Lucien Flournoy
June 13, 1919 - March 27, 2003
Sounds of Home...  by John Thurston

While attending Lucien Flournoy's funeral, I sat by Chuck White, who was Council President when Mr. Flournoy gave $500,000 for our new Scout headquarters.     We sat near the front of the large gathering of South Texas friends and admirers of this legendary oilman and generous philanthropist.   
 
A huge tent was erected at Lucien's beloved Flournoy Park.     We were blessed with a beautiful afternoon including a cooling spring breeze, which occasionally caused the tent to flap.   Flapping canvas is a familiar sound to those of us who have spent some of our best times living in tents.  The familiar popping sound has a calming effect on Scouts both young and old, for the sound represents the shelter of our "home."
 
I remembered many conversations with Mr. Flournoy when he recalled joining the Scouts and enjoying camping and the out-of-doors.     As the canvas flapped again, I imagined a 12-year-old Lucien Flournoy with his hand raised in the Scout Sign as he repeated the Scout Oath and Law before every Scout meeting during those formative years.   The phrase… "To help other people at all times" immediately came to mind… and the 12 laws every Scout memorizes… A Scout is… Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
 
The flapping canvas might have seemed out of place at many funerals but not this one.     For we were celebrating the life of a good Scout and he is indeed…"home."
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From the Corpus Christi Caller Times... "Alice oilman, philanthropist and former mayor Lucien Flournoy died early Thursday. He was 83.
He had been at Christus Spohn Hospital Shoreline and suffered a heart attack Tuesday, friends said.
Flournoy built a fortune in the oil and gas industry. From that, he turned to philanthropy by contributing to institutions such as Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Driscoll Children's Hospital, Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg, Hospice Austin, Boy Scouts of America and Youth City.
In 1997, Flournoy donated $500,000 to the Gulf Coast Council of the Boy Scouts of America to help open a larger and more accessible Boy Scouts headquarters at 700 Everhart Terrace.
The South Texas group Philanthropy in Action named Flournoy Philanthropist of the Year 2000."

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Thoughts on Scouting...  by Lucien Flournoy
"A few weeks ago while visiting with Chuck White and John Thurston I told them that I had only made it to the Second Class rank when I was in the Boy Scouts.  John and Chuck set me straight about what the Boy Scouts were all about.  John said that the rank a boy receives does not indicate how good a Scout he is, because rank advancement is only one of several methods that Scouting uses to achieve it's purposes.   I guess that lots of people confuse the methods of Scouting, like camping, advancement, recognition, the patrol method, role models and others with the purpose.  The methods help Scouting achieve its purpose, which is to help Scouts to develop Character, Citizenship and Personal Fitness."
(We think Mr. Flournoy was a pretty good Scout!)
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