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WILLIAM D MURRAY 1858
and the Boy Scouts of America
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Lord Robert Baden-Powell
Founder and World Chief Scout
Beginnings of the Scouting
Movement were established with a temporary National Headquarters housed in a
YMCA office in New York.
President William Howard Taft accepted the offer of Honorary President and
Theodore Roosevelt became
Honorary Vice-President and Chief Scout Citizen. Colin H Livingstone was
elected President with
Mortimer L Schiff, Milton A McRae and Benjamin L Dulaney as Vice-Presidents.
The Treasurer was George D Pratt, the National Scout Commissioner Daniel
Carter Beard and the
Chief Scout Ernest Thompson Seton.
Alongside William, other members of the Executive Board were John Sherman
Hoyt, Jeremiah W Jenks and Frank Presbey.
James E West was appointed Executive Officer.
William was an active member for many years and in 1930 the organisation
decide to have the history of the first twenty-five years published. William
was put in charge of creating this book and it was published in 1937 under
the title
" The History of the Boy Scouts of America " - Scouting Marches On New York.
It was a difficult time for William as everyone wanted to be presented in
the best possible light, and to be recorded as
being important to the organisation. Consequently although William was a
long-time member of the Executive Board,
and in charge of BSA editorial matters, most later historians use his book
as a reference for basic facts but do not consider it a reliable reference
due to the reasons and motivations behind the scene.
William is considered to be a very biased reporter of information, biased in
favour of the Boy Scouts of America.
The Cub Scout programme, for boys under twelve years of age, became part of
the BSA programme in 1930.
In 1925 William was named as Chairman of a committee whose task it was to
look into this programme for younger boys.
Dr John N Finley and Dr Jeremiah W Jenks were named to this committee and
all were members of the
BSA National Executive Board .
In 1940, John M Bierer became the second Chairman of the National Cubbing
Committee, succeeding William.
On 13 April 1935, the Silver Jubilee Year of the Boy Scouts of America,
William along with Frank Presbrey presented
a replica of the five millionth copy of the " Handbook for Boys " to
President of the United States,
the Honorable Franklin D Roosevelt, at the White House.
" The Handbook for Boys
"
as presented to the Honorable Franklin
D Roosevelt