EDGEWOOD, Wash. — On Monday night, a wrong more than 60-year-old was righted in the gym of Mountain View Lutheran Church.
The Pacific Harbors Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognized the achievement of 75-year-old Samuel Lynn Jones who became an Eagle Scout at the age of 15, but was denied public recognition.
The reason? He did not come from a model African-American home according to a white scoutmaster. Jones was raised by a single mother in public housing.
"I literally just shut down on it. I didn't try to figure it out. I didn't try to study it. I didn't try to fight for it," Jones said of being denied public recognition. However, the lessons Jones learned through Boy Scouts (leadership, accountability, responsibility) stuck with him throughout his life.
"We never went on vacation as my mother was determined to pull us out of the projects. The Boy Scouts gave me the opportunity to achieve my dreams and complimented my mother's mandate that 'We were going to make it, through discipline, grit and hard work,'" Jones said.
Attending college at the University of Michigan, Jones was commissioned through the Navy ROTC program where he earned a degree in Industrial Psychology. He served in Vietnam and was awarded a meritorious service medal. Jones retired as a Naval Commander.
During Monday's Court of Honor, Jones spoke about how the moment came to be, recognizing a fellow church member who had, for years, pushed him to work with the church's sponsored Boy Scout Troop, but the decades-old pain kept him from doing it. Finally, Jones agreed to attend a fundraiser dinner in March for the BSA's Pacific Harbor Council. It was there, Jones said, the emotions he had buried, rose to the surface.
“There was nothing in me looking for it. I didn’t have any thought of it except when I stood up at that fundraiser and I still had emotions and those emotions just poured out," Jones said.
Jones' daughter, Akila Jones O'Grady, said her father didn't talk about what happened to him as a teenager. Jones O'Grady said it was an honor to be part of the ceremony for her father, standing in for her grandmother. She also thanked the other Eagle Scouts and their families for allowing her father to be part of this special day.
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