Page 43 - Robeson Living Summer 2021
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In 1971, he was invited on an all-expenses paid trip for him and wife
to Utah to a scout master’s workshop. He said he wondered why
that wanted him and he soon found out when they recognized him
as the number one Indian Scout Master in the United States. Over
his career he recruited more Native American scouts than anyone in
country and in fact, he recruited all races as he was listed number
nice in the country for recruiting. It is estimated that he was respon-
sible for around 1,000 young boys over two generations becoming
Boy Scouts. Two of his sons followed in his footsteps becoming
Eagle Scouts and later working as assistant Scout Masters in Cali-
fornia and Kentucky.
Pinchbeck said after he was married, he was lonesome at times for
the old days when he would ride wild horses, trap, dig for gold
and log. The adventures in scouting helped fill that lonesome part.
He loved craft work and wood craving in particular. You knew he
considered you special if you received a set of his craved Indian
head bookends or his craved Tomahawk. He said he craved as the
spirit moves him. He also made all the feathered headdresses that
the Pembroke College band wore.
Scout Hut
The log cabin across Highway 711 from the college was built by
Legionaries of World War I as a meeting location. A few of those
providing labor and building materials were John R. Lowry, Rev.
Lonnie Jacobs, Levi Hunt, Sr., Johnnie Oxendine, Burleigh Lowry
and M.L. Lowry. It had been used by most groups in the area. In
1933 it was home to the Pembroke Library which opened with over
Pinchbeck in his Scout Master uniform 400 books on the shelf and 50 subscribers ready to use them.
Jesse Oxendine, Henry Smith, William Price Locklear and Lock Brantley Locklear standing behind Scout Master
Walter Pinchbeck. They were the first four Eagle Scouts from the Pembroke troop.
Robeson Living ~ Summer 2021 Page 43
