Monthly Archives: October 2013

The Passing of Earl Woolwine III

Posted on by
Reply

The VirtualBoxwell Team is sad to announce the passing of Earl Woolwine III.  Earl was a Stahlman staff member in 1966 and 1967.  Below follows his obituary from The Tennessean:

Earl Woolwine, III
Mt. Juilet, TN

Earl Glenn Woolwine III, age 63, passed away October 26, 2013.

Preceded in death by parents, Earl Glenn Woolwine, Jr. and Gwendolyn Nelson; son, Earl Glenn Woolwine IV; brother-in-law, Hal Dorris.

Survived by wife, Melody “Ann” Woolwine; daughter, Monica Dawn (Bob); faithful and dedicated grandson, Dillan Petty; grandchildren, Austin, Emmaleigh, Kaylie, Braeeland and Avery; great grandchild, Lilly; brother, Rick (Peggy) Woolwine; sister, Melody (Ernie) Moore; ten nieces and nephews; very dear and devoted friends, Ronnie and Brenda Washburn.

Mr. Woolwine was a member of Inglewood Baptist Church. He worked for Metro Board of Parks and Recreation for 40 years.

Visitation with the family will be Monday, October 28, 2013 in the Chapel of Madison Funeral Home from 4-8 p.m. Visitation 11:30 a.m. until The Celebration of Life at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29, 2013. Officiating the service will be nephews, David and Logan Dorris.

Earl was an Eagle Scout and in his memory the family ask in lieu of flowers donations be made to Boy Scouts of America.

Madison Funeral Home, (615) 868-9020; madisonfuneralhome.net

– See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tennessean/obituary.aspx?n=earl-woolwine&pid=167741541&fhid=14244#sthash.cLDRnqC5.dpuf

From the Archives: October 27, 2013

Posted on by
2

One of the greatest camp legends in the Parnell/Craig tradition comes from 1988.  While there are no photos to document this particular event, there have been several eyewitness accounts to confirm this happened.

The story is taken from an interview conducted by Grady Eades with John Estes, Mike Brown, John Walker, and David Dotson in the early 2000s.  As there are several people talking at once, the story has been edited for flow.
__________________________________________________________
“See Rock City”

John Estes:  There was [a great prank in 1988]… you were in on it, I was in on it, Qualls, a couple of other people.  Up in the compound, there is a shed that they store all of their paints in and all their paint [that is] donated.  And somebody got the bright idea that they wanted to get up on top of Parnell dining hall and paint a See Rock City sign.  So, they acquired, they went, they got into the compound under the reason…the Con-yard needed some paint for an eagle cage or something.  And they just happened to acquire like four or five gallons of…

Mike Brown:  Purple.

John Estes:  Safety…

Mike Brown:  Safety Purple.

John Estes:  Safety purple which had been donated to the Scouts by Tennessee Department of Transportation.  And they put it under the Con-yard staff site and about midnight one night…

Mike Brown:  The last night of camp.

John Estes:  Near the end of camp, four, five, six, seven, eight of us, get on top of the dining hall…

Grady Eades:  Parnell [Dining Hall].

John Estes:  Parnell. And we just [painted] “See Rock City.”

Mike Brown:  Eight foot, ten foot letters.

John Estes:  It was huge letters and you could actually see it from, well, probably can’t now.  It’s probably faded off.

Eades:  I was actually on the roof in ’96. It is still there, but it’s not purple anymore.  It’s a light blue.

[…]

John Estes: That was probably one of the better pranks that we pulled and got away with right there.  ‘Cause nobody, nobody knew what we did, but they knew we’d done something.  You know, cause it was [Eric] Pelren’s last year, he knew he wasn’t coming back.  [Matthew] Bailey wasn’t coming back.  They’d already said that.  And they knew that we’d been planned something, but nobody knew what we had done because nobody that was in on it told.

See Rock City

Parnell Dining Hall, home of the now famous “See Rock City” prank from 1988.

Site Update

Posted on by
Reply

The site was updated tonight to return to the Pre-Address page.  As the online address registration for the 2014 reunion has closed, the site returned to its original state.

In the next few months, we’ll be working on a specific Reunion Page to showcase some of the photos and history of the previous reunions.  In the meantime, check out our Reunion Photos on Flickr.

Thanks to all who registered their addresses online!

The VirtualBoxwell Team

From the Archives, October 20, 2013

Posted on by
Reply

As we continue with our “Stories” theme for this month, we thought it might be interesting to share a story about the building of Boxwell.  As many of you may know, in 1983 Wilbur Creighton, Jr. published Boys Will Be Men, the only existing history of the Middle Tennessee Council.  Creighton solicited information from a variety of sources to help him put the book together and is one of those sources. Faulkner Hickerson was the architect and builder of Boxwell in 1960.  Below is the text to his letter to Creighton on June 29, 1982.

________________________________________________________________________

My Small Part in the Development of the Present
Camp Boxwell at Old Hickory lake

At the request of Mr. Wilbur Creighton Jr., that I submit a record of my involvement in the development of camp Boxwell on Old Hickory Lake, I would like to begin with my becoming involved in the Boy scout program of the Middle Tennessee Council.

