Meet your 2014 Silver Buffalo Award class

Unlike most Scouting awards, there are no requirements for the Silver Buffalo Award. It’s not something you work toward or apply for yourself.

But when you consider the recipients, you could say the men and women who earn Scouting’s highest honor for adults have been working toward the Silver Buffalo Award their entire lives. They just didn’t know it.

The award is special because of the people hand-picked by the National Court of Honor to wear the red-and-white medal and square knot. These men and women — just 741 in the 88-year history of the award — have given “noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth.”

The 2014 class consists of eight men and one woman. Among this year’s recipients are Joe Manchin, the junior U.S. senator from West Virginia; David Beck, general president of the LDS church’s Young Men organization; R. Chip Turner, chairman of the BSA Religious Relationships Task Force; and Rosemary Wixom, general president of the Primary of the LDS church.

The full list of recipients follows. The noteworthy nine will get their medals in a special recognition ceremony at the National Annual Meeting in May in Nashville, Tenn. And in doing so they’ll join a prestigious list that includes Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Reagan, Yogi Berra, Bill Gates, Robert Baden-Powell, William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt and many, many more who have kept Scouting strong for more than a century.

2014 Silver Buffalo Award class

David L. Beck, Great Salt Lake Council, Salt Lake City, Utah

Toby Capps, Chief Seattle Council, Renton, Wash.

Michael G. Hoffman, Grand Canyon Council, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Joe Manchin, Mountaineer Area Council, Fairmont, W.Va.

Robert J. Smith, Monmouth Council, Holmdel, N.J.

William W. Stark Jr., Pacific Skyline Council, Los Altos Hills, Calif.

Mark Lewis Stolowitz, San Francisco Bay Area Council, Pleasanton, Calif.

Ralph Wilson “Chip” Turner, Longhorn Council, Fort Worth, Texas

Rosemary M. Wixom, Great Salt Lake Council, Salt Lake City, Utah

Note: The citations of these outstanding men and women, including a description of why each was chosen, will be posted as soon as it’s available.

Related posts

2013 Silver Buffalo Award recipients

2012 Silver Buffalo Award recipients

2011 Silver Buffalo Award recipients

2010 Silver Buffalo Award recipients


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