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Robert Lynn Horne, MD

Second Edition Available Now!  First published July 23, 2007 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the scouting movement.  One World, One Promise:  The Promise & Law of 500 Million Scouts.

Piet J. Kroonenberg

Piet has been a Scout since he took his Cub Scout Promise on his eighth birthday.  During World War II he was active in Scouting in the Netherlands at a time when it was illegal and everything had to be "underground".  After the war he worked with displaced persons, some of whom were Scouts eager to continue Scouting wherever they went.  Over the years, he volunteered much of his time as a member of Scouting Nederland, often working in functions with an international dimension.

His interest in Exile Scout Movements and the Scouting left behind in their countries of origin, has led to substantial research and eventually the writing of The Forgotten Movements which was published in 1989.  He continued his research, and at the request of Jacques Morellion, Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, expanded the book into The Undaunted, Volume 1 (c.1998) and Volume 2 (c.2003).  Volume 1 includes Russia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and Armenia.  Volume 2 includes Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, and Viet Nam. 508 pages.

Piet is the Historical Consultant to the European Scout Committee. He has received many awards, including in 1996 the Bronze Wolf.  This award is given by the World Scout Committee for outstanding service to International Scouting.

Undaunted

These books are about Scouts in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia who kept the Scouting spirit alive, despite oppression and persecution during many decades, and revived the Scout Movement at the earliest opportunity.

Scouting was born in 1907 and quickly spread to many parts of the world. By the late 1930's Scouting was well established in more than 50 countries, but dark days were ahead for some: the values that Scouting stood for were unacceptable to totalitarian and communist regimes

Scouting was banned, and Scouts were oppressed and persecuted during 30, 40, even 50 years. But the Scout spirit never died. It lived on in the hearts and minds of those it had touched, and it became a hope and dream of many young people who waited for the day that they could openly be Scouts

In the 1990's Scouting has revived throughout Eastern Europe and also spread to newly independent countries where it never before existed. Today there is Scouting in 216 countries and territories.

Ronald Aldridge, Ph.D.

Ron is an Eagle Scout with 51 merit badges, former Scoutmaster of an inner-city boy scout troop in Lansing, Michigan, founder and Advisor of the largest Medical Explorer Post in the Washington D.C. area, and served on the NESA staff of the 1977, 1981 and 1985 National Jamborees. He served for two years as Editor of the Eagletter, the national newsletter of the National Eagle Scout Association and received the NESA Silver Wreath Award for national service.

In 1982, after serving on the NESA National Committee for seven years, he was awarded NESA’s highest national award, the NESA Distinguished Service Award.

Ron's extensive collection of memorabilia related to the Order of the Arrow at National Events was purchased by the Las Vegas International Scouting Museum, and joined Lynn Horne’s collection now on display in Las Vegas.

Edward L. Rowan, M.D.

Ed has been affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America for more than fifty years. He has served as a professional scouter and curator of both the Lawrence Lee Museum and later the International Scouting Museum.

Excerpt from To Do My Best

His grave in Valhalla, New York is untended. No one has asked for directions to it from the cemetery office in years. The stone itself has British emblems instead of the American ones he had designed to distinguish his organization from its English counterpart. His wife is buried at his side despite her wish not to be there. He had cultivated his legacy very carefully. He ended in obscurity.

The man had been a crippled orphan, but, driven by ambition, he rose to head the largest youth organization in the free world. He knew seven presidents and was honored by another. He was on the cover of Time magazine.

He was described as the consummate organization man, an educator, and a leading progressive. He was also characterized as autocratic, chauvinistic, and racist. All of these terms have also been applied to the organization he once headed. He was James E. West and the organization is the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

When West took over the BSA in 1911 there were 61,000 members, and when he retired thirty-two years later the organization had grown to over one and one-half million members and over ten million boys had been in the program. He brought order out of chaos and mediated among the powerful personalities who, if left to their own devices, would have destroyed the fledgling organization. He was the right man for the job. Once a powerful presence, he is now largely forgotten.