By Jake O'Donnell
AMESBURY — Ron Fuller's clothing store in Amesbury has a museum-like quality. It's not just because the store has been in operation for 100 years, with Fuller as its fourth-generation proprietor.
It's also because, tucked away past the selection of dress shirts and suit jackets, there's a veritable museum of items related to an organization with which Fuller has made some history himself: the Boy Scouts.
Since 1970, Fuller has been the Scoutmaster of Amesbury's Troop 4, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Soon thereafter, Fuller began collecting every kind of Boy Scout memorabilia, some that he's actively sought out and many that locals have brought to him.
Books, jackknives, badges, coffee mugs: If something is emblazoned with that familiar Boy Scout fleur-de-lis, odds are Ron Fuller's got one in the rear of his store.
"It just gave me something to do," he said. "I started collecting stuff little by little. Because of my involvement over the years in the program, I had access to a lot of stuff that people bring in."
One of the pieces brought into the store more recently was a framed certificate of advancement to second-class Scout for a youngster named Joseph Marbul, a member of Troop 6 in Amesbury. The date on the certificate is Jan. 8, 1932.
When this was found hanging in an attic of a recently purchased Amesbury house, the buyer knew of only one place where such an artifact belonged.
"He brought it in and said, 'I think you ought to have this,'" Fuller said.
Fuller, who sells Boy Scout clothing and supplies at the store, hasn't carved out a spot in the back room for the certificate yet. It may be difficult to find one, considering that hundreds of other pieces of Boy Scout history have already staked a claim there. Like the early copies of adventurous Boy Scout novels by Percy K. Fitzhugh, or the Scout uniforms from places as far away as Singapore, or the poster collection dating back several generations.
Anders Lund, the cubmaster for Cub Scout Pack 4 in Amesbury, marveled at the depth of what Fuller has in his store.
"His collection is exceptional," said Lund, who has used some of Fuller's cache of antique Cub Scout uniforms for events involving his pack. "It's such a wonderful collection of the history of Scouting."
A life of Scouting
Fuller has had nearly 40 years to compile it all.
After completing his studies at Plymouth State in 1970, he returned to Amesbury to work at the men's store. He knew he wanted to get involved in the community somehow but didn't know exactly what.
Then, a couple of gentlemen involved in his old Scout troop showed up at the store. They asked him to come help at their meeting that week. Fuller went and was asked to come back the next week. Following that second meeting, Fuller had a question.
"At the end of the night I asked them, 'So, who's the Scoutmaster? I don't see anyone doing it.' And they said, 'Well, we were kind of hoping you would do it. Actually, we've been waiting for you to get out of college in hopes you would come back and help out with the Scout troop. Would you like to be Scoutmaster?'"
Fuller agreed, and at age 21, he became Scoutmaster for boys only a few years his juniors. In the almost four decades gone by, Fuller has seen hundreds of young men come and go through the program, and he's now seeing his second generation of Amesbury Scouts come up.
"It's kind of a neat thing to watch the kids grow, learn stuff and have them come back and tell you how much it means to them 20 years later, after they've grown up and got their own family," he said.
The accumulation of Boy Scout materials in the store has grown with each passing year. Fuller has a copy of every Boy Scout handbook every produced, and he enjoys them because, "a lot of the real history of what boys did and do has come out over the years through the books," including instructions on how to corral a runaway horse and bomb shelter preparation from years ago.
Fuller has a near-encyclopedic handle on all things Boy Scout-related, pointing out subtleties like how the well-known motto of "Be Prepared!" shares the same initials as Baden-Powell, the British Army lieutenant general who founded Scouting in 1907.
He's got hours of stories about his experiences with the troop, like during the '70s when he organized the moving of an old house in Amesbury so a new bank could be built on that spot. In 1989, Troop 4 won the Scouting competition hosted by the Eagle Scout Association at Norwich University, earning the title of New England's best Boy Scout troop. Two years later, Fuller played host to more than 6,000 Boy Scouts at a Columbus Day weekend event at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, which is commemorated by a picture display in the back room.
He's also proud of being able to give his son, Todd, the Eagle Award in 1992. Ron and Todd Fuller are two of the 50 Troop 4 Eagle Award recipients.
Leading by example
Pastor Michael E. John of Market Street Baptist Church has known Fuller for more than 10 years, and while not dealing directly with Fuller on Boy Scout matters, he appreciates Fuller's dedication and the effect it's had on someone who may be part of Fuller's troop in the near future.
"It's pretty amazing," said John of Fuller's back room. "My son can't wait to be a Cub Scout this year. He's 6 years old, and whenever we go to the store, he gets really excited."
John praised Fuller for his humility and sees him as a man of deep loyalty and reliability.
"When he says he's going to do something, it's as good as done," he said. "If he ever made a commitment, he kept it."
Lund's son is a member of Fuller's troop, and Lund believes that Fuller's qualities are reflected in the group of boys he leads.
"Boy Scouts are meant more to be led by the kids themselves," Lund said. "The truth is, Ron always has a good group of Scouts. You can always tell good people based on who's around them, and that's definitely the case with Ron."
Perhaps that explains why Fuller engrosses himself so deeply in his interests, be it his church, his business, his role as Scoutmaster, or his Boy Scout memorabilia collection.
One example is a group of old Boy Scout cameras on a shelf in the far corner. When Fuller learned about them a couple of years ago, he had to get his hands on them.
"I started chasing those things, and eventually I found out there were 13 or 14 different ones that were made," he said. "So it gave me something to chase, to get out there and get all 14 of them."
On April 4, Troop 4 will be holding a 50th anniversary celebratory dinner at St. Joseph's Hall in Amesbury, and Fuller is looking for every past member of the troop to come that night.
That night, someone will probably snap a few pictures. Soon thereafter, the pictures will find their way to some spot of the back room as just another piece of Ron Fuller's Boy Scout history.
"They're still the largest youth organization still functioning in the world," Fuller said. "They're coming up on 100 years. They must be doing something right."
