Scouts played large part in Fossum's life

Scouts played large part in Fossum's life

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July 12, 2006
Marc B. Geller
Monitor Staff Writer

McALLEN - One of the biggest influences in Mike Fossum's life
growing up in the Rio Grande Valley was his experience in Cub Scouts
and Boy Scouts.

Beverly Alleyn, who like Fossum's mother is a nurse, was his Cub
Scout pack leader. And her husband, Mickey, led the Webelos program
that Mike needed to complete with other Cub Scouts to transition into
Boy Scouts.

The Alleyns' son, Rob, now a McAllen physician, was one of Mike's
classmates and rose with Mike through the Boy Scout ranks.

"Shortly after (Mike) went into Scouting, he visited with me, and
he'd just come off of a camping trip which I guess he felt that he
wasn't too successful in," Mickey recalled.

"I remember him coming over and talking to me and asking the question
if he ought to stay in Scouting or not. And I told him ... he ought to
try to stay in there and run the course."

Mike stayed with it, eventually achieving the elite Eagle Scout rank
- and forging close bonds with several fellow Scouts, including
longtime buddies Tom Ball, Grady Carlile and Charlie Ward.

"Watching him in Scouting, he always took his merit badge work very
seriously and his campouts very seriously," Mickey recalled. "He was
pretty sure of himself. Whatever he wanted to do, he seemed to be able
to end up doing it - and doing it well."

Around the age of 10, Rob remembers Mike talking about his aspirations
of going into space.

"He's wanted to do that since about the fifth grade, as far as I can
remember," he said. "That's about the time of the Apollo missions and
the landing on the moon and all of that. ...

"We talked about that a lot when we were kids," Rob said. "Everybody
was talking about what they wanted to do. He always was going to be an
astronaut."

Ball remembers his friend as a goal-oriented leader.

"He was a really fine leader in the Boy Scout troop. The kids all liked
him a lot. He was very popular ...

"We both liked to camp. He'd go fishing with my family, and we'd go
on trips together - outings outside of the Scouting context, too -
and we've done that since we grew up. Every couple of years we'll
go out on a backpacking trip somewhere and beat ourselves up real bad."

Though not active in high school sports, Mike and Ball were in marching
band together, both playing trombone.

"None of us were much into the organized team sports," Ball said. "We
did a lot of outdoors stuff. There wasn't much time for football or
basketball. We were canoeing and going on outings."

"He's always had a great interest in astronomy," Ball said. "We knew
that from way back when we were out at camp. He was up in the middle of
the night watching the stars that didn't rise until the wee hours of
the morning."

Ward also remembers their friend teaching astronomy to other Scouts at
Camp Perry, in Cameron County on the banks of Arroyo Colorado.

"He's always been looking up at the stars," he said.

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Marc B. Geller covers McAllen, Hidalgo and general assignments for The
Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4445.