In the fall of 1958 my oldest son became a cub Scout and I was asked to be a committeeman, which I readily did.  This took me back to my being a Boy Scout in 1921 to 1925.  In the fall of 1952 I was elected chairman of Troop 99 and ten months later I found myself as “acting” Scoutmaster of Troop 99 and in the summer of 1957, still acting Scoutmaster, I was selected assistant Scoutmaster to the late Ward Akers to go to the Nation Jamboree in Valley Forge, PA., and on to the World Jamboree in Sutton Coalfield, England – my experience in the above will have to be another story.
On the trip across the Atlantic and return, which took 8 days, I was questioned on many occasion at length, by Scout officials about Ward Akers being able to raise a half million dollars for a new Boy Scout camp – I assured them if Ward Akers set out to do this, it would be done and in due time.  I had visited the professed site many times with War and listened to his “dreams” and “visions” for the new camp. He was sincere and sound in his plans, not only for the physical plant but in financing capital outlay and maintenance after completion.
On returning from Europe, Ward Akers set out to do his “thing” and did it, far beyond the expectations of the board members.
Ward did not get his full bag [?] about all the buildings – he was out maneuvered by some board members, but he did get the dining hall air conditioned.
The entrance lodge, jokingly called the “crippled crab’ was my contribution to the design.  (This is what Wilbur Creighton Jr. wanted me to let you know about).  Ward wanted something different, built of poles, stone and other materials indigenous to the site which the Scouts could relate to as there type of construction.  I went to work on sketches and then built a model, when Ward came by our office and saw the model, he called Mr “Ebee” Stahlman and requested that we come see him.  We took the model over to him – he said ‘let’s build it” – and said it look[ed] like a “crippled crab”, but I like it.  This name has “stuck” and every scout, scout leader, parent, and friend of scouting has remembered the place and the name.
Few people know how the name came to be, and a very few know its full nomenclature – this structure was built by Forter-Crighton Co. – I had to take the model to the site to assist the superintendent in laying out and building it.  The structure was nearing completion before Mr. Wilbur Creighton Sr. saw it. On seeing it, he exclaimed “what in the devil do you call it,” I told him Mr. Stahlman called it a “crippled cab” – whereby Mr. Wilbur said “yes, with an erection.”
I had had the fun of helping War in the design and building of “Ittibena”, the controversial lodge [today’s Fehrmann Training Center] for promotional work with Scout leaders and prospective contributors to the Scout program – regardless of what have been said or may be said, it has been successful.
This name came about after completion, as most everyone said upon seeing it – “it would have been” better if you done this or done that – thus “Ittibena”.
My pride and joy was designing the camp Craig Dining Hall – I hope they will never [cut] the trees away from it, if they have not done so already.
It was a real privilege for me to have known and worked with Ward E. Akers, and the many fine young men that he had on his staff, and that he trained to do Scouting professionally.  They are doing a good job now in their respective places [?] and I was proud to to see Hershel Tolbert [Council Executive] come back to take Ward’s place.
It is a privilege to be an executive board member, and to have served these years with some of the best men in Middle Tennessee.
Thanks, Wilbur, for calling me – I hope I have not veered too far off course and the typist can read this – if you cant read this call my secretary of 30+ years – she can read bad writing – and she knows that a person who can’t spell a word more than one way is a poor speller.

Sincerely,

Faulkner Hickerson

Crab Construction

The construction of the Cripple Crab, August 1961.

From the Archives, October 13, 2013

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s story comes from George Beaver, a Stahlman Kitchen staff member in the mid-1970s.  The story is from an e-mail sent in 2003.

“Back in ’73, when Russell Parham ruled the Stahlman Kitchen,
it seems his crew was always stir crazy looking for something to do.  Most
folks on kitchen staff were first year (and so didn’t know to avoid that job)
and usually younger.  So they couldn’t get to town easily, and were subject
to acts of desperation to create entertainment for themselves.  Most of us
can remember getting kinda stir-crazy occasionally on those long hot summer
nights.  Well, of course I will have to say up front that I can’t admit to
being involved in this, you know, I’m just the scribe here.  Besides, I’m not
sure [Kitchen Director] Russell [Parham] believes in the statute of limitations…..

“One morning for assembly, all the scouts were really excited about
something.  It was hard to get them to calm down.  Russell had to stand up in
a chair in front of the dining hall and yell, and still it was loud.  While
up there, he noticed there was a whole table missing from the dining hall.
He came & asked the kitchen crew if we knew anything about the missing table.
We were all trying not to laugh, because we were sure he would suspect us of
any wrongdoing.  Well, we finally told him that some scouts had told us there
was something on the roof.  We all went outside, and sure enough, there was a
table on the very peak of the Stahlman dining hall.  And on top of that,
there were chairs around it (the ones on the angle had to be tilted forward
as if they were saved seats to stay up there).  And you could see that there
was a pitcher on the table, and other stuff.  When they got up there, the
table was completely set with silverware, napkins, plates, glasses, a full
pitcher of bug juice and a basket of toast with jelly packs.

“Well, needless to say, Russell was sure the kitchen staff did it.He seemed to put a lot of
weight on the fact that someone had to crawl through the old plate racks into
the kitchen to get bug juice & toast baskets, etc, which made it seem like an
inside job to him.  We all claimed that the waterfront guys were most likely
suspects, as they usually pulled off the really spectacular stunts, and some
of them had been former kitchen staffers, but he was unconvinced.  In those
days, the staff living quarters were near where you worked, so the kitchen
staff lived just below the dining hall in the trees there, but you know we
didn’t see or hear a thing!

“Of course all the head staff had to come and tell us what a safety hazard that was and of the potential damage to the roof, etc.  I think  Coach Russell was the one who got to really bless us out, which he could do quite conviningly, too!  Well, I can really say I
don’t remember exactly who did it, but I do know that one guy was on the
Cripple Crab staff, and there may have been a kitchen staffer or two. Or so
I’ve been told……

“I sure wish I had a picture of that!”

George Beaver

George Beaver from the 1999 Reunion, 1975-1979 group shot. George worked in the Stahlman Kitchen in 1973 and 1975.