggins Influences Lives for More Than 
                                50 Years

                           (By Julie Griffis)

       Billy Mitchell still holds a special place in his heart for 
     his former scoutmaster, as do other former Boy Scouts who 
     grew up in Summerville.
       Evans Scoggins has been involved in scouting for 66 years, 
     since he first joined the scouts in 1927. Later he became a 
     scout leader and for the past 15 years, he has served on the 
     Boy Scouts executive board.
       ``Fred Ray, a Methodist minister, started the troop in 
     Trion,'' Scoggins explained. ``I joined and it (scouting) 
     taught me more about life and had more effect on me than any 
     one person I ever knew.''
       From that beginning, Scoggins became the person who had 
     more effect on several area young boys than anyone they ever 
     knew.
       ``He was like a father to me and other boys. He considered 
     me one of his own,'' Mitchell recalled fondly from his home 
     in Orange Park, Fla.
       ``He was a good motivator and has been to a lot of boys,'' 
     added the retired Navy command master chief.
       Scoggins said scouting taught him what he could do with his 
     life.
       According to Mitchell, Scoggins ran with that thought and 
     used it to show others what they could do with their lives.
       As a youngster, Scoggins said he attended the Rev. Ray's 
     church, but never remembered anything that was said from the 
     pulpit. But he remembered everything Ray said around the 
     campfire.
       ``He taught us about other people and how to help them and 
     the community,'' Scoggins said. ``I learned that there's 
     always something you can do for someone or the community 
     whether you have money or not.''
       Scoggins, Job Development Specialist of the Chattooga 
     County Chamber of Commerce Jobs Training Partnership Act 
     (JTPA) program, was a Boy Scout until he was 17. He then 
     began his work as scoutmaster of Summerville Troop 7. He led 
     the troop for 31 years.
       ``I think the Boy Scout program turned my life around,'' 
     Scoggins said. ``I grew up during the Depression and it was 
     tough.''
       ``It doesn't matter how poor you are, in the Boy Scouts 
     everyone is exactly alike. There's no such thing as a poor 
     boy. They're all Boy Scouts,'' he added.
       Once he became a scoutmaster, Scoggins said he had a fine 
     troop--always the best one in the region.
       ``Some of the finest young men in the country came out of 
     my troop,'' Scoggins said, naming off four lieutenant 
     colonels, one colonel, teachers, pharmacists, ministers, etc.
       ``One reason I had a good troop is I always had good 
     boys,'' he said, adding that he's taken as many as 95 boys on 
     a camping trip at one time with no other adult help.
       ``I have no regrets for the nights I spent away from my 
     wife with the boys. Thank God I had an understanding wife,'' 
     he said.
       Scoggins has attended three National Boy Scout Jamborees 
     and one World Jamboree that hosted Boy Scouts from 100 
     countries and attended three National Order of the Arrow 
     Conventions.
       Through Scouting, Scoggins has met four presidents: Harry 
     S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Richard 
     M. Nixon.
       ``There are more opportunities in scouting for the average 
     boy than any program I know of in the world,'' Scoggins said.
       He led his last troop in 1976, deciding to retire from that 
     phase of scouting for health reasons.
       He worked in the textile trade for 43 years and was with 
     the Georgia Department of Labor for five years. He accepted 
     his position with JTPA nine years ago.
       ``If I had to do it over again, I'd spend another 50 years 
     in scouting,'' he said. ``It pays off in the community and 
     people.''
       Scoggins still has a poem presented to him by scout 
     Mitchell, several years ago, when Mitchell didn't have the 
     money to buy his scoutmaster a Christmas present.
       ``He'll never know how much that poem meant to me,'' 
     Scoggins said. And, by the look in his eyes you can tell it 
     still means a lot.
       ``I can still see him standing there. I keep it (the poem) 
     framed now. It's the most valuable thing in this house.''
       It follows:

                                 Scout

                          (By Billy Mitchell)

