| Honoring a Scouting legend |
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By: MIKE PIRTLE, Post Publisher
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Posted: Sunday, August 2, 2009 8:15 am
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A legendary Murfreesboro Boy Scout leader will be remembered permanently after dedication of memorials at an astonishing new high adventure scout facility in Van Buren County and at his gravesite in Evergreen Cemetery.
Percy Dempsey Sr. is remembered by a unique Boy Scout Emblem gravestone placed at his Evergreen burial site by a group of the 53 Eagle Scouts who attained scouting’s highest rank during his 30 years as a scoutmaster.
In July the Percy Dempsey Base Camp was officially opened at the new Latimer High Adventure Reservation, a 1,500-acre wilderness facility in the midst of 50,000 protected acres in Van Buren County.
The reservation will truly offer scouts “high adventure” in the sprawling, wooded facility featuring unique rock and water features for rock climbing, rappelling, caving, mountain biking, cross country orienteering and backpacking.
In the future the new reservation will offer kayaking, black-powder shooting, sail boarding, rifle and pistol safety and shooting, and leadership and team building.
“All scouts will start and end at Percy Dempsey base camp” when participating in the high adventure activities at Latimer, Hugh Travis, area scout executive, said.
The camp was named for Dempsey at the request of Ted and Gloria LaRoche in making a $1 million donation, the first large gift to the project. Ted LaRoche is also a Dempsey Eagle.
The Dempsey camp is “in essence the gateway to programming at Latimer High Adventure Reservation,” Travis explained, with registration, shakedown, skill testing for the various programs, medical checks and the first night’s stay at the facility before Scouts move into the back country.
In addition to the base camp, another Dempsey tribute is planned.
“Thanks to Ted LaRoche kick starting the program development, he continues to add to the program with a grand vision for a rock and water feature to memorialize Percy,” Travis said.
John Harney, yet another Dempsey Eagle, who played a key role in securing the reservation property and its development, said Latimer is hub of an environmentally protected area, including Fall Creek Falls State Park, Bledsoe State Park and Bridgestone Wilderness Area.
Harney said the Boy Scouts hope to build a 30-acre lake on the property in the future, pending state approval.
Many of the Dempsey Eagles and other scouts, LaRoche estimates the number between 1,000-1,500, earlier this summer dedicated a unique memorial to the legendary scout leader with a permanent granite marker at his Evergreen Cemetery grave.
Kem Hinton, of the esteemed Tuck-Hinton Architects in Nashville, yes, a Dempsey Eagle, designed the memorial “with feedback from a lot of people.”
Evergreen is “such a wonderful place, and (regarding the Boy Scout emblem marker) if it ought to be in any place in our state it should be over Percy Dempsey’s grave,” Hinton said.
“A lot of people got their start with Mr. Dempsey,’ he continued, adding, “He was such a gentle giant. A great guy at nudging us in the right direction. He was never a grouch or forceful. … His leadership was the highest quality, a leader by example.
“As you got older you found out he impacted a tremendous number of folks in lots of ways, mostly through Scouting,” Hinton said.
Dempsey served as Scoutmaster of Troop 359 in Rutherford County for nearly 30 years and was also a member of the Middle Tennessee Council’s executive board. Under his leadership, 53 young men earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
“He was a tremendous influence not only on my life and his Eagles, but also the many young men who went through Scouting with him in his 30 years – it must be 1,000-1,500,” LaRoche said at the time of his donation.
Dempsey received a Bronze Star while serving with the 30th Infantry Division in World War II and retired from the U.S. Department of Defense as deputy accounting and finance officer after 35 years of service.
Dempsey passed away in March 2006, shortly after his wife Lucy.
In addition to “Camp Dempsey,” the “Spirit of Scouting” award is named in Dempsey’s honor and awarded annually to a scout leader in the Trail of Tears district. |
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