Brief History
In 1963, Troop 41, with more than 80 registered scouts, was the only Boy Scout unit in Pennington. Because of size of the troop, I proposed that the Pennington Presbyterian Church sponsor a second troop. There was considerable concern that the new troop would be sectarian and that non-Presbyterians would not be able to join. An organizational meeting was held September 1964 and within a few weeks, the new troop was organized and registered in November 1964. Hugh Devlin, the first Scoutmaster, and four of the six patrol leaders were Catholics, putting to rest the fears of a sectarian troop!

The new troop quickly grew to 46 members within the first year of registration. The Pennington Methodist Church then organized and registered Troop 42. Later, in 1978, the Pennington Presbyterian Church started Pack 44, with Carl Moslener as the first packmaster.

The first scoutmaster, Hugh Devlin, resigned during the first year and was replaced by Ted Gensel. Ted served as scoutmaster from 1965 until 1969, when John Grier became scoutmaster. John served a few months, until he left to start Post 44. Don Wright, newly arrived from the Cub Scouts with his son, became scoutmaster in 1969. Accompanying him from the Cub Scouts were Ed Gordon and Morris Maze as Assistant Scoutmasters. Don, Ed, Morris served as co-leaders until 1984, when Ed became the scoutmaster. Over the next few years, membership declined, until eventually the troop became inactive in 1990 and registration lapsed for 8 months.

In September 1991, the troop was re-activated with John Coats, one of the Charter Scouts in 1964, as Scoutmaster. John served from 1991 to 1996 and was followed by Rod Templon. Wayne Ranbom, the current Scoutmaster, has served since 1997.

(The above is the first of two pages of a Troop 44 history written by Mr. Donald Wright. Don served as Troop 44 Scoutmaster from 1969 to 1989. . . jos)