Dr. David Briscoe, professor of sociology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has had a passion for Boy Scouts since the age of 13.

For the past 22 years, he has served on the board of the Boy Scouts of America Quapaw Area Council, assuming several different roles, including council commissioner.

In April, he took on the role of council president and has already been elected for next year’s 2017-18 term. As president, Briscoe now leads an executive board of 60 community leaders ranging from judges and doctors to business administrators. Their council covers 39 of the 75 counties in Arkansas.

Growing up in Mars Hill, North Carolina, living in the days of segregation, Briscoe did not see life panning out this way. During his youth, there were no black scout troops in his community, only a white troop uptown.

One day, after being bused to an all-black school in Asheville, North Carolina, he encountered someone that would change his life forever.

“I ran into a black kid, and he had an old, battered Boy Scouts handbook,” Briscoe said. The young man, Robert Degraphenreed, was a scout in a black troop in the city.

“I didn’t know anything about the scouts, and he let me borrow his book. I was so overtaken with what was in that handbook that my mission in life as a 13-year-old was, one day, to become a boy scout.”

Briscoe was so determined to live out this dream that he skipped lunch for a week to save enough money to buy the young man’s handbook for $1.

Fifty-two years later, Briscoe holds on to that handbook as a reminder of his first encounter with the Boy Scouts.

Briscoe has also received several awards and accomplishments over the years, including the Distinguished Eagle Award. This award is given for distinguished service in a scout’s profession as well as in his community for at least 25 years after attaining the level of Eagle Scout.

Although much time has passed, Briscoe remains committed to the scouts.

“I love scouting as much today as I did when I was a kid,” said Briscoe. “It gave me focus, and I believe in the scouts’ movement and message.”

To Briscoe, scouting reinforces his faith. As the oath states, Briscoe does his best to do his duty to God, his country, and obey the Scout Law.