Clarendon lost one of its saints last week. Tommie Saye – our Scoutmaster, our mentor, our friend – passed away Friday morning, and left a hole in our lives.
Ten years ago, this paper published a feature story on Tommie and his contribution to Boy Scouts. In an accompanying editorial, I wrote about Tommie’s influence on me as a young man… as one of the many scouts who he helped guide along the path to Eagle.
But in the days following his death, I’ve found myself not thinking so much about what he taught me 25 years ago as much as what he has taught me in just the last few years and even the last few months.
Some of my earliest memories are of riding in my parents’ station wagon to some district or council scout meeting with Mom and Dad and Tom and Lucy Saye. As I got older, Tommie was a man I admired and looked up to… just like hundreds of other boys did. And for me, especially after the passing of my own grandparents, I always thought of him as another grandfather.
When my parents passed away, Tommie was still there and often offered me words of advice and encouragement. We would talk about this or that. He would give me his words of wisdom and usually summed it up with, “And son, that’s just kind of part of it.”
Death, too, is kind of part of it… part of life. The part that we’re left to deal with and wonder what we can do to take what a man like Tommie taught us and hand it down to the next generation.
A little over a year ago, I got cornered in the grocery store and persuaded to take on the role of Cub Master for Pack 437 and to lead a group of Cub Scouts even though my own son wasn’t old enough at the time to join. When Mr. Saye found out, his attitude was one of “it’s about time,” but he had known that I would end up in that role eventually.
And then he did what he did best. He taught me. He put that hand on my shoulder; and in the space of less than ten minutes, he told me everything I needed to know to lead this group of Scouts. He had already showed me by example; but with just a few words, he prepared me for the next few years. That was Tommie.
His record of achievement and involvement always focuses on Scouting. He is, after all, a legend in the Golden Spread Council. Our troop is rarely mentioned without Tommie’s name coming up. Is there another troop in a town our size that can claim an equal number of Eagle Scouts (more than 80), God & Country recipients, or Texas Medal awardees? I don’t think so. I doubt there is a town our size that can touch Troop 433 in just one of those categories much less all three.
But Tommie also has been involved in so much more – the church, the Chamber, the merchants, Girl Scouts, Meals on Wheels, and more. He even got into politics, serving on the Clarendon College Board of Regents, where he told me that he just did what he thought was right and didn’t care what other people thought about it. And he served his country, too. He was a Marine, and he was rightly proud of that service in World War II.
He also loved his family and they adored him, and, as it was stated at the funeral, they selflessly shared Tommie with all of us. How many times was he away from home for a scout meeting or a camp out? We probably can never know, but they let him go, and we thank them for it.
How do you measure the life of a man like Tommie Saye? How can you ever know the influence that such a man has had on not just this community but on other communities who have benefited from the leadership of boys that Tommie helped turn into men?
Men like Tommie leave a lasting legacy that will not be soon forgotten. He has taught us all well. And now we must honor that by paying it forward and making sure the next generation of boys… and girls… know the values that Tommie Saye held dear.
God bless you, Mr. Saye. We will never forget you.
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