Learn About The Program

Read the details of the programs offered for grades K-12 and youth groups, including Girl Scouts
Click Here

See the Testimonials

Read testimonials from people who have seen the program or watch video interviews with participants
Click Here

Sign Up for the Newsletter

Sign up for the newsletter (on real paper) that goes out every two months of the school year
Click Here

Terry Baker

Origin: Flint, Michigan (?)

Heroic Values: Caring, Faith, Humility, Integrity, Selflessness, Vision, Wisdom

Background

On My Honor

"Who is your hero?" That is a question that Matt has asked a number of times, most recently he has put together this little competition and asked us to submit a hero journey or profile. What he is really asking though is "Who's your hero?" When you stop and think about it is a very deep and personal question. The answers have ranged from the fictional to the famous and to the mundane. My own answers have included Martin Luther King Jr., Sasha Perchesky and Oscar Remero, but are they really "my" heroes? These are certainly heroic men who have done great things but in what personal and direct way have they affected me? I think that the true heroes in our life are those people that are right there with us, guiding us, teaching us and leading us by example. It is one thing to read about a hero and wish to emulate him, it is quite another to put that example into practice. There is the catch 22 of heroism, it is the great and dramatic examples that we hold up as our yardstick, but they would not be possible without the every day mentors leading us to that greatness. The reality is that most of us will go though our entire life and have nothing historically significant happen to us. The likely hood that I will ever throw myself in front of a train to save someone, dive onto a grenade or take a bullet to ensure the freedom of millions is minuscule at best. So the hidden question here is if those great heroes whom I have read about are who I want to be, then who are the heroes that made me want to be like those great heroes? Heroism like all human behavior is learned; the value set we use to choose our great heroes is something taught to us. It is these unsung heroes who pass on the values, ethics and morality that form the foundation of society. With out these teachers and mentors we not have the skills to choose appropriate heroes to emulate. My hero was my Scoutmaster Terry Baker.

In my youth I did not get into sports or feel like I fit in at school. I felt very out of place in the world. When I was eight my mother got me into cub scouting, it was something I enjoyed. It felt right so when the time came, it was easy for me to make the transition to full fledged Boy Scouting. I was fortunate that when we moved to Flint there was Scout Troop very close by home. I signed on to Troop 110 and met the Scoutmaster Terry Baker. This event would forever change my life.
Terry was a tall thin man with blond hair. He had very angular features with a hawk like nose and small close-set eyes. This combined with his quick deliberate movements gave him a decidedly bird like quality. He also had a quiet easygoing manner. He was the kind of person who was able to pour self-confidence in those around him.

Terry fully embraced the scouting concept of the “boy run organization.” It would not of be evident those first couple of years but he was carefully grooming the boys in troop 110 to be self-reliant. Every skill that we practiced, every event that we went to and every challenge that we overcame was purposefully designed to give us the skills and self-confidence to run the troop ourselves. That’s exactly what happened, I remember going to monthly leadership meetings at Terry’s house as a patrol leader and later as senior patrol leader. At first Terry ran these meetings, he would suggest activities and events to do, skills to practice at the weekly troop meeting, but over time his presence became subtly less overt. After a number of years just before I got my eagle these meetings were to a point that the boys would show up at Terry’s house and go to the dinning room. Terry would be there for a few minutes at the beginning and a bit at the end. The rest of the time he would go watch TV and lend assistance when needed. We would plan out our training schedule, weekly meetings, events and so forth; present our goals and ideas and plans on how to do them to Terry. He would ask pointed questions, offer suggestions and insight, but he never said no. It was our Troop and successes or failure lay in our hands.

Terry did this sort of thing on an individual basis too. I had quickly risen through the ranks of scouting. By the age of 14 I had attained the rank of Life scout, the second highest there was for a youth. I was poised to get my eagle very quickly too and then Terry started to subtly suggest things to me. I found myself becoming the senior patrol leader for our troop. I found my self inducted in the Order of the Arrow, a service organization within scouting. I found myself going to far off places like Virginia and New Mexico. In Virginia I went to the National Jamboree. It is held at Fort A.P. Hill and the year I went so did Terry and 34,000 other scouts. In less then 24 hours we became Virginia’s 18th largest city, complete with fire, police, heath, sanitation, and news services. In New Mexico I visited the Phimont scout ranch and hiked 120 miles through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We tackled desert environments and altitudes in excess of 12,000 feet. I found myself in dozens of leadership camps, meetings and outings. Then one day when I was seventeen Terry asked me if was going to complete my Eagle. I soon found myself doing that too.
Terry would ultimately mentor many of us down the path to Eagle Scout. He did it in a quiet unassuming way. He led by example and lived out the ideals of scouting in his own life. He picked us up when we fell down, told us when we could do better. He never got mad when we did stupid things, and if you have ever been around a group of young boys, then you will understand that stupidity grows exponentially to the number of boys. That never bothered Terry, he was always able to turn these things into a life lesson and guide us back to the blueprint for scouting, the Scout Oath and Scout Law. The Scout law was simple it was a twelve point guide for personal conduct. It simply says:

A scout is;
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
And Reverent

Sounds kind of like a guide for heroism doesn't it? The scout oath was something we learned as well and it went like this:

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
And to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
Mentally awake, and morally straight.

This was a bit more ethereal when you're eleven but we recited every week. We would often spend time discussing what it meant, and how it applied to us. Much of the oath is self-explanatory; the part that was difficult in our youth was the phrase "duty to God and my country." We would come up with answers that ranged from doing our homework to listening to your parents. Terry was always right there guiding us, pointing us in the right direction.
My life took a different direction from scouting when I turned eighteen. I haven’t talked to Terry in years but I have carried with me the self-confidence and self-reliance that he helped me find. After all these years I still remember the oath and law, and as I sit and type away I have found myself revisiting the meaning of the first line in the Scout Oath. The scouting movement is dedicated to turning young boys into men, but not just any men. It turns them into men of principle, ethics and morality. Therein lies Terry’s heroism, his selfless devotion to the creation of those men. He is the hero that makes heroes. Not the dramatic sort, but the every day sort and every once in while they get the opportunity to be a dramatic hero and change the world. That then is the “duty” that I am honor-bound to perform, to live a heroic life and to pass the torch of heroism to my children and the youth with whom I come in contact.

When we study heroes like Martin Luther King, Sasha Perchesky and Oscar Romero we should ask ourselves, who were their mentors and heroes. Who taught heroism to them? If you look hard enough you will just might find a quiet middle class radiologist. That’s who my hero is, thanks Terry, for everything.

Submitted by: Charles D Leibrand