Chiefly Patches, Part 5: Lodge of the Southern Region Chief
Posted in Patch Collecting by John E. Pannell on June 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 pm 
After a month’s gap, two parts of this series are being posted here in quick succession.
This is the fifth of an ongoing series of articles about patches issued by the lodges of the national officers of the Order of the Arrow. Previous articles can be found at these links.
- Part 1: Lodge of the National Chief
- Part 2: Lodge of the National Vice Chief
- Part 3: Lodge of the Central Region Chief
- Part 4: Lodge of the Northeast Region Chief
After abandoning the 12 region setup in the early 1970s and prior to 1993 the BSA organized the country into six regions. What is now the Southern Region was formerly the greater part of the older Southeast and South Central Regions.
There doesn’t seem to be as much of a tradition in the Southern Region of lodges issuing patches for their region chiefs. When John Isley, from Tsoiotsi Tsogalii lodge, was the Southern Region chief he specifically requested his lodge not issue such a flap.
1992: Don Ferguson, Pellissippi 230 (Southeast Region). This is the only example of a patch issued for a “southern” region chief before the BSA organized itself into four regions. It is listed in Blue Book as the S34.
1996: John Berry, Tejas 72. Tejas issued a single flap, listed as S26 for Mr. Berry’s tenure as region chief.
1997: Jason Peoples, Alibamu 179. Alibamu lodge issued their S24 for Mr. Peoples. Only 2 years later one of their brothers would be elected National Chief.
2000: Jim Cheatham, Ittawamba 235. Ittawamba lodge modified their standard flaps design for that year in creating their flap for Mr. Cheatham. Blue Book lists this piece as the S63.
2002: Nathan Finnin, Klahican 331. Mr. Finnin was one of several recent region chiefs from SR7B lodges, but the only one whose lodge issued a patch for him. Klahican’s two flaps for him are listed in Blue Book as S47 and S48. The latter one could only be obtained from Nathan.
2003: Frank McMillan, Egwa Tawa Dee 129. Egwa Tawa Dee lodge issued two flaps, listed in Blue Book as F2 and F3, for their second national officer within three years. The black bordered flap, F3, could only be obtained from Mr. McMillan.
2005: Bradley Long, Tutelo 161. Tutelo lodge issued a rather interesting flap for Mr. Long. Blue Book lists it as S63. The design prominently features a shepherd’s crook and the appellation, “Shepherd of the Southern Region.” Both are in recognition of Mr. Long’s intention to become an ordained Christian pastor.
2006: Dustin Counts, Catawba 459. Catawba took a somewhat traditional approach with honoring Mr. Counts. The two flaps they issued are variations of their standard flap. Neither are yet listed in Blue Book but I have labelled them on OAImages as the S89 (GMY border) and S90 (RMY border).
2007: Alex Gomez, O-Shot-Caw 265. O-Shot-Caw lodge has issued two flaps for this year’s region chief. I have tentatively listed them on OAImages as S116 and S117.
If anyone can correct or add to this list, please let me know either by email or by adding a comment to this post. Thanks.
Additional Credits and Thanks:
- James Arriola, Bill Chin, Jeff Posey and Steve Silbiger for providing their spreadsheet of known national officer patches.
- Ray Czech, Ray Kell, Mac McLean, David Scocca, and any other members I have forgotten of the arrow-l and patch-l listservs for providing addtional information, comments and corrections.
[...] Part 5:Â Lodge of the Southern Region Chief [...]