James E. West was the first Scout Executive starting in 1911 and serving until 1943. But, wait a minute, BSA started in 1910. Were we rudderless for a year? No. The position of Chief Scout Excutive was created in 1911 as a professional role. From 1910 to 1915, “Chief Scout” which was a volunteer role filled by Ernest Thompson Seton.
West was a lawyer and staunch child advocate. He was no stranger to adversity. Orphaned at 7 years old, he grew up in an orphage in Washington, DC. Shortly after his mother died of Tuberculosis, he also contracted the disease and was left disabled with one leg shorter than the other. West’s child advocacy took on many forms including general secretary of the YMCA, Sunday school superintendent, finance chairman for the Boys’ Brigade, secretary of the Playground Association of America, secretary of the National Child Rescue League, and secretary of the White House Conference on Dependent Children.
West was reluctant to take on a role with BSA at first, but finally agreed to serve 6 months as managing secretary. Well, that became Chief Scout Executive and 6 months became 32 years. He had a direct hand in the creation of the Scout Oath and Law, expanding the 3rd part of the oath, “To help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight”, and adding Brave, Clean, and Reverent to the Scout Law.
The early days of the Boy Scouts of America were threatened by numerous obstacles including a ban by the Catholic Church, objections by labor unions over wording in the Handbook for Buys, and in-fighting amongst other Scouting founders. But James E. West was a masterful verbal brawler and an accomplished troubleshooter. At the helm of BSA, he navigated the turbulent waters to secure Scoutings future.
West was not a fan of Cub Scouting initially but he could not deny the success if pilot programs and in 1930, he oversaw the creation of Cub Scouting as an official BSA program.
It was West that sought and secured a congretional charter for BSA in 1916. He was awarded the Silver Wolf by Baden-Powell in 1920 at the first world jamboree and was amongst the first recipients of BSA’s highest honor, the Silver Buffalo, in 1926. He served on the World Scout Committee and, upon his retirement from BSA, West was named Chief Scout.
