The Youngest National Officer?
Posted in Scouting News by John E. Pannell on January 12th, 2008 at 8:33 am Recently I saw on Facebook that the current OA National Chief, Jake Wellman, had celebrated his 18th birthday. That sparked a question in my mind: Who was the youngest national officer in the Order of the Arrow?
Originally national officers, like the National Committtee, were all adults. First they were chiefs of the Grand Lodge, later National Conference Chiefs. As the role of National Conference Chief evolved, it was decided this position should be held by a youthful member of the Order of the Arrow. In time it was codified that the national officers had to be under 21 at the time of their election.
The scope of the Order’s programs grew and the term of the national officers was reduced from two years to one. National officers now have to be youth members, under 21, of the Order for their whole term. Now the officers generally cannot be older than 19 at their election.
It is theoretically possibly for a 20 year old to be elected to national office as the elections are not held on a fixed date every year. I am told Ken Hager, the 2007 Northeast Region Chief, was elected on his 20th birthday with his term ending one day before his 21st birthday.
So I asked the folks on arrow-l, who was the youngest national officer? This sparked some discussion.
Jake Wellman, the current National Chief, was 17 at his election, turning 18 on January 10th.
Jay Schapp stated there was a Western Region Chief who was 17 for much of his term. He did not specify who this was.
John Berry told us that Cary Robert, 1986 National Vice Chief, was 17 and possibly a junior in High School.
Another commenter in a post signed only with an email address, recollected, “Jack Stephens, Carey Mignerey, and Don Cunningham were all HS seniors when elected Nat’l Chief. I thought that Jack had mentioned before that he has just turned 17 when elected national chief.”
While all interesting, none of these comments decisively answer the question. It appears a 17 year old national officer is not quite as rare as I had thought. Who was the youngest?
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