After graduating, he became the
principal of a country grade school that had run off several previous school
principals and superintendents. Determined to hang in there with the boys, he began his tenure and
proved, as he often would in the future, that he would be the “last bull
standing in those woods”.
From there,
he worked in a summer boys camp and served as a boys worker in a Chicago
settlement house. While in Chicago he
sang in the prestigious 300 voice Apollo Music Club for three years. He also became a YMCA secretary working
with street youngsters in “natural groups.” He did a graduate study in group work at George Williams College and
extension group work with Northwestern University.
After returning home, he worked with the Mississippi State
Health Department with mobile TB screening. From there he moved to Dallas Texas with a friend and soon met
Campbell Loughmiller on May 29, 1949 who was beginning a new camping program. For seventeen years he worked with
“Chief Lock” in developing therapeutic camping for boys at risk. The Salesmanship Club, consisting of 450
business and professional men sponsored Camp Woodland Springs, a year-round
camp to help boys work through personal problems and rebuild family
relationships.
“Chief Mac” says this
kind of work became his niche. Over
51 years, he has helped develop fourteen therapeutic camps in Texas, Colorado,
Florida, North and South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Chief Mac currently serves as a consultant
for the camps of Wilderness Road Therapeutic Camping Association. |
