Lamar Wallace, likely the oldest living Eagle Scout, turns 105

Photo by Bill Torpy

Lamar Wallace is 105 years old.

That likely makes him the oldest living Eagle Scout.

Officials at the National Eagle Scout Association tell me Wallace is the oldest Eagle they know about, but NESA doesn’t have Eagle Scout birth dates before 1983.

While I can’t say with certitude that Wallace owns the record, I do know this: He was born Nov. 28, 1911.

In case you, like me, can’t wrap your head around how long ago that is, consider that he was born just four years after his home state of Oklahoma became the 46th U.S. state. William Howard Taft — our 27th president — was in office in 1911.

105 birthday candles

Wallace celebrated his 105th birthday two months back, and Bill Torpy, for his column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, attended the party.

You see, Torpy has a son who will become an Eagle Scout soon, and he “thought it would be kind of cool to talk with a guy who earned his Eagle almost 90 years ago.”

Here’s my favorite part of the piece:

The values of Scouting — clean living, honesty, respect for others, leadership — are something that stayed with [Wallace].

“I used Scouting a lot,” he said. “I used it with what I did the rest of my life. I was fair in everything I did. Or I tried to be.”

Naturally, that’s what you’d figure an old Eagle Scout would say.

Eagle Scout Class of 1927

Lamar Ernest Wallace was born in Romulus, Okla. He received the Eagle Scout award at age 15 — on Sept. 17, 1927, in Gotebo, Okla.

Wallace is in rare company both because of his age and because of how long ago he became an Eagle Scout.

A look at the number of Eagle Scouts per year tells us that just 5,713 young men earned the honor in 1927 — about one-tenth the annual number these days.

Wallace, who lives in the Atlanta area, was honored in 2015 at the BSA’s National Annual Meeting in that city. As reported on Scouting Newsroom, Wallace received a standing ovation from the crowd.

A well-deserved recognition for this semi-supercentenarian.


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