Diane Gregory

As this is women’s history month, we would be remiss if we didn’t give a nod to an important milestone for women at Boxwell. It’s important to remember that as late as the 1990s, there were no women’s facilities at camp. If a female leader came to camp, a special sign was put up on the Scoutmaster/Staff side of the showerhouse to tell all the males to stay out. And while there had always been women on staff since the earliest days of the Reservation, they had been in “support” roles–never program positions in the Boy Scout camps.

That changed in 1997. Diane Gregory had joined the summer camp staff in 1995, but existing traditions meant she could only work in Stahlman kitchen. However, Diane wanted more. As Ron Turpin put it in 2015, “she was an Army brat, and she had won the high school marksmanship in Guam when her father was stationed there,” making her a qualified person to run shooting sports. The growth of mixed gender Venturing and the need to fill the director’s position created an opening. The fact that Diana could do shotgun certainly didn’t hurt!

And so, Diane Gregory joined the Parnell staff in 1997 and became the first female in a program position on Boxwell staff. Diane continued until 2001, by which point women on the program staff were becoming more common with Amanda Monroe on the waterfront at Craig and a host of young women on CubWorld staff. Seen here are the 1997 Parnell Directors. While it may be hard to tell with some of the long hair, Diane is front row, far left.

1997 Parnell Directors. Front Row (l-r): Diane Gregory, Jason Bradford, Ben House, Paul Collies. Back row (l-r): Jason Pedersen, Lee Hagan, Grady Eades, Fred Rigsby, Richard McCaleb, John Reese