When Ed Pease and the national Order of the Arrow committee set out in 1995 to create the Order of the Arrow High Adventure program (OAHA), they were not sure it would sell. “It was a way to plug a hole in the program,” Ed Pease said. The program was asking older teenage boys to go to Philmont where they would pay to complete projects and backpack. The idea for OAHA, which began with an 18-year old lodge chief from North Carolina, embodied our founders’ ideas that the Order of the Arrow is a thing of the outdoors and of the spirit.
At that time, Ed Pease was the chairman of the national OA committee. Looking back, he feels that the national committee set an amazing example by beginning OAHA and the program’s service to the high adventure bases. It also provided lodges with an example of how to give back to their own outdoor adventure programs. This has proven to be true with many sections and lodges that now have their own outdoor programs. “I feel the most significant thing within my term as national chairman of the Order of the Arrow was the beginning of the Order of the Arrow High Adventure programs,” Ed Pease says. “Throughout this success, the Order of the Arrow hasn’t stopped with this but merely used it as an example for future projects like ArrowCorps5, SummitCorps, and other OAHA programs.”
Ed Pease has been involved with the Order of the Arrow for a long time and has worn many hats. Ed’s legacy of servant leadership began by serving as lodge Secretary for Kickapoo Lodge, which was then followed by a term as lodge chief. A unique opportunity was presented to him: he was selected to be a member of the 1967 Report to the Nation Delegation. That experience provided him with the chance to meet congressmen, senators, Chief Scout Executive Joe Brunton, Jr., and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Not long after the Report to the Nation, Ed was elected to be area chief of Area 7-G and at the annual planning meeting, was appointed to deputy national conference chief of administration for the 1969 National Conference. At the planning meeting, Ed spent many long hours working cheerfully alongside his fellow Arrowmen to ensure that everything that needed to be done was completed in an efficient manner. While he was working those long days he spent many of them with the founders, E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson. At the 1971 National Order of the Arrow Conference, Ed was honored with the Distinguished Service Award. Years later, Ed was selected to lead the Order of the Arrow as chairman of the national Order of the Arrow committee. On Tuesday, Ed Pease received the Legacy of Servant Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to the OA.
“Almost everyone will be intrigued by reading this article except Ed,” says Ray Capp, chairman of the national OA committee. “He has quietly, deftly, and happily served in a quiet, generous way in the finest traditions of servant leadership. He is the real deal and loved by all.”
