Bill Cameron knew a little something about the love of scouting. Girl Scouting, that is.
And while his wife was once the official troop leader, he didn’t miss a beat, said one of their former Girl Scouts.
“He was always there and helping us,” said Patty Chaney of Atlanta, who was in the troop in the 1970s. “He taught us so many things, including how to make homemade pizza. That was awesome.”
For nearly a decade, Cameron was a registered Girl Scout leader, said his wife, Sue Cameron. The couple’s oldest daughter was among the girls in the troop.
“There were three fathers with us,” she said. “I called them the Three Musketeers and they were all registered. They always laughed about that.”
For the past 36 years, Cameron battled with his health, his wife said. In 1977 on his way home from work, his car was hit by a train. The collision left him with a number of medical issues, though overall he recovered well, she said.
William Cameron, called Bill by most, of Stone Mountain died Thursday of complications from a variety of ailments. He was 81.
A memorial celebration is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Stone Mountain. Wages & Sons Funeral Homes and Crematories was in charge of cremation arrangements.
Born in Smith Center, Kan., Cameron grew up in a musical family. His mother played the piano, his father the saxophone his sister the violin and he played the trombone. Cameron was also a vocalist, his wife said. In high school, he sang in several musicals and later in a quartet called the Four Roses.
When his job moved him to Atlanta in 1970, he immediately joined a choir at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and later joined the Decatur Civic Chorus, where he sang for 23 years.
“He only stopped about three years ago when his back really started giving him trouble,” his wife said. “They offered to put a chair out there for him, but he wanted to be able to stand.”
Cameron’s college studies were interrupted by his military service during the Korean War. After two years in the U.S. Air Force, he went back to school, but when his wife became pregnant, he took a job in the insurance field in order to support his growing family.
Cameron worked for the Hartford Insurance Co. for 28 years and the family moved all across the country due to various job transfers. When the couple came to Atlanta, they didn’t initially plan to stay, his wife said.
“We wanted to live in Colorado and Washington, but after we got here, all they would ever offer him was Chicago in the winter,” she said with a laugh. “So we decided to stay in Atlanta.”
When the Camerons moved to the area, their oldest daughter was of scouting age and shortly, they became a scouting family.
“In the troop the men were doing things with the girls that fathers do, teaching them things,” Sue Cameron said. “He loved those girls like they were his daughters.”
Chaney’s 40-year-old memories of the man she calls “Mr. C.” cause her voice to crack. She said the presence of the men in her troop, which also included her father, made the girls feel “very protected.”
“We were in our teens, but some of us were small,” she said, adding she was about 5 foot 2 at the time. “Mr. C. was always so willing to share with us.”
In addition to his wife, Cameron is survived by two daughters; Sherri Cameron of Decatur and Christy Waits of Gainesville; sister Carolyn Andrews of Oberlin, Kan.; and six grandchildren.
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