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Founder of United Methodist scouting ministries dies
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David W. Worley |
Jan. 5, 2006
A UMNS Report
By Rich Peck*
David W. Worley, 72, the first United Methodist scouting executive, died
Jan. 1 at his home in Hot Springs, Ark., after a five-and-a-half-year
battle with melanoma.
Worley served as director of scouting ministries for the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship from 1981 to 1990. During that time, he
organized district and conference scouting coordinators and the National
Association of United Methodist Scouters, a group later named an
affiliate organization to the board. He also launched several
fund-raising efforts for scouting ministries, including annual
"Bowl-a-Thons," in which sponsors pay bowlers for the number of pins
knocked down. In 12 years, Bowl-a-Thons raised $1.2 million.
"We were saddened to hear of the passing of Dave Worley," said Larry
Coppock, United Methodist scouting executive with the Commission on
United Methodist Men in Nashville, Tenn. "He led my orientation when I
first came to the scouting ministry office in the fall of 1997."
Coppock remembered Worley as a "pioneer who laid the groundwork for fund
raising" and noted that he originated Bishops' Dinners for Scouting,
the primary tool for encouraging churches to charter Scout troops and to
sponsor other youth-serving organizations. Because of the early efforts
by Worley, Coppock said, the United Methodist Church is now the
second-largest church sponsor of Boy Scouts of America, with almost
400,000 youth in 12,000 units, meeting in 8,500 United Methodist
churches.
"Dave served with the Boy Scouts and the United Methodist Church to help
the denomination to attain the largest BSA membership of any religious
body at that time," said James L. Tarr, chief executive of the Boy
Scouts of America from 1979 to 1984. "Dave exemplified the principles of
scouting: 'Duty to God and country, duty to others and duty to self.'"
Worley was a veteran of the United States Air Force, serving from 1952
to 1954 as a radio-radar technician in the Alaskan Air command. He
graduated from Duke University and Duke University Divinity School and
was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Church's Virginia Annual
(regional) Conference in 1959 and an elder in 1960. He served Virginia
churches from 1955 to 1967 before embarking on a career in scouting.
He served Boy Scout councils in Suffolk, Va., Newport News, Va., Glens
Falls, N.Y., Springfield, Mass., and Albany, N.Y., before moving to
Nashville as the director of scouting ministries for the Board of
Discipleship in 1981. In 1990, he was named an associate director of the
Relationships Division of the national office of the Boy Scouts in
Dallas; he retired from that position in January 1996.
He is survived by his wife, a son, four grandchildren and two great-grandsons.
A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m., Jan. 10 at the Christ of
the Hills United Methodist Church, Hot Springs Village. Memorials may be
made to Christ of the Hills UMC, 700 Balearic Road, Hot Springs
Village, AR 71909; the Good Samaritan Campus 121 Cortez Road, Hot
Springs Village, AR 71909; or the Boy Scouts of America, 1325 Walnut
Lane, Irving, TX 75015.
*Peck is communications coordinator for the Commission on United Methodist Men.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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