Field Director Clint Rohrbacher was responsible for my orientation and training. Clint liked to drive and to be out of the office. One of my major responsibilities was to work with all the School Districts to conduct the career interest survey. Clint showed me around the two counties while regaling me with stories of mountain people, revenuers and showing me refrigerators on front porches!
The fun part of the job was visiting post meetings and getting to know the leaders and post officers. Post advisors were passionate about their careers and organized great post programs. Diana Krieling of Latrobe and Ruth Hughes of Jeannette hospitals were great examples. Bernie Humphries of Post 465 was a great old school leader, his post was called a general interest post and they did high adventure activities. Bernie wasn’t shy about giving me advice and I learned a lot from him.
In Fayette county we had quite a few great posts. The two best were a law post chartered by the Fayette Bar association led by Attorney Ernie DeHas and an Engineering post chartered by Rockwell International led by Barry Senari.
Each post elected youth officers led by a President. The Council had a Explorer Presidents Association that planned Counil Exploring Events. Our Council EPA President was Marla Moon from the Connellsville post at Highlands Hospital.
National Exploring had a Explorer Presidents Congress in Washington DC. One year we sent 6 Presidents to the Congress. We rode with Explorers from Pittsburgh on an old school bus all the way to D.C. That year the Congress was received by President Ford on the White House lawn. I was about 30 feet away from the President in a crowd of over 1, 000 Explorers. I’ll never forget that day! If you didn’t know, Gerald Ford was an Eagle Scout!
The EPA planned and carried out the first Exploring Co-ed Weekend. We stayed out at Camp Buck Run. The girls stayed on Rocky Ridge and boys on Raccoon Ridge. Pete Vrable of Greensburg cooked for us in the Buck Run Dining Hall. We swam at the pool at Conestoga on Saturday. That night we had a rock band play for the Explorers off the Trading post porch and Explorers were dancing on the parade field. Fred Frank and crew helped with the physical arrangements. Fred reported later that the neighbors on Jimtown Road reported hearing the band!
Lots of great memories! In my blog page you can read about a Cave exploring adventure I had with a post from Murrysville. I think it was Post 206 from the Methodist church. It’s the first article on the Memories Page.
A few years ago George Caldwell from Delmont asked me if I remembered he was an Explorer in those days and rode with me in an Explorer Road rally we had. No, I didn’t remember him riding with me! Sorry!
Thanks for reading these tales from the past!
