Scouts honor ‘the hardest working man in Dalton’

Published 10:31 pm Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Bill Bowen admits he wasn’t the greatest Boy Scout.

“I couldn’t tie my knots,” he said.

But as a former Scout and an adult long involved in Scouting, he says the value of the Boy Scouts goes far beyond teaching particular skills.

“Across America, we’ve got kids being raised by one parent or no parent at all,” he said. “Scouting can help reach those kids and help teach them values.”

Bowen was presented with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Distinguished Citizen Award on Wednesday at the Dalton Golf and Country Club during the BSA Northwest Georgia Council’s 2016 patron lunch.

“Bill has long been involved in Scouting and has volunteered a lot of hours for us,” said Rob Stone, assistant Scout executive and chief operating officer of the Northwest Georgia Council. “In fact, he has helped us organize the patron lunch for the past seven years, so this year we thought it was only right that we honor him.”

A Dalton native, Bowen ran his family’s construction business for many years before joining Hardwick Bank. After BB&T bought Hardwick in 2001, Bowen opened Pentz Street Station, a coffee house in downtown Dalton, and ran it for 11 years.

Since then, Bowen has volunteered with a number of organizations, including the Salvation Army and RossWoods Adult Day Services.

“He’s the hardest working man in Dalton,” said friend and former Dalton mayor David Pennington.

Bowen said there are many other fine programs for children in the community, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

“I don’t think they are in competition at all. I think they all complement each other,” he said.

But he said what really sets Scouting apart is its emphasis on the outdoors.

“It gets kids away from their phones and their electronic games,” he said.

Tom Pinson, the keynote speaker at the lunch, is director of the Mack Gaston Community Center and a former Scoutmaster. He recalled that shortly after he became a Scoutmaster he took a group of young boys camping.

“When we got there they wanted to know where we were going to go for lunch,” he said. “I told them, ‘This is where we are going to go for lunch. We are going to make it ourselves.’ It was the first time they’d done anything like that. It was the first time they’d been camping. For most of them, it was the first time they had been out in the woods.”

Pinson said Scouting offers many ways for youth to challenge themselves.

Samuel Pankey, an Eagle Scout from Murray County, can confirm that. On his Scout uniform he wears 70 merit badges (out of 136 offered), ranging from first aid to cooking to personal fitness.

“The most difficult one, which I’m still working on, is bugling. You actually have to learn how to play the bugle,” he said.