     If I were asked to name a man
     I thought was really great
     I wouldn't have to ponder or even hesitate.
     He's as gentle as my mother, yet he's firm and strict with 
           rules
     And he teaches us so many things we could never learn at 
           school.
     Yes, wherever I may go
     The greatest man I know is our scoutmaster
     He listens to our troubles, he's so gentle and so kind
     And He's so understanding he can almost read our mind.
     He works so hard to help us and he gives his time so free
     And I wish that I could thank him for all he's done for me.
     Yes, wherever I may go
     The greatest man I know is my scoutmaster.
     When I see a scout official I raise my head so high
     Like a soldier in the army when a general passes by.
     They will never, never die when their time on earth is spent
     In the hearts of all their boys they have built their 
           monument.
     Yes, wherever I may go
     The greatest man I know is our scoutmaster.
     And to all the scout officials with your hearts so big and 
           true
     I say thank you, and God bless you for the glorious work you 
           do.
       Scoggins kept his scouts busy.
       ``We planted 2,000 pine trees in 1954. I saw them being cut 
     not long ago,'' he explained. ``We put up 75 feed stations 
     for birds and squirrels, and cleared 15 piles of brush and 
     500 feet of creek.
       The troop attended five gun safety demonstrations, and 
     averaged about one camping trip a month. While under 
     Scoggins' leadership, his troop even won a national camping 
     award.
       And through it all, Scoggins said it was worth every night 
     he was kept awake during those camping trips long ago.
       ``They'd slip around and pull the pegs out of my tent and 
     the tent would fall down on me,'' he grinned.
       ``I used to be a boy with 'em,'' Scoggins laughed. ``And it 
     liked to have killed me.''
       A simple way to describe Evans Scoggins is as a ``hero.''
       And the meaning behind that is best explained by former 
     Troop 7 boy scout James ``Bud'' Jackson, who was a member of 
     Scoggins' troop for four years.
       ``He's a hero--a hero of mine,'' the Jackson Drug Co., 
     owner and pharmacist said. ``He did all that work for all 
     those people just for the good it did. Most heroes are sports 
     people and greedy folks with big salaries. He (Scoggins) is a 
     true hero because he took nothing for spending his life for 
     young people.
       ``He's led an exemplary life in an exemplary way--a good 
     way. And, at an age when most people say, `I've done enough,' 
     he's helping people find jobs.''
       Jackson not only described a man who was his hero as a 
     child, but to this day remains a hero and continues to make 
     an impression on him.
       Just about everyone who was a scout back then wanted to be 
     in Troop 7, according to Lann Cordle, Chattooga clerk of 
     court, who was in Scoggins' troop for about two to three 
     years.
       ``There was a troop in Trion and another one in 
     Summerville, but everyone knew Troop 7 was the best one and 
     that was the one they wanted to be in,'' explained Cordle, 
     who is now an assistant scout leader for Troop 7.
       When asked about Scoggins, Cordle replied, ``I don't have 
     anything but praises for the man. He means a lot to me and 
     any boy who was in the troop. He's given a lot of folks, some 
     wouldn't have had the opportunities in life they had if it 
     wasn't for him.''
       ``He was always ready to listen to you and help in any way 
     he could,'' Cordle continued. ``I don't know how he kept from 
     having a nervous breakdown. We'd all load up in a big truck 
     and take off on a camping trip. When we got there, everyone 
     jumped out and some of the boys he probably didn't see until 
     it was time to leave. A good time was had by everybody.''
       Cordle said he'd never be able to oversee 95 scouts on a 
     campout like Scoggins did.
       ``He had special days set aside to work on ranks and stuff. 
     He just seemed to give and give, and give and give of 
     himself.''
       Allan ``Butch'' Eleam, a scout under Scoggins' leadership 
     for five years, attributes most of his leadership qualities 
     to his former scout master.
       ``I feel like what leadership qualities I have were 
     influenced by him and his Christian attitude,'' Eleam said.
       Eleam is president of Guffin and Eleam Insurance Inc., 
     Summerville. He is a past president of the Summerville-Trion 
     Rotary Club and currently serves as sergeant of arms for the 
     organization. He also is a former Eagle scout.
       He remembers when Troop 7 was one of the largest.
       ``Around 1968 or '69 we went on a camping trip and 116 boys 
     went. Nowadays most scout camps with dozens of troops might 
     not have 116 boys,'' he explained.
       Eleam attributes the size of the campout and the size of 
     the troop to Scoggins ``making it fun.''
       ``He's a real leader,'' Eleam summed up.
       Jon Payne, Probate Court judge, remembers a bunch of 
     rambunctious boys and Scoggins on several campouts.
       ``One time, we were camping out in a field owned by a 
     farmer who also had a watermelon patch,'' Payne fondly 
     remembered. ``That night, the watermelon patch got raided. I 
     had nothing to do with it, of course.''
       ``Boy, did he (Scoggins) get mad at us...uh...I mean 
     them,'' Payne added. ``He had to work something out with the 
     farmer.''
       ``And there was another time when we all had new sleeping 
     bags and didn't want to sleep inside out tents. It was a 
     beautiful night but he (Scoggins) said it was going to rain, 
     Payne said.
       ``Well, we weren't worried because our new sleeping bags 
     were waterproof, or so we thought. Actually they were water 
     repellent. Around 10 or 11 p.m. it started to pour. We were 
     soaked. I remember we had to get in the back of the truck. We 
     ate peanut brittle,'' he said.
       ``He's a super person,'' Payne said. ``He's taken care of 
     so many of us kids for several years and helped our parents 
     keep us on the straight and narrow.''
       ``He spend so much time away from his wife trying to teach 
     us things that we needed to be taught about scouts and about 
     life,'' the probate judge said.

                          ____________________