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March 1, 2010

No longer a boy, but still a Scout

Harry Rothstein, 87, helps local Boy Scouts celebrate centennial

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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DALLAS -- Harry Rothstein has been around nearly as long as the Boy Scouts of America.

And for most of his years, Rothstein has either been a Scout or cherished the experience.

Rothstein, 87, of Dallas, said his years in Scouting were fun and he shared some of his Scouting stories as the Boy Scouts get ready to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

“Well, I can build my own barbecue pit,” Rothstein said. “But I’ve never helped an old lady across the street – I pushed one across one time to get her to safety, but that’s a different story.”

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Council of Boy Scouts of America will hold its “Centennial of Scouting Distinguished Citizens Award Dinner” on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Genetti Hotel & Convention Center, Wilkes-Barre. National Football League Hall of Famer Willie Davis, who played for the Green Bay Packers of legendary coach Vince Lombardi, will be the featured speaker.

Frank and Dottie Henry of Martz Trailways and Peter Frieder Jr., CEO of Gentex, will receive the Distinguished Citizens Awards.

Rothstein got involved in Scouting at age 10 as a Cub Scout and would continue in the organization for years, becoming a Scoutmaster when he returned from military duty.

In 1937, Rothstein, Myles Conlon, Donald Lloyd and Jack Mangan attended the National Jamboree in Washington, D.C.

“We camped in tents near the Washington Monument,: Rothstein, who was 14 at the time, said. The local contingent was among 28,000 Boy Scouts from 43 countries at the Boy Scouts World Jamboree held in July of that year in Vogelzang, The Netherlands.

In a letter Rothstein wrote to The Times Leader while in Holland, he said the Scouts had received “a good supply of wooden shoes and swapped souvenirs.” He said, “The air is full of a spirit of world brotherhood” despite language barriers.

Rothstein was in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was to fly missions in a spy plane, but the war ended before his first scheduled flight.

He lives in Dallas with his wife, Arlene. They have two children: Robert, Brussels, Belgium, and Robin, Massachusetts, and two grandchildren. Rothstein ran a wholesale grocery business -- J.S. Rothstein Sons – and then Eastern Distribution, a public warehouse and trucking company. At 87, he is still working, selling real estate.

He said the Boy Scouts provide him with many fun events and lasting memories.

“It was the thing to do at the time for us kids,” he said. “I loved the outdoors and going to Camp Acahela was the greatest.”

Rothstein said the cost to send a Boy Scout to Camp Acahela at the time was $5.50 per week for the first two weeks and last two weeks of the eight-week camp. The middle four weeks cost $6.50 per week, he added.

“That’s because the first two weeks we worked building a dam to create a swimming hole in the Lehigh River,” Rothstein said. “The last two weeks, we worked to tear the dam down.”

Asked what he got out of Scouting, Rothstein said, “The enjoyment of doing it. For one thing, it kept us the hell out of trouble.”

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Rothstein said parents today should encourage their children to get involved with Scouting.

“It teaches them to do and learn things that are helpful to themselves and others,” he said. “And it keeps them away from things they shouldn’t get involved with.”

Rothstein was a member of Troop 32, Wilkes-Barre, which met in the South Washington Street building that now houses the Catholic Youth Center. Rothstein played the trumpet “badly” in the Troop 32 Orchestra – a group that featured a fiddle, a sax, drums, trumpet and piano.

The group was invited to play live on radio station WBAX, and Rothstein said the group gathered in the studios above Wilkes-Barre’s Orpheum Theater.

“Somebody said to me we wouldn’t sound good over the air; that we needed more instruments,” Rothstein said. “So we got some kid to play the trombone, but his arms were too short to hit the last position on the slide. We tied a string around his wrist and when he had to hit that last position, he would throw the slide out and bring it back with the string.”

The Troop 32 Orchestra got on the air, but a record contract didn’t follow.

“The point,” Rothstein said, “is we had fun.”

Bill O’Boyle, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.

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