HISTORICAL MERIT BADGE SASH FROM GEORGE CLOSE
(Thank you Stu Oxman for sharing this bit of Scout history your co-worker shared with you)

Mr. Close was born on February 12, 1918 and grew up as a young Boy Scout during the years of the Great Depression and succumbed to cancer on February 13, 1987. His merit badge sash (see photos below) is estimated to be circa 1933.

His father had died from diabetes when he was 13 years old leaving him as head of the household to care for his mother, younger brother and two younger sisters. Raised on a farm in northern Illinois, he tended to the necessary chores of the farm, worked part time, and went to school. Yet, he still found time for Boy Scouts. I remember my father telling me stories about riding a horse to school daily (there weren’t any yellow school buses during that time).

He loved gardening, hunting, fishing and taxidermy and he was an excellent electrician and carpenter. My family still has some of the pieces of furniture he made as a young Boy Scout.

As a young man during the Great Depression, he joined the Conservation Corps and worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota. Afterward, he joined the United States Army leading up to World War II. During the war, he served in Iceland, Alaska and Germany in the U.S. Army Signal Corp and obtained a field commission as 2nd Lieutenant. He went on to attain the rank of Captain before he resigned from the Army then, went on to work as a comptroller for Stars & Stripes Newspaper in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1961 he returned to the United States, started and operated his own grocery wholesale business, and that was his livelihood until his demise in 1987.

--Compiled by his son

George Close's granddaughter Carole is working on a family history album and asked for assistance in identifying each merit badge on this sash, which is something I committed to do when I decided to photograph it and feature it on our website.

Thanks to Terry Gove for helping me identify all 20 merit badges and for providing the following addtional information:
The sash is likely 1934-1935 and later because of the style of merit badges on it. The wide crimp variety did not start until 1934. I interpret this to mean the wide margin of fabric around the outside of each patch). All except for six of the patches in rows 5, 6 and 7 have this "wide crimp". ...Mike Pastor, Webmaster & Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 641

Merit Badges (from Top to Bottom and Left to Right). Those merit badges listed in blue were among the original merit badges offered when Boy Scouts first began in 1917.

Row 1,#1: CARPENTRY (Later became Woodworking)
Row 1,#2: PERSONAL HEALTH
Row 1, #3: PUBLIC HEALTH

Row 2, #1: FIREMAN-SHIP
Row 2, #2: SAFETY
Row 2, #3: STAMP COLLECTING

Row 3, #1: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Row 3, #2: FIRST AID
Row 3, #3: CYCLING

Row 4, #1: COOKING
Row 4, #2: PAINTING
Row 4, #3: HANDICRAFT (Home Repairs)

Row 5, #1: CHEMISTRY
Row 5, #2: ORNITHOLOGY (Later became Bird Study)
Row 5, #3: CIVICS

Row 6, #1: TAXIDERMY
Row 6, #2: WOOD TURNING
Row 6, #3: DRAFTING

Row 7, #1: AUTOMOBILING
Row 7, #2: WOOD WORKING