W. Hillcourt; ‘Green Bar Bill’ of Scouting

“Yes, it’s fun to be a Boy Scout! It’s fun to go hiking and camping with your best friends . . . to swim, to dive, to paddle a canoe, to wield an ax . . . to follow the footsteps of the pioneers who led the way through the wilderness . . . to stare into the glowing embers of a campfire and dream of the wonders of the life that is in store for you.”

--From the 1979 Boy Scout handbook by William Hillcourt

William Hillcourt, whose Boy Scout handbooks have sold more than 30 million copies, putting him atop the ranks of the least-known but best-selling authors of all time, has died.

Blake Lewis, a representative of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Irving, Tex., said Thursday that Hillcourt was 92 when he died Monday in Stockholm at the end of a world journey on behalf of Scouting that had taken him to Japan, Russia and Sweden.

Next to Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Hillcourt--known as “Green Bar Bill” to millions of Scouts and former Scouts around the world--was the best-known figure in the youth movement.

He earned the nickname for being the first to envision the role of patrol leader--a rank now signified by a green bar worn on the Scout uniform.

When Hillcourt first came to Scouting in 1910--at the age of 10--there were no troops and no patrols, only handfuls of boys scattered around the world pursuing loose-knit, informal camping and crafts.

In a 1989 interview with the Syracuse (N.Y.) Post Standard, Hillcourt recalled that the handbook he had been given as a boy in his native Denmark only said that if you wanted to be a Scout you just got together with some friends.

He formed a patrol and became its leader but without any title.

Founded along those simple lines, the Scout movement boasts more than 4 million members just in America.

Hillcourt remained in Scouting while he pursued pharmaceutical studies. He had a degree in pharmacology when he covered the 1924 World Scouting Jamboree for the Copenhagen Daily News but decided to tour the world instead of working as a druggist.

He got as far as New York City, where he was hired to work in the Boy Scouts of America’s mail supply division.

Riding the elevator one day with Chief Scout Executive James West, he was asked what he thought of Scouting in general. His 18-page, single-spaced reply included a suggestion that Scout leaders be given a handbook.

In 1929, Hillcourt published the Handbook for Patrol Leaders.

“Fortunately,” he said in a 1991 interview, “my English wasn’t very good in those days. It was the English of a 13-year-old boy.” That, of course, was whom the book was directed toward.

It was followed in 1936 by Handbook for Scoutmasters and in 1944 by Scout Field Book.

Since 1910 there have been 10 versions of the Scouting handbook, and Hillcourt wrote three of them, the sixth in 1959, the seventh in 1965 and the ninth in 1979.

In addition to the handbooks, Hillcourt also wrote what Scouts consider the definitive biography of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the father of Scouting.

Hillcourt spent most of his Scouting career on the staff of Boy’s Life, the national Scouting magazine, where he offered tips on leadership. His popular column, Green Bar Bill, eventually became a comic strip.

Despite the temptations of the modern world, Hillcourt--a widower--believed that Scouting would never become passe--that there was more wisdom in the outdoors than there was on the TV screen.

“Certainly we can make camping more entertaining and educational than Nintendo,” he once said.