Boy Scouts troop leader on verge of having mentored 100 Eagle Scouts

It’s the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America, with only 5 percent of scouts reaching the lauded level, but the BSA’s Chattahoochee Council has a scoutmaster on the verge of seeing the 100^th boy he has mentored become an Eagle Scout.

And the council wants the Eagle Board of Review conducted Thursday, starting at 6:30 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church, to double as a reunion for all scouts influenced by Fred Sieg, 74, a retired U.S. Army captain, who has been a scoutmaster in Columbus for 45 years.

It’s unclear how the number of Eagle Scouts that Sieg has mentored ranks nationally. Boy Scouts of America communications director Effie Delimarkos said in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, “Unfortunately, we do not track the specific data point you requested. I can share that this is certainly a rare accomplishment and we appreciate Mr. Sieg’s commitment to Scouting.”

Sieg deflects the acclaim. This milestone, he said, “indicates I’ve got 100 families who kept endorsing and supporting me and the relationship with their son to reach that high legacy of an Eagle Scout.”

Two of the Eagle Scouts he mentored have sons who also became Eagle Scouts under Sieg’s guidance.

“So my second generation is coming in,” Sieg said with a smile.

‘Very wise’

Orion Goodwin, 16, is the Boy Scout on track to be Sieg’s 100^th Eagle Scout. He called his place in that order an honor, but he wants the focus to be on his mentor.

“To have 100 Eagle Scouts go through you personally, that’s real dedication to the troop, to the scouts,” said Orion, who attended Northside High School until halfway through his sophomore year and now is homeschooled and is dually enrolled through the Move On When Ready program at Columbus State University. “Me being the 100^th is just amazing.”

Orion, a member of Troop 2 based in St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church on Macon Road, described Sieg as “very wise and experienced. When he tries to tell you something, he knows what he’s talking about, so you should listen.”

Bowling, for example.

“Teenagers think they know best,” Orion explained. “But after we listened to Capt. Sieg, we bowled much better. It’s the same thing with tying knots and hanging hammocks. … He knows a lot about a lot of things.”

But he doesn’t overwhelm his scouts with his knowledge.

“He describes things in a way that elementary school students can understand,” Orion said. “Even if we’re talking about aviation, he puts it on our level.”

‘Leadership, mentorship, cajoling’

Rodney Barham, 59, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, was the second scout Sieg has mentored to earn an Eagle badge.

“Capt. Sieg provided the leadership, the mentorship, the cajoling that I needed as a young man to achieve that high honor,” Barham said. “I believe making Eagle Scout, the skills that I learned, the experiences I had during that time, led to the person that I am today, and I thank him very much for what he did for me and my family and for all of these he helped achieve that rank.”

That was in 1973, when they were part of Troop 120 off Farr Road in south Columbus.

The troop, before Sieg arrived in 1972, “had gone through quite a few scoutmasters, and none of them wanted to stay with us,” recalled Barham, a 1975 Carver High School graduate. “I mean, we were a pretty wild group of kids. Capt. Sieg came in, and he was different. He was different. He was Scouts.”

That meant wearing uniforms and working on advancement.

“He told the boys that we were going to become Eagles and he was going to guide us through it,” Barham said. “And he knew what he was talking about.”

Beyond the pride of earning prestigious awards, Barham is thankful for what Sieg taught him.

During a Troop 120 campout at Fort Benning, the boys didn’t think Sieg was awake yet as they gathered around the campfire for breakfast, so they took advantage of their unmonitored time to practice new curse words.

Sieg overheard them. He didn’t holler at the boys, but he did tell them, “Y’all sound very ignorant talking like that. There are much better words in the dictionary to use.”

Barham reflected, “That changed the way I thought and had me grow up a little bit at that point in time.”

And that life lesson had lasting impact.

In the Army, during one of his annual evaluations as a major, the colonel noted, “Maj. Barham has the language of a gentleman.”

“That’s something I attribute to Capt. Sieg’s guidance,” said Barham, who in 2015 became the first Distinguished Eagle Scout in the Chattahoochee Council since 1986 and the eighth in the council’s history, one of approximately 2,000 in the nation since the award was implemented in 1964.

“There are presidents, astronauts and all that on the list, and then there’s little ol’ Rod Barham because of Capt. Sieg,” Barham said.

