John Shearer: McBride Family Sees Fourth-Generation Eagle Scout
Dr. John McBride was a longtime history and social science instructor at Baylor School, David Brainerd Christian School, UTC and elsewhere locally and was known for his interest in sometimes working miniature wargaming into his classes.
The hobby had started with an ad he saw in Boys’ Life magazine while involved in his other passion of Scouting. He had followed in the footsteps of his father in making Eagle Scout while growing up in Texas, and after moving to Chattanooga led a Scout troop in which his son, David, was involved.
David ended up making Eagle Scout as well before graduating from Baylor School in 1992, and he, too, became involved in Scouting as an adult leader after working since 1997 as a teacher at Whitefield
Academy Christian school in the metro Atlanta area.
And this past fall, his son, Archer, became an Eagle Scout, having the unusual accomplishment of being the fourth generation Eagle Scout.
And that is not all. Archer’s mother, Lucy McBride, has Eagle Scouts in her family, including her father, David Jones; brother, Stuart Jones; and some uncles.
In short, their family reunions could also double as a small Eagle Scout convention.
As the David McBride family recently gathered with his parents, John and Mary Jane McBride, at their Crestview Drive home in Hixson over the Christmas holidays, they were all still savoring the unusual accomplishment.
“We’re proud of him,” said David. “He’s learned a lot about being a leader and being respectful.”
Archer, an 11th grader at Whitefield, said he was able to achieve the honor through an Eagle Scout project and service hours that involved redoing the softball benches for the team at the school.
He also had to earn the required 21 merit badges, including his favorite, the Reptile and Amphibian Study Merit Badge. He became so interested that he now owns a bearded dragon as a pet.
He also enjoyed the experiences of camping with his father and the others and learning such intangible skills as respecting along with cooking, surviving in the woods, and working with his hands.
“Because I’ve had such a loving and strong support system, I’ve learned how to be respectful of adults,” he said.
Archer achieved his Eagle Scout in Atlanta, but local Cherokee Area Council Scout Executive/CEO Jared Pickens, who oversees the troops in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, thinks a family having four straight generations of Eagle Scouts is unusual anywhere.
“Many families so value their own experience that they want their children to participate as they did,” he said. “However, it is rare for families to reach into the third and fourth generations.”
But he said it is not uncommon for multiple generations of families to be involved in Scouting due to the shared experiences that can bring families closer together, as Archer referenced.
“When a youth completes similar challenges that their parents and grandparents faced, there is a deep shared feeling of achievement, a deep sense of accomplishment,” Pickens said, adding that a young Scout also has an incredible support network.
While the Boy Scouts nationally have been in the news in recent years for the isolated sex abuse accusations of mostly decades ago that have also beset the Catholic church and some schools and sports organizations, David McBride said his troop always tries to be very careful. And he thinks even stronger Scouting safety rules enacted nationally will help his and all troops going forward to prevent such future incidents.
Archer has been involved in Scouting since his younger years but was not forced into the extracurricular activity, his family said. His parents actually have different educational interests – David is a history and Bible teacher, and Lucy teaches theater, also at Whitefield – but they did have the family Scouting connection that naturally attracted Archer.
“We didn’t pressure him,” said Lucy. “But it was always something he enjoyed. And it will serve him well.”
David, who attended the University of Virginia after Baylor before also following in his father’s footsteps as an educator, added. “It’s cool to see him plan and execute our project and see him be a leader to the other boys in the troop,” he said.
Archer’s skills as a handyman in helping fix up the softball benches for his school as his Eagle Scout project are also in line with the talents of his great-grandfather, Frank McBride, the first Eagle Scout in the family and a skilled woodworker.
Also somewhat unique is that Archer got to know his great-grandfather personally, as Frank did not die until 2020, just short of his 100th birthday. Archer said he enjoyed talking with him about woodworking and other topics.
John McBride, who thinks it is interesting to compare the merit badges of his father’s era to those of today, even though plenty of overlap exists, said his father’s experience in Scouting gave him rare insight into a large span of American history. For example, his father as a Boy Scout was able to meet some of the few Civil War veterans still living in the 1930s, and then he went on to serve in the Army Air Corps in World War II.
And now Archer has experienced some history as well by becoming the fourth Eagle Scout in his family. His ceremony took place on Oct. 30, his mother’s birthday, adding to the family connection and lineage.
Everyone enjoyed celebrating the accomplishment, which is considered special, no matter how many generations have achieved it. As Archer’s father said proudly of his son’s achievement, “It is something that not many people who start in Scouting end up achieving.”
