DEL.ICIO.USAtlanta scoutmaster’s zeal inspires generations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
This being Wednesday, Josiah Benator and his band of boys will gather today at Congregation Or VeShalom for their weekly meeting.
For about an hour, he will supervise them as they work on projects to earn merit badges and, perhaps, plan their next hiking event.
Atlanta Area Council of Boy Scouts of America
Josiah Benator, 86, has been a boy scout leader for 65 years and he’s currently scoutmaster of Troop 73.
Latest Headlines:
• More Living Stories
• Living photo galleries
• Georgia Aquarium news and photos
• Zoo Atlanta news and photos
It’s been the same story for the past 65 years, at least for Benator, who has helped shape hundreds, some say thousands, of young boys into men.
You might guess his passion just by looking at his clothes: olive pants and shirt bearing scout pens and badges, and gold tie with an Eagle clasp.
Josiah Benator is a scoutmaster and, no offense, a very old one at that.
But he is an 86-year-old with the vigor of a man in his 30s. He can hike over five miles without breaking a sweat and rappel a 60-foot tower with a ready smile. But nothing makes him smile like the boys in Troop 73.
He and his wife, Birdie, live on a quiet street in northeast Atlanta. They’re both retired from their jobs, but not from scouting. Actually, they may never retire from scouting because it’s Josiah’s one true calling.
He knows what scouting can mean in the life of a boy because he knows what it meant in his own. That’s why he’s stayed with it so long. If you want to teach a boy to appreciate the outdoors, the value of community, to be a good citizen, scouting is how you do it, he said.
Benator was 12 when he first joined the organization in 1934. Scouting was considered one of the great youth programs of the time. It was also a diversion from the world’s troubles — the depression and a mortgage meltdown not much different from today’s.
A member of Troop 52, young Josiah embraced the great outdoors, hiking along the Chattahoochee River, catching the trolley car to Stone Mountain and hiking some more.
He learned to tie a knot and read a compass the same way he honed his leadership skills, with gusto, serving as a junior assistant scoutmaster, assistant scoutmaster and acting scoutmaster for Troop 27.
After graduating with honors from Georgia Tech in 1943, he enrolled in officer candidate school and, shortly after, went before the Scouting board of review and did what any dedicated scout would do. He got his Eagle.
That same year he went off to war, serving three and a half years with the 10th Armored Division in the Battle of Bastogne.
He returned stateside in 1946 and went to work for Scripto as a materials manager. He married Birdie the following year and the two of them raised seven children.
Without fail, he credits Birdie for making his life of scouting possible. She took care of the home while he went hiking and camping with the boys. Every February, she sponsors a Kiddush celebrating his birthday and anniversary in scouting at the synagogue.
The grandfather of 13 estimates that he’s lorded over thousands of scouts the last six decades and he’d done so while serving his community and synagogue as President of Congregation Or VeShalom, president of the DeKalb Grand Jurors Association, President of the Sheffield Civic Club and co-captain of the neighborhood watch.
Last year, the Atlanta Area Council of Boy Scouts of America, dedicated the 2007 Eagle Scout Class to Mr. B.
“It was like going to a baseball convention and Willie Mays had just walked into the room,” said Jack Arogeti, a former Cub Scout and President of Congregation Or VeShalom. “His accomplishments and service to scouting were well known, highly regarded and everyone could see he played the game because he loved the game, and he believed in the game, and he was a microcosm of the game.”
Mays left the game years ago, but Mr. B is still playing, still scoutmaster of Troop 73.
Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla called him a living legend, a walking example of what it means to be walking in the footsteps of the Lord.
“Just as the Lord teaches,” he said, “Josiah does the same.”
Hear. Hear.
To suggest a story, write Real Living, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6455 Best Friend Road, Norcross, Ga., 30071; e-mail gstaples@ajc.com; or call 770-263-3621.
Services »
