wfn.org | Scouts Honor Diaz For Service to Youth and God

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99069 
24-June-1999 
 
          Scouts Honor Diaz For Service to Youth and God 
 
 
FORT WORTH   The Rev. Frank Diaz, former interim executive director of the 
General Assembly Council, remembers when the only world he knew was a 
nearby borough known as "Little Mexico." 
     For the first 15 years of his life he had never left the neighborhood, 
until he discovered scouting. His awareness of the outside world and of the 
values needed to rise to the top of church life all started with a simple 
camping trip and scrambled eggs. 
     "The first meal we had in the morning, the scout master went out there 
and started a fire, we cooked some eggs, scrambled eggs," he told scouts 
and scout masters Tuesday during the National Association of Presbyterian 
Scouters (NAPS) "Duty to God" breakfast at the Petroleum Club. "But it is 
more than that. It really builds the values that I hold today. Values that 
my Sunday school teachers imparted to us (as well as) pastors that I had 
over the years." 
     Presbyterian churches are the fifth largest user of the scouting 
program among the religious chartered organizations of the Boy Scouts of 
America. Like Diaz, who never forgot his scouting days, scouting never 
forgot him, as NAPS presented him with the God and Service award for his 
dedication to youth and God. 
     "This is indeed a great honor. I accept this award with great 
humility," Diaz, 65, said.  "...This was my life for all these many years."  
     Indeed, he has a long service record in scouting, not to mention the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
     A scout since his mid-teens, he soon got the chance to mold young 
minds as an adult leader at age 19, an unusually young age for such a 
responsibility, according to Russell Fury, past president of NAPS. He later 
married and shared his leadership role, a  position he held for 22 years, 
with his wife Shirley.  
     Diaz pointed out that the road to success consists of more than just 
scrambled eggs, which he noted remains his favorite breakfast to this day. 
The graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary at age 46, Diaz 
became a leader of local congregations and a church officer.  He served 
pastorates in Texas prior to joining the national staff in 1989. 
     Diaz, who became a Presbyterian when his mother was converted in the 
crop fields of Texas, served as interim executive director of the General 
Assembly Council (GAC) from 1996- 1998. Before that he was the GAC 
associate director for seven years. Diaz most recently ran unsuccessfully 
for moderator of the 211th General Assembly, finishing second to retired 
theological seminary professor Freda Gardner.  
     "I recently joined a club in our Presbyterian Church called the 
'almost club,'" he joked of his quest to become moderator. 
     NAPS represents the link between Boy Scouting and PC(USA), which Diaz 
stills helps promote by appearing on a video tape about the organization. 
NAPS was formed in 1986 to encourage congregations to become chartered 
partners with scouting in ministering to youth families   although actually 
the relationship between Presbyterian congregations, their youth 
ministries, and the scouting programs date back more than 86 years. Today 
there are more than 140,000 members in nearly 4,000  Presbyterian-chartered 
Boy Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, Varsity Scout teams and Explorer posts. 
     "He himself and his leadership is an indication of getting things done 
and getting people to work with him," said Fury. "His remarks, I must say 
are a message to all of us and are indicating that scouting is a tool that 
can be used to strengthen young people and also often is geared to open our 
churches to youth in the community."  
     Former General Assembly Moderator Patricia G. Brown, who served as 
emcee of the breakfast, said she had a plea for the scouts to continue "to 
work with young men and young women to show them the possibilities that are 
different from the ones they may know now." 
 
Evan Silverstein 

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