Count to four: Maryland quadruplets earn Eagle Scout award

Photo by Phil Grout
John, Patrick, David, and William Goodspeed. (Photo by Phil Grout, Howard County Times)

Having quadruplets is rare enough. A woman’s odds of having four babies at once is estimated at somewhere between 1 in 550,000 and 1 in 800,000.

But quadruplets who are also Eagle Scouts? Impossible, right?

Not for the Goodspeeds, who defied the odds and became Eagle Scout quadruplets. Maryland’s Howard County Times reported the story in today’s edition.

John, Patrick, David, and William Goodspeed recently joined the more than 2 million other Eagle Scouts who have received Scouting’s top honor.

My colleagues at the BSA don’t keep demographic records of Eagle Scouts, but spokeswoman Renee Fairrer told the Howard County Times that she’s never seen Eagle Scout quadruplets.

“When it comes down to it, we can reasonably say that they’re one in a million, these quadruplet Eagle Scouts,” she told the paper.

You’ll want to read the complete story at the link above, but here was my favorite quote from the piece, spoken by their mother, Eileen.

“It’s just that I know so many men who didn’t get Eagle Scout, who gave it up before completing the work, and they regret it,” she was quoted as saying. “They regret that their parents had not pushed them to complete it, and I decided I’d push, or encourage, them.”

All that’s left to say is congratulations. And congratulations. And congratulations. And congratulations.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.