On Wednesday, Harold “Swede” Nelson celebrated his 93rd birthday, which in itself is a milestone made all the more hard to believe by his boyish looks and engaging conversation. He marked yet another milestone Wednesday, one that underscores his love for an organization that shaped his life and in turn put him on a course to shape the lives of others. He celebrated his 80th anniversary as a member of the Boy Scouts of America.

Surely Swede had no idea where Scouting would take him when he joined Troop 32 in South Providence on March 13, 1943. He was interested in the great outdoors and especially in the camping trips. He felt he was at the right place from the start. It was the beginning of a enduring relationship with scouting that stayed with him through high school; his two-year enlistment in the Army that was extended by a year because of the Korean War; his marriage to Carol Coker; and 28 years with the Narragansett Brewery followed by a 12-year career with the Warwick School Department, first as a janitor and then as an aide on a bus for special needs students.

The Eagle Badge is the apex of scouting ranks. Achieving the rank is a rigorous process that requires mastering a series of skills, advancing through the ranks and performing a community service project before turning 18. Swede never made Eagle and that doesn’t upset him.

“I was having too much fun to work for Eagle,” he said Saturday from the Greenwood home where they have lived for the past 54 years. They love the neighborhood that they say has changed little, with the exception of Post Road, which has changed for the better.

“I loved Scouting, hunting, fishing and camping,” Swede says. Some of those early camping trips required ingenuity. The South Providence troop couldn’t afford tents, so he and the rest of the troop slept under tarps. By the time he completed high school Swede was scoutmaster.

After earning his high school diploma, Swede and two of his buddies enlisted in the U.S. Army for a two-year tour. It was 1948. In the wake of World War II, the growth of the suburbs was flourishing.

The Army assigned Swede to Fort Belvoir in Virginia where he was trained in surveying. He kept up his membership with Troop 32. His tour of duty was to expire on July 27, 1950, at 1 p.m. However, on June 25, 1950, following the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, the United States entered the war.

Swede remembers speculation that tours would be extended, but that didn’t happen until two hours before he was to leave the base with bags packed.

“We had turned in all our gear and by 1 [p.m.] we would have been out.”

Swede said he appealed to the Lord “to take care of me and I promised to never take his name in vain.” Swede lived by his promise although, he said, the troops were constantly invoking His name.

Three weeks later his platoon was in Korea. As a member of the 62d Engineer Construction Battalion, one of the tasks assigned was to build a bridge across a large river. In its midst was an island and while Swede’s platoon worked from one bank, another on the opposite bank worked their way to the island. No sooner had they joined at the island and the bridge was completed did the North Koreans threaten to overrun the area. The engineers were directed to blow up the bridge they had just built.

“I felt like crying,” said Swede.

While in Korea, two friends, Irving “Chubby” Clement and Eric Ritzen made sure that Swede kept his Scouting enrollment. On his return to Rhode Island, Swede returned to Troop 32. He went to work at the Narragansett Brewery following in the footsteps of his brother, father and grandfather. The brewery was running non-stop and Swede was on the night shift leaving little time to be with friends.

“I always had pockets full of money,” he recalls.

Love at first sight

St. Patrick’s Day 1954 was one of those days when Swede was with his friends at the Sportsman’s Bar in Cranston. Swede is not much of a drinker and, in fact, in all his years at the brewery only once did he have a sip of beer and that was to sample a new brew. A group of young women entered the bar and Swede pointed to one of them and said to one of his buddies, “that’s the girl I’m going to marry.” His friends were incredulous. But Swede knew “it was love at first sight.”

Jokingly, Carol blames the Irish for hitching her up with Swede. They will have been married for 68 years this Feb. 12. They bought a double decker house in Cranston for $16,500 within walking distance to the brewery. Carol took the bus to downtown were she worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance.

Then when a friend living across from them bought a house on Natick Avenue in Greenwood they visited and looked at a house on nearby Myrtle Avenue.

“We bought it because it had a fireplace,” Carol said with a laugh. As it turned out the rental payments from the Providence property covered mortgage payments for both properties. They were the parents of a daughter who died of cancer six years ago and a son, Mark, who faithfully checks in on them weekly.

But this is getting ahead of Swede’s 80 years of Boy Scouting. Swede played roles in troops in Hillsgrove and Pontiac and when the young couple moved to Warwick, Swede looked for a troop to join with his son. Following the advice of friends they landed at Troop 2 in East Greenwich.

“I’ve done everything,” he says. He has served as scoutmaster and assistant scoutmaster and directed numerous camping trips. He is good at “reading” kids and anticipating the troublemakers. He recalls rejecting the son of a scoutmaster from a much anticipated canoe trip on the Allagash. The scoutmaster was outraged, but Swede held his ground.

“If you want him to go, then you bring him,” Swede remembers saying. Generally, Swede said, 90 percent of a troop are trustworthy but there’s always 10 percent who are capable of mischief. He knew the scoutmaster’s son would be a handful on such a wilderness trip.

Carol said she always looked forward to the trips. “They