Troop 105 was started in 1965 and first chartered on January 1st 1966 with St. Jerome's Catholic Church as the sponsoring organization. There is some information that suggests that the Troop may have been around in 1964 but we haven't been able to verify that yet. Mr. Teglar, (Chuck?) was the Scoutmaster until around April 1966, at that time Mr. Jones (Robert?) took over as interim SM until late 1966. Then William Kuchinsky, an unmarried man in his mid twenties took over. He was a lot of fun and the boys liked him a lot. In late 1967 Floyd Maraga became the Scoutmaster until 1972. Floyd owned the Indian Head Barbershop which used to be at 31st Avenue and Indian School Road next to jay's Bar. The bar is still there but an apartment complex has replaced the barbershop. At that time barbershops were open Tuesday to Saturday and since Saturday was the busiest day Floyd would have to join the outings Saturday evenings. Floyd was an ex Navy man who had a great sense of humor but also brought a great deal of discipline to the Troop and elevated us to a highly respected position in the district. Mr. Moraga stayed actively involved until 1974. The first Eagle Scout was Kenneth Williams who achieved the rank in 1969. The 5th Eagle, David Pela, earned his rank in 1970 and continues to be active in scouting as the Scoutmaster of Troop 706 in Scottsdale. Much of the information that we have today came from Mr. Pela.
In the early 70's Ed Motley joined the Unit and reorganized it, running the Troop as a semi military organization as was the norm for Troops of that time. Ed gave a lot to the Troop and the boys and was a District Officer for a while. He was awarded the Silver Beaver and the Order of Merit Awards from the Thunderbird District. The Church Hall is named after him and if you look at the south wall you will see a dedication in his memory.
After 1974 Charles Pennington, a big guy from Texas became Scoutmaster until 1975. It was about this time that Walt Michaels became Scoutmaster. Walt left Troop 105 and established Troop 120 with "Our Lady of the Valley" Parish in late 1976. The new Troop was formed as a backpacking group, unlike 105 who in those days did little backpacking. Walt took about half of Troop 105 with him in this friendly parting of the ways leaving Bob DeDecker as the Scoutmaster. Bob held the position held the position until 1977 when a young man named Don Ulses took over.
Other early adult leaders included Bernie Riley.
The 80's were a time of growth for the Troop under the leadership of Don Ulses, Fred Stanton, Buzz Slavin, Jack Giles, Rick Ayars, Walt Wright, Bob Blue, Tony Marsito and Dick Moseke. There were over 75 boys registered in the early part of the decade. The Committee started rotating the position of Scoutmaster between several people who held the position for a year at a time.
Some of these people have been active until just a few years ago and Bob Blue and Dick Moseke are still registered with the Troop. Dick Moseke joined the troop in 1982 or 1983 and has served as treasurer, scoutmaster, varsity coach, committee chairman and is currently registered as assistant scoutmaster. Dick who works for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, participates when he can in Eagle Courts and in meetings and can always be relied on to show up at summer camp with ice cream for everyone. Bob Blue who works for Honeywell and is also a photographer who has had his work published in Arizona Highways several times. He helped Crew 723K to prepare for their 1999 Philmont Hike by showing them a slide presentation and sharing some of his experiences from when he went there with the Troop.
During the summer of 1998 Dr. Parrack asked Mark Speck to act as Scoutmaster at Geronimo as he could not be there due to his practice. Mark officially became Scoutmaster of 105 in December of that year. At the same time Rick Moore became the Committee Chairman and Paul Carras became the Chartered Organization Representative.
The Troop has always had a heritage of good adult leaders and lots of them. These people that I have just talked about have put their heart and soul into something that they believe in and it shows in the boys that have earned the Eagle rank at 105 since it was first chartered. We believe that Troop 105's program is a step above the others and that the boys earning Eagle here truly earn it.
In 1969 the Pioneer Living Museum was preparing to open to the public and was in need of much volunteer work. Our Troop completed many Eagle projects that included the original picket fence around the church, building a pigpen and a sod house. One of these projects was shared by Erich Sielaff and Dave Pela and included building and landscaping the sign that still stands at the northeast end of the parking lot. Dave's son is planning to refurbish that sign as his Eagle project.
The troop earned a Historic Trails Award by hiking along the route of the stage line that ran along I-17 from Phoenix to Prescott. They erected a glass display case to display artifacts that they picked up along the way. The case, which was at the site where the road leads into the Pioneer RV park, has since been torn down.
In June of 1971, two adult leaders, Lou Cormier and Jim Rogers led several of the older scouts on a 50 mile hike. The hike started at the Wolf Creek campground outside of Prescott and ended at the town of Cleator along the Senator highway. It was hot and miserable and since their only experience in backpacking was when the troop hiked into Geronimo each summer, it was a real challenge to them. There are no facilities or water along the road so Lou carried water and extra supplies in his pickup and moved it along ahead of the hikers. One of the boys, Erich Sielaff developed such severe blisters that he was put in charge of moving the truck every day.
