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Scoutmaster’s 50th Eagle Scout will be his son

Scoutmaster John P. Combs and son, John M. Combs from Troop 325 in Englewood. The father, 50, has been scoutmaster officially since he was 21, but actually was scoutmaster at age 18. He has trained 50 Eagle Scouts, his son, by happenstance, No. 50. The son will be honored in a ceremony on Nov. 28.

Contributed photo Scoutmaster John P. Combs and son, John M. Combs from Troop 325 in Englewood. The father, 50, has been scoutmaster officially since he was 21, but actually was scoutmaster at age 18. He has trained 50 Eagle Scouts, his son, by happenstance, No. 50. The son will be honored in a ceremony on Nov. 28.

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer Updated 7:48 PM Friday, November 26, 2010

ENGLEWOOD — Scoutmaster John P. Combs is the son of a Scoutmaster and the father of an future Scoutmaster in-waiting, which is not the most unusual part of the story.

That Combs has trained 50 Eagle Scouts makes it a little more unusual, but the part that makes it most compelling is John M. Combs will receive that 50th Eagle Scout award from his dad.

“That’s the real reward,” said the elder Combs, who also is an electrical engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “You never get paid for this. This was nothing planned, just a coincidence. You try to give them leadership and confidence. I had my first Eagle Scout back in 1983. Patrick Springhart. He’s a surgeon now.”

For his Eagle service project, son John Combs and his crew contributed 205 hours toward ground work surrounding Clayton’s Happy Corner Church, where the troop meets. They worked to remove growth from a water retention pond, trees, bushes, plants and stumps and a concrete sidewalk.

The younger Combs is a Northmont High School senior and works two part-time jobs, as a lifeguard at the Kleptz YMCA and as an assistant at the Baker Hazel Snider Funeral Home.

John will be presented with his Eagle rank on Sunday at the Cricket Holler Boy Scout Camp in Butler Twp. He is following in his father’s boot steps and is his troops’ assistant scoutmaster with an expertise in rock climbing and repelling.

Scoutmaster Combs started in scouting when he was 9, 41 years ago.

“When I went from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, that was the magic,” Combs said. “The thing was run by kids just a couple years older than you. It wasn’t run by adults. That was the fascinating part. The things I would suggest, they would do them. I was really involved. I loved the camping and the adventure of it as well.”

That troop was in the old Randolph Twp., now Clayton. Combs stayed with scouting through Northmont High School, and even Wright State University after he and two other scouts started their own Troop 325 — the one he’s in now — in 1975, when his scoutmaster changed.

“I was 18 and you had to be 21 to be scoutmaster,” Combs said. “My dad (also John, now deceased) had been a scoutmaster, but he told me he didn’t have the patience or health anymore. He put his name on the paper, and my brother-in-law, who was older than 21, helped, but I was the scoutmaster.

“I was entering Wright State, and it was an interesting struggle. You’re trying to run your troop and trying to win a degree. Sometimes, my troop won out. How stupid was that? You get the degree first. But I loved scouting so much.”

Combs’ troop meets once a week year round, taking only a two-week break during the Christmas holiday season. The troop camps out once a month, year round, and takes a two-week high adventure trip in the summer. Once that involved back-packing across the Grand Canyon and back.

“Terry, my wife, is an incredible role model,” Combs said. “We have two daughters and a son, and the national scouts may not like to hear this, but we had our (first daughter) out in the cold rain camping with us when she was just a couple months old. My wife had to do a lot of things around the home when I was gone camping.”

Even at 50, Combs says he’s hardly done.

“This is kind of like my mission work,” Combs said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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