PROVO -- Two Utah County men recently received prestigious awards for two decades of volunteer work in the Boy Scouts organization.
Paul M. Anderson and Stanley E. Miller flew to Nashville, Tenn., to receive the coveted Silver Antelope award from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.It is the highest regional honor the Boy Scouts confers and is only the fourth and fifth time in the 80-year history of the Utah National Parks Council that adult Scouters have received it, said Ron Nyman, spokesman for the local organization.
Anderson of Orem and Miller of Provo received the award along with Elder Robert K. Dellenbach, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, president of the Young Men's program and chairman of the General Scouting Committee of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Another recipient was Larry D. Scott of Rigby, Idaho, a member of the executive board of the Grand Teton Council and a longtime Scouter.
All four Scouters serve in area 2 of the BSA. The area encompasses Utah, Idaho and the western part of Wyoming. Elder Dellenbach is a member of the National Executive Board, Religious Relationships and International Committee of the BSA and a member-at-large of the Great Salt Lake Council.
Receiving the award is "very, very unusual," Nyman said.
"It was quite a surprise for me," Miller said. "I don't know who nominated me."
Miller has served as a volunteer adult Scouter since 1980, including the Boy Scouts' Western Region Board of Directors and on the Order of the Arrow and National Jamboree committees.
Also a Scouting volunteer since 1980, Anderson has received the Silver Beaver and many other council awards. He has inspected health and safety conditions of Boy Scout camps for 19 years and has served on the Western Region Board and several national task forces.
Other Utah County volunteers who have received the Silver Antelope are Gladys Gilson, Leonard Harris and Dacosta Clark.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com