Barham also credits Sieg for teaching him some of the skills that helped him succeed in the Army, where he became the first graduate of the ROTC Columbus College program to reach the level of general officer. In addition to orienteering and pioneering skills, Barham is grateful Sieg gave him the chance to learn leadership as a teenager.

“He made us take charge of the patrols and actually be responsible for those littler boys in the troop,” said Barham, who converted those skills into a successful business career, now owner of Bookkeeping Express, housed in the same downtown Columbus building as the Boy Scouts council’s headquarters. He also teaches business as a part-time instructor at Columbus State University.

Regardless of the skill or setting, Barham summed up Sieg’s lessons by stating the Golden Rule: “You treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s so true for him, and I’ve lived by that.”

Motivation

Sieg was born in Wheeling, W.Va., and grew up in Ohio and New Jersey. His father, Marlin Sieg, was an Eagle Scout and became the assistant director in the Cub Scouts division for the national Boy Scouts of America and helped write the manuals.

Sieg served for 12½ years in the U.S. Army. He was in the 101^st Airborne Division. He was shot twice in the head during the Vietnam War and spent 1½ years recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

After he was medically retired with 100 percent disability in 1972, he became a scoutmaster to give boys the opportunity he didn’t receive. Although his father was a professional Boy Scout, Sieg said, “I never knew him. He traveled in all 50 states. He was gone all the time.”

So he relied on his scoutmasters for guidance, but they weren’t interested enough in the Eagle program to motivate him to pursue it, Sieg said, and he instead achieved the Explorer Silver Award, considered equivalent to Eagle Scout.

Scouting continues to be a way of life for Sieg’s family. His wife, Connie, and his sister, Sandy, help him at Troop 2. All three have received the Silver Beaver award, the highest honor for adults serving a BSA council. His son, Scott, and grandson, Darien, are Eagle Scouts, and his daughter, Dawn Hoag, earned a Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouts.

‘Singing his praises’

Bill Storey, 67, a retired United Parcel Service driver, is chairman of advancement for the Muskogee district, leading the 15-member Eagle Board of Review, which approves projects and awards the Eagle Scout badge. Nobody respects the positive impact Sieg has had on boys more than Storey, but his initial impression of him wasn’t all that positive.

“I thought Fred was a barking dog,” Storey said with a smile, making Sieg chuckle. “He was real disruptive at meetings with his ideas and opinions. So I found him a little rough.”

But then Storey’s son, who worked at summer camp with Sieg, changed his mind.

“He came back singing his praises about the impact he made on him,” Storey said. “Through the eyes of my son, I really got more admiration for him.”

And then Storey saw that positive impact with his own eyes during a Boy Scouts trip to Canada with Sieg.

“I saw Fred working with young men, trying to shape them,” Storey said. “Being on staff requires a lot of responsibility. You need to pass on knowledge to these boys, to mentor them to get them to perform. Fred has a way of motivating them. He just has a way of getting the boys to respect him.”

Barham called that way “leading by example.”

“Capt. Sieg, not pushing, not yelling, not shoving, he showed us,” Barham said. “He opened the door and showed us those things. Whereas other scoutmasters concentrated on the troop, he concentrated on us exploring new avenues in life.”

Sieg explained, “If I’m going to ask them to do something, I’ll make sure I can do it. Then they see it and think, ‘I can do it,’ and once they understand it, they take over.”

Barham has paid that mentoring forward. He guided Boy Scouts for 10 years, including his son, Sean, who became an Eagle Scout in San Diego.

“You make Eagle,” Barham said, “and part of what you say is that you’ll give back.”

Storey noted the boys still call their scoutmaster Capt. Sieg.

“Most of the boys feel like they’re one of his soldiers,” Storey said. “I mean, he kind of runs it — never harshly — but he has the organization, and they’re like his little troops. He makes things exciting for them, and he brings a lot of integrity.”

Sieg also demonstrates the balance between compassion and upholding standards. Seven of his Eagle Scouts are mentally or physically challenged, but all of them met the same criteria as any other Eagle Scout, insisted Storey.

“Fred Sieg never gave me a call saying he’s got this special kid and we need to make an exception,” Storey said.

‘Ain’t gonna stop’

Storey contends Sieg “is going to be in Scouting until the day he drops dead. The day he doesn’t show up, then I know he’s gone.”

Sieg agrees.

“I ain’t gonna stop,” he said.

Asked why, Sieg said, “Because there are too many wonderful people who need the encouragement and motivation.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Boy Scouts troop leader on verge of having mentored 100 Eagle Scouts."