Four Solon teens have joined the elite ranks of the Eagle Scouts — Landon Hummel, William Wittich, Brandon Merrick, and Connor Shepherd. The Solon Economist will highlight each of the four Eagle Scouts individually, and profiled Hummel in our March 3 edition.
While Scouting was organized in the early 1900s in England by Robert Baden-Powell the rank of Eagle Scout wasn’t initially included when the movement came to America. Entry-level Scouts were known as “Tenderfoot” before working toward “Second Class,” and finally “First Class.” Merit badges were introduced as a way to provide Scouts with more specific knowledge and training, leading to over 135 such badges available today. In addition, advanced ranks of “Star” and “Life” were added as well as the highest rank – Eagle Scout.
“The power of the Eagle Scout rank is in the reputation of those Scouts who have attained it,” said Tom Clingerman, the Chartered Organization Representative for the Solon American Legion Post 460, and a Scout Leader for 31 years. Typically, four-to-six years of work are required, and the individual skills learned are not as important as the demonstrated “perseverance” of the Scout. “Eagle Scouts have been recognized as people with great potential. They are people for whom hard work is not a problem. Because of their association with Scouting, for so many years, they tend to adopt its belief in the qualities promoted in its Oath and Law, predominated by a sense of Honor and truthfulness, loyalty to their country and others, and a feeling that they ‘can’ make a difference,” he said.
According to Clingerman, Hummel, Wittich, Merrick, and Shepherd are in good company. “Most of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts were Scouts, many of whom made Eagle rank. A preponderance of congressmen and senators have been Scouts. Eagle Scouts are everywhere in our society including famous folks like Steven Spielberg, who got his early in making movies as part of a merit badge program. Honesty and hard work have become the assumption for Eagles.” Key to the process of earning the rank of Eagle Scout is planning and conducting a service project, typically for a nonprofit entity. Thousands of hours of project service have been performed in the Solon area benefiting the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Army Corps of Engineers, the Solon Community School District, Solon Recreation Dept., care centers, churches, and landscaping at the Veterans Memorial. The Eagle candidate must work with a sponsor organization, create a detailed plan, and get it approved before work begins. The Scout acts as the program manager scoping out the project, determining and acquiring the required materials and tools, creating a detailed schedule, and recruiting the manpower to execute the plan.
“On average, the Eagle project is 100 man hours. This could be a large group effort for one long day, or smaller efforts over several days/weekends. Here is the real work of the Eagle Project — having to be the foreman of the work crew. The Eagle candidate assigns tasks, makes sure tools are available and that the various “crews” know what they are doing (provide drawings…. etc.). Then he must act as the on-site boss. These actions, required of every Eagle project, go a long way to the reputation Eagles have with business. They have already proven they can lead and manage,” Clingerman said.
This week the Economist profiles William Wittich, a 17-year old senior at Solon High School and the son of Rod and Kathy Wittich. He has been in Scouting for 11 years.
“I started Scouts in 1st grade (six years old) as a Tiger Cub in Coralville’s Pack 2000. In 2nd grade our family moved from Coralville to Solon, and I joined Solon’s Pack 120 as a Wolf. In 5th grade I crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and later joined Troop 2000 in Coralville. I have been very lucky to be part of two great troops, and I have many friends from both.”
In addition to achieving his Eagle Scout rank, William has been a Senior Patrol Leader and Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, achieved his Order of the Arrow, completed Boy Scouts National Youth Leadership Training, and received Wilderness First Aid Certification.
“I wanted to create something outdoors for team building activities for my Eagle Scout Project. I designed and installed a life-sized checkers board at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca in Solon. The project was completed in the fall of 2018. The Camp Director and I went through the planning and purchased materials. At first, we were going to pour a cement slab for the board, but then we found out it would be less expensive to use pavers. This made the project more complex because we had to place 256 two-feet by two-feet pavers. The entire checkers board is sixteen feet by sixteen feet. Because the weather was cold, we had to move all the pavers from the camp to our heated garage for painting and then moved them to camp for installation. Placing the pavers took several days and a lot of hours of hard work. The checkers pieces were made out of painted plywood circles which I cut out using my grandfather’s band saw. I also provided vests so people could be a checkers piece themselves and a plastic box for storage. Overall, I had seventeen volunteers who helped me for a total of 239 hours.”
William added Lowe’s of Coralville donated the paint and painting supplies and discounted the plywood.
He has been accepted at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana where he will major in mechanical engineering, and play on the men’s soccer team. William has been active in many endeavors outside of Scouting including volunteering in the community and completing engineering internships with the National Advanced Driving Simulator at the University of Iowa and Shive-Hattery.
“I enjoy spending time outdoors hunting and fishing. At Solon High School I am a peer leader, a member of the National Honor Society, participate in FBLA, and a varsity soccer player. I have played soccer since I was three years old and been playing year round with Iowa Soccer Club (ISC) since age seven.”

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William Wittich designed and supervised the construction of a life-sized checkers board at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca in Solon for his Eagle Scout community service project.