Mr. Sam Atkins

For over thirty years, between 1961 and 1991, Sam Atkins was a teacher and scout leader to thousands of boys who were part of the Mexico District, Direct Service Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Some of the positions he held during these many years include:

Scoutmaster, Troops 1 & 3, Mexico City
Skipper, Sea Explorer Ship 1, Mexico City
Advisor, Cuauhtli Lodge #446, Order of the Arrow
Camp Director, Camp Aztec
Scoutmaster, 7th and 8th National Jamborees
District Commissioner, Mexico District, Direct Service Council (800)

Among honors accorded Sam were the Silver Beaver and Scoutmaster's Key by the National Court of Honor, BSA, the Scoutmaster Award of Merit, and the Aztec Eagle Award and the Citizen of the Year Merit Award by the American Society of Mexico for his dedicated service to youth. He also held the Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow, and the St. George Award for Catholic scouters.

These positions and awards only tell a small part of the story. In order to really understand Sam and the profound influence he had on the Scouting movement in Mexico, you need to know a bit of his background and a few of the stories of his many adventures.

Sam Atkins was born in Mexico City, but his parents moved to New York when he was one year old. Sam's love for the ocean came from living in Bayside, Long Island, where his adventurous life began. At about nine years of age, he got into his small sailboat with a bottle of wine and some cheese. When the Coast Guard stopped him after several hours with the question, "Where are you going, little boy?", he explained that he was on his way to Germany!

After being discharged from the Navy at the conclusion of WW II, Sam moved to Mexico where he worked at the U.S. Embassy until returning to the States to attend Yale University. Prior to graduating in 1954, he took a year off to travel across the country in an army-surplus Jeep with his younger brother. They earned money by mining, logging, and fruit-picking, but the bulk of their time was spent prospecting and following up on legends of buried treasure in the vicinity of the Superstition Mountains. Another year was spent photographing and filming much of Mexico for the Yale Audio Visual Department and assisting researchers from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology in their search for lost cities in the states of Guerrero and Michoacan. After Yale, Sam spent time living with the Tepehuan Indians near Durango, Mexico, prospecting and panning for gold. Eventually he went to work for a U.S.-based light and power company which sent him back to the mountains of central Mexico to build power lines.

The stories of his many adventures during all his travels through Mexico are too long to recount here; suffice it to say that Sam had a wealth of material with which to keep boys spellbound over many a campfire in his later years!

Sam's life took a more spiritual turn after a serious bout of hepatitis which nearly killed him. In 1959, he traveled to Spain and Rome for six months of seminary studies and soul-searching which almost led to the priesthood. He returned to Mexico with the firm desire to help others and the belief that he could accomplish this best by being a "priest in life". A few months later, Sam was asked to be a "temporary" substitute math teacher at the American School, something which would turn into a ten-year teaching career.

It was about this same time that his involvement with Scouting began when he agreed to serve as Assistant Scoutmaster for BSA Troop 3 of Mexico City. He soon became Scoutmaster, and a year after that he became the advisor for the OA Lodge and formed a Sea Explorer Ship (so what if they were several hundred miles from the nearest coast?!) From the very beginning, Sam's most important guiding principle was that the whole show belonged to the boys and it was theirs to plan and run.

And for the next thirty years, that's just how it happened. From the legendary Sea Explorer canoe trip down the rapids of the Balsas River in 1963, to some of the most incredible OA tap-out ceremonies ever witnessed, to the Aztec Indian Dancing performed at the closing arena show of the 1973 National Jamboree, Sam was there to guide and inspire and teach thousands of young men.

Sam passed away very suddenly in September, 1991. What I remember most vividly about his funeral was how several generations of Scouts who had had the privilege of being led by Sam gathered and shared chuckles as we traded stories about Sam and his incredible adventures. He left a void in the U.S. Scouting movement in Mexico which will never be filled.

Sam Atkins was my father. A few days after his death, while helping my mother with some home repairs which he hadn't had a chance to get to, I walked into a small hardware store in downtown Mexico City. I happened to glance up at the wall and I saw a quotation which was immediately etched into my memory as one of the most simple and eloquent descriptions of Sam's life I was ever likely to find:

I slept and dreamt
That life was happiness.
I awoke and saw
That life was service.
I served and discovered
That in service,
one finds happiness.
-- R. Tagore
- - - - - - - - - - -

If you knew Sam, either as a Scout or as one of his students, and have any stories or memories you would like to share, I would be very interested in hearing from you. Please send e-mail to clive.dawson at amd.com.

Yours in scouting,

Clive Dawson
Asst. Scoutmaster
Troop 30
Capitol Area Council
Austin, Texas