During the early 70's the troop's fund raising project was to sort containers for Honeywell. The Committee Chairman at the time, worked for Honeywell and had the emplyees who built sircuit boards through the shipping containers into bins. The boys sorted the reusable containers and Honeywell would make charitable contributions to the troop for the service. The containers that were unusable were sold at the park n swap. Another committee member had a connection with J C Penny at Christown Mall who would give the troop any tents that were returned to them with problems.
1980 marked the year of the first spaghetti dinner and a tradition that has survived until today. Back then each parent cooked a portion of the sauce at home and it was mixed together in double boilers at the church while the spaghetti was cooked on coleman stoves. Monica Marsito ran the Spaghetti Dinner for many years during the time when her sons were in the troop and afterwards. After she left the troop Tina Parrack and Denise Casavant started the Rose Mothers group which is made up of scout mothers who host the dinner and help with Eagle Court of Honor ceremonies. Two new ladies are chosen every year to host the dinner with the support of the existing Rose Mothers. Today a fully equipped kitchen is used to prepare over 800 meals that help to send the boys to summer camp.
The annual Snow Camp started back about 1980 and has continued to the present. It has been held in several different places including the Knights of Columbus Lodge near Morman Lake to the Methodist Family Camp at the top of Mingus Mountain and most recently at the National Guard Armory west of Flagstaff. Snow survival training and shelter building were a part of the earlier outings. It has always been a Snow Camp tradition that the adult leaders performed all of the cooking during this outing. The boys play basketball, chess, checkers, cards, and watch movies at night. Semiannual Elections are held for Patrol Leaders and new Assistant Patrol Leaders are chosen at this time. Unfortunately it has also become a Snow Camp tradition as of late that we not have snow.
In 1983 the Troop sponsored and coordinated the Thunderbird Camporee in the White Tank Mountains which was one of the higher attended Camporees at the time
During 1987 the Diocese of Phoenix requested 12 scouts from different Catholic Churches to act as escorts for the sick people who were to be blessed by the Pope during his visit. Troop 105, being one of the few fully uniformed Troops at the time was able to supply 6 boys for this honor. Two of the boys were able to shake his hand and the whole ceremony was broadcast on national television. There are a few copies of this on video around and it was just recently rebroadcast on one of the local channels. If you get a chance to see it look for the red and white 105 hats.
Venture Group 6105 was chartered during the middle 80's and produced eight Eagle Scouts. Tony Marsito and Dick Moseke were the adult leaders for this group of older boys who did a lot of backpacking and went on trips to Colorado and New Mexico. It finally was disbanded when the boys lost interest and moved on, those that were left went back into the regular Troop. Many of the records from this time were lost in a car that was stolen from one of the leaders and burned.
The 90's were a troubled time for the Troop with committee problems that almost tore it apart. But you couldn't tell it from the number of boys that went through the program. Almost half of the boys that have earned their Eagle in Troop 105 did so during the period from 1990 to the present. Most of the adult leadership from the 80's stayed on and were joined by people like Juan Bautista and Dr. Parrack.
During the summer of 1997 Dave Ellison, Dick Moseke, Paul Carras and several other leaders took some of the older boys on another 50 miler hike along the Highline Trail north of Payson Arizona. This trail runs just south of the Mogillon Rim and through Camp Geronimo. They also used a car to ferry food and extra equipment along the way.
The Troop first went to Geronimo in June of 1969 and as far as we know has been there every summer since. The Troop camped in many different sites and has for some time now used Crow Site 19, which is the largest site there. The site has space for 50 boys and several times 105 has exceeded its capacity and had to use troop tents. We encourage the boys to participate in everything that is available at camp including the Tenderfoot Run and Polar Bear while taking 3 Merit Badge classes. This is not a holiday for Leaders either as we all have assigned duties from Troop 1 to Merit Badge Monitors. Those of us that have been there will agree that it is a very busy program and the week flies by. This past summer marked our 30th year at Geronimo and I'm sure it will continue to be a 105 tradition far into the future.
The troop also went to the Whiting Camp, now closed, although we have no record of the dates and what they did there. One of the Leaders had a cabin in Colorado that they used to take the boys to for camping and backpacking.
Every fall the church holds a Fall Festival with food, games and rides for everyone. This is an important fund raiser for the church and draws a large crowd of people. The Troop buses and cleans tables in the food hall and helps with serving refreshments in the evenings. Then the older boys come in after closing and clean the tables, mop the floors, picks up trash and take out all of the garbage. The boys and several adults stay all night and are served pizza courtesy of the festival committee in what has become to be known as guard duty. In earlier years the whole troop would stay and the boys would have a great time on some of the rides, playing basket ball and football.
"In the 60's and 70's we didn't call them 'role models' but I met some good people in Troop 105. It was an important part of my life. If I hadn't had such a great experience then, I wouldn't be a Scoutmaster now." David Pela - February 1999.