Jim Fair
Russell Ashmore Jr. is presented by Mayor Rick Danner the highest citizen award in Boy Scouts with a bronze Eagle Scout holding an eagle.
Jim Fair
Pictures best describe what Boy Scouting was in like in the 1940s when Russell Ashmore was a junior assistant scoutmaster. Ashmore begin his scouting day in Troop 10.
The Blue Ridge Council of the Boy Scouts of America honored Ashmore at a breakfast ceremony at the Cannon Centre attended by community scouting and civic leaders.
“It’s really overwhelming that I would be considered for something like that,” Ashmore said. “I have really been blessed with the support that has been given me and I couldn’t have done what I’ve done without my dear wife.”
Ashmore said the legacy scouting played in his life was key with leadership skills. “Scouting not only develops skills but it develops leadership. I think that’s what it did for me, develop leadership skills. It served me throughout the rest of my life.”
The adjectives used to sum up Ashmore was as a humanitarian. He was recognized as a leader in church, community, state and education. Ashmore’s family was the owner of Ashmore Brothers Asphalt until it was sold to a Tennessee firm last fall.
“I became a fan of (Russell Ashmore) very early,” Mayor Rick Danner said in his remarks. “He is a man of vision.”
Danner said, “There are persons of vision and those with dreams. I go with vision because you can’t put legs on dreams.”
Dannie Newell, of the Newell Group, said, “The real heroes of the Boy Scouts are the scoutmasters and assistant scoutmasters who give up their time.”
That reminded Ashmore when his dad appointed him junior assistant scout master.
“One of the requirements was for Eagle scouts and merit badges to take a ten-mile hike in the winter,” Ashmore said. “In January we left, what was our office on Stone Avenue, and then turned right like we were going to Piedmont. “My grandfather, Blakely, had a pasture that we camped at that night. We had some tents but they weren’t very substantial and we had some blankets. We built a fire and it was so cold, none of us went to bed that night, we sat around that fire all night.”
The award is a bronze statue of an Eagle sittng on an Eagle scout's hand.