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Troop 747 has a rich history dating back to 1955. Below is a brief
narrative of our known history that was developed by the Troop in
2001.
Anyone who has additional information to share, or if we have made
an error, please contact Bill Dudley at dudfamnc@aol.com.
Our troop was originally chartered in 1955. It was known then as
Troop 707. In 1966, it became the "747" of today. The original
troop had about 15 Scouts and 5 adult leaders. It has always been
sponsored by St. James Lutheran Church. The earliest known
Scoutmaster was Terry Johnson, who served the troop from 1955-
1959. He was followed by Harry Blackwell who was Scoutmaster in
1959-1963. In the mid-sixties, George McCarthy, and William
Carrier served as Scoutmaster.
In 1966, we held our first Eagle ceremony for John Ward. A few
months later, we had our second Eagle ceremony for Dan Runkle,
a current member of the Committee. Dan recalls campouts at the
Fort Bragg drop zones. The Scouts of our troop then would gather
at St. James on Saturday mornings and hike many miles to Lake
Rim for fishing and swimming. Dan also recalls the first Lutheran
Scout Retreat in 1964 or 1965. Today, of course, we attend the
annual Lutheran Scout Camporee at Camp Agape.
The late 1970s found William Carrier, David Taylor, Harry Blackwell,
George Griffin and Anthony Cabeza at the helm as Scoutmasters.
Very little information is available from 1968-1981. Daniel Ptaszynski
was the Scoutmaster in 1980 and until May 1981 when the troop failed
to recharter.
In December of 1986, the troop rechartered under the leadership of
Steve Runkle. He served as Scoutmaster until December 1987, when
his brother Dave Runkle took over. Dave served as Scoutmaster for
the longest period to date, with more than ten years of service until
June 1999. Our current Scoutmaster, Tom Archer, took the reins at
that time, but Dave remains active with 747. Tom Archer lead us on
our Countdown to 100 Eagles. Right now, we have 102 (as of
7/3/2007).
We hope that former Scouts of Troop 747 will share memories of their
experiences with our troop so that we may post them here.
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