Murphy – Dave Hotchkiss has been getting young men prepared for life for multiple generations.
Hotchkiss is the charter organization representative for Murphy’s Boy Scouts of America units – Cub Scout Pack 400 and Scouts BSA Troops 400 and 4400 – through First United Methodist Church of Murphy. Even after falling short of his own pursuit of an Eagle Scout rank, he contributed decades of service to the strong moral values on which Scouting is based.
Hotchkiss was born in Schenectady, N.Y., and lived there as a young child before his family moved to Shelbyville, Ind. He went on to Kansas State University, where he graduated with a degree in industrial technology.
He worked at Premix Concrete Co. in Denver for three years in a dispatch office, then later moved on to working for IBM in a new plant near Boulder, Colo. He stayed with the company for 34 years, including a move to Boca Raton, Fla., in 1969 for 20 years of that time. He finished up in the Raleigh/Durham area.
Hotchkiss retired on Dec. 31, 1999, right before all the computers were supposed to go down.
“Y2K was supposed to take the world down, but I guess that did not go as badly as everyone thought,” he said.
In 2002, he and his wife of nearly six decades, Sharon, discovered Murphy through an in-law who lived here part time. They had no plans to look for a place to live here, but they decided to take a peak and found a ranch house with a detached barn to their liking.
“We liked Cary, so we had no reason to want to leave there,” Hotchkiss said. “We had a long drive home where we did pros and cons. I was a pro, and my wife was a con.”
She was eventually convinced, though, when they returned a few weeks later and polled folks in the neighborhood about what they thought about living in Murphy.
“Everybody loved it, so we have been here ever since,” he said.
Scouting start
Hotchkiss’ story in Boy Scouts did not end with him reaching the rank of Eagle – far from it.
He got all the way through Cub Scouts and crossed over to Boy Scouts, achieving Second Class rank quickly. At his first summer camp, though, he was hazed by fellow Scouts, a tradition at the time.
“I got hit in the face with ham at 2 a.m., among other things,” he said. “You had to go through initiations back then, that’s just the way things were. You wouldn’t see that happen in Scouts today. It was a shame because there were some beautiful summer camps in upstate New York.”
Sadly, the hazing caused Hotchkiss to quit Boy Scouts. However, his journey was not finished.
His two sons Michael and Brian got involved in Cub Scouts in Florida, which gave the Hotchkiss men a great opportunity to bond. Hotchkiss helped launch a new pack through the Presbyterian Church in Boca Raton.
When it was time for them to cross over, they realized the United Methodist Church there had a proud history of Scouting, but the troop had gone dormant. The pastor asked Hotchkiss to help reactivate it.
“We had some super leaders,” he said. “We had people in key positions who really wanted to be there, and that made all the difference.”
Michael and Brian both became Eagle Scouts, and along the way Hotchkiss got to spend quality time with his sons. They all had a passion for fixing up junk cars, opportunities that were abundant in Florida.
“Scouts, church and junkyards – that was us through the teen years,” he said.
Troop 400
Hotchkiss was the Scouting coordinator in Florida for 14 years and later in Cary for another 13. That continued service rolled right into his time in Murphy, when he was asked by the pastor at First United Methodist Church in 2011 to restart a dormant pack and troop.
He has served as the charter organization representative for the last eight-plus years to help local boys – and now girls – learn the life lessons that he learned and passed on to his sons.
“Because of my love for Scouting and what is meant to me, I couldn’t say no,” Hotchkiss said.
Through several changes in leadership, he has been the constant to keep the organization alive when times looked bleak. Hotchkiss also has helped start a charter for Troop 4400 for girls, who have been participating in Scouting for the last two years.
“I’m ready to retire,” he said. “I actually retired two years ago, but they could not find anyone to replace me, so I kept going. No one is irreplaceable, so I know we will find a good COR soon.”
Hotchkiss said he is proud of his time spent in Scouting. He still thinks it’s valuable for young people, who learn leadership, teamwork, fundraising and other life skills.
“You always want your kids involved with the best people you can,” he said. “I’ve met many of those kind of people through Scouting. Building character is the main thing we are trying to do, and Scouting is fun with a purpose – to make these boys into men.”