Scouting in Topeka

Reverend Fazell was the first Scout Executive. He became that in 1918. At that point in time is when the Topeka Council as it was known at that time became a “First Class Council” meaning amongst other criteria, it had a Scout Executive and an executive board. The council was formed in 1913 as a “Provisional Council.”  CF Menninger would have been one of the key community leaders of the time and it is entirely conceivable that he was a part of that first board or helped with the first troop organized in town even before we were a council. 

Reverend Fazell was the area’s first Council Commissioner/Scout Executive and started a troop with 5 youth at Polk school.  William Menninger was one of those five boys becoming an Eagle Scout six years later in 1917.

In 1928, Dr. William Menninger organized a Sea Scout patrol as a solution to retaining older boys in the Boy Scout troop.  In 1929, it became its own Sea Ship.  The first Sea Scout leader’s manual called the S.S. Kansas Skipper’s Aid was created by the local Sea Scout Ship.  Later, he wrote The Skipper’s Handbook.