Edward Urner Goodman (May 15, 1891 – March 13, 1980) was an influential leader in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) movement for much of the twentieth century. Goodman was the national program director from 1931 until 1951, during the organization's formative years of significant growth when the Cub Scouting and Exploring programs were established. He developed the BSA's national training center in the early 1930s and was responsible for publication of the widely read Boy Scout Handbook and other Scouting books, writing the Leaders Handbook used by Scout leaders in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1950s, Goodman was executive director of Men's Work for the National Council of Churches in New York City and active in church work.
Goodman is best remembered today for having created the Order of the Arrow (OA), a popular and highly successful program of the BSA that continues to honor Scouts for their cheerful service. Since its founding in 1915, the Order of the Arrow has grown to become a nationwide program having thousands of members, which recognizes those Scouts who best exemplify the virtues of cheerful service, camping, and leadership by membership in BSA's honor society. As of 2007, the Order of the Arrow has more than 183,000 members.
Early years and marriage
Goodman was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father, George, was a printer and real estate agent. His mother, Ella, died of typhoid fever in early 1895 when Goodman was just three years old. He attended Central High School, graduating in 1909. an event he described as "the most important step I ever took or ever will take in my life." Just barely out of his teens, Goodman became a popular and highly respected Sunday school teacher and led the Philadelphia chapter of a young men's group called the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip.
On June 18, 1920, Goodman married Louise Wynkoop Waygood, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and a 1918 honors graduate of Swarthmore College. They had three children: Theodore (born 1921), George (born 1923), and Lydia Ann (born 1927).
Scouting career
As a volunteer and local council leader
thumb|right|200px|E. Urner Goodman (circled in green) and Troop 1 in 1913
While studying for his degree in education, Goodman first became involved in Boy Scouting in 1911 when only 20 years old, as a volunteer Scoutmaster of Troop 1, the first Scout troop in Philadelphia. As far as can be established, this would make him the second-youngest Scoutmaster in the history of the BSA. In his four years as Scoutmaster, the troop grew to more than 100 Scouts. A contemporary of Goodman described him in 1912 as "well beloved by the boys, enjoys their confidence and is heart and soul in this phase of the work." On April 1, 1915, he entered full-time professional service in Boy Scouting as a field executive, called a "Field Commissioner" at the time. That summer, Goodman served as director of the Philadelphia Scout Council's summer camp. He was promoted in December 1917 to Scout executive of the Philadelphia Council.
Goodman's professional Scouting career was interrupted during World War I, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after his promotion to Scout executive. He served in the infantry as a first lieutenant, but his unit was never sent overseas. In December 1918, he was discharged from the Army and resumed his professional career as Scout executive in Philadelphia. Spotlighted in an October 1920 column in the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, Goodman described Scouting as "leading boys through the muscle-building, mind-developing, character-forming program of scouting". He cited Scouting's service in the war effort and extolled the movement as "absolutely nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and democratic", bringing together "diverse elements".
Goodman served as Scout executive in Philadelphia until May 1927, when he was promoted to the larger Chicago Area Council as Scout executive (1927–1931). The three major U.S. radio networks of the time, NBC, CBS and Mutual, all set up complete broadcasting studios near the jamboree headquarters to produce almost 19 hours of live, on-site jamboree coverage broadcast coast-to-coast. Celebrities also visited the jamboree, including well-known broadcaster Lowell Thomas and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While at the jamboree, Scouts also attended a three-game baseball series between the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox at Griffith Stadium, with Goodman arranging for Eagle Scouts to have a place of honor with President Roosevelt in the stands (pictured).<!--date format workaround for known pre-1970 bug-->
thumb|right|200px|Goodman (far right) and Eagle Scouts with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR (center) at Griffith Stadium ballgame]]<!--Fair Use image, see image file at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pres_Roosevelt_and_Boy_Scouts_in_1937.jpg -->
As war clouds cast an ominous shadow over Europe in the late 1930s amidst the rise of fascism, West, Goodman, and other BSA leaders considered how Scouting might better train youth in democratic principles of government. Referring to the Nazi Kristallnacht rampage against Jews in 1938, Goodman wrote shortly afterwards: "...the program of persecution has stirred up our hearts and minds as nothing else that has happened before has done. It has furnished the impetus of a wave of resentment against the evil; but more than that, for a surge of satisfaction and thanksgiving concerning our own happier state under a democracy."
On September 16, 1951, Goodman retired as national program director, ending a professional Scouting career spanning 36 years. He was given the title of National Field Scout Commissioner, to continue his service to Scouting on the national level as a layman. Of more lasting importance, Goodman believed that the summer camp experience should do more than just teach proficiency in Scoutcraft skills; rather, the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Scout Law should become realities in the lives of Scouts. Along with Edson, he started an experimental program to recognize those Scouts best exemplifying those traits as an example to their peers.
Goodman and Edson were strongly influenced by the use of American Indian culture by Ernest Thompson Seton in his Woodcraft Indians program. They decided to create an honor society of their own at camp that summer, in a manner befitting a boy's interest and understanding. Goodman utilized the appeal of Indian lore and recognition by a Scout's peers as motivational tools. He devised a program where troops chose, at the camp's conclusion, those boys from among their number who best exemplified the ideals of Scouting. Those elected were acknowledged as having displayed, in the eyes of their fellow Scouts, a spirit of unselfish service and brotherhood. Edson helped Goodman research the traditions and language of the Lenni Lenape—also known as the Delaware—who had once inhabited Treasure Island.
thumb|left|150px|E. Urner Goodman as a young Scouter in 1917
The brotherhood of Scout honor campers with its American Indian overtones was a success and was repeated again the following summer at Treasure Island. Committees were organized to formulate a constitution, refine ceremonial rituals, devise insignia, and plan future development. Reflecting Goodman's ongoing interest in music, he composed the words to the Order of the Arrow's song, "Firm Bound in Brotherhood", set to the stirring melody of a hymn found in the Presbyterian hymnal of the 1920s, "God the Omnipotent" in 11.10.11.9 meter, which was adapted from the Russian national anthem, "God Save the Tsar!", composed by Alexei Lvov in 1833.
In the early 1920s, many Scout executives were skeptical of what they called "secret camp fraternities". By September 1922, opposition to the Order of the Arrow was such that a formal resolution opposing "camp fraternities" was proposed at a national meeting of Scout executives. Goodman argued against the motion: "Using the Scout ideals as our great objective", he said, a camp activity that will "further the advancement of those ideals" should not be suppressed. Kenneth Davis, in his book The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service: A History of the Order of the Arrow, concludes that the National Council's approval in 1948 "...was due largely to his [Goodman's] personal efforts and recommendation...". Summarizing what he felt the order signified, E. Urner Goodman wrote in the foreword to the Order of the Arrow Handbook from the perspective of more than a half century after the brotherhood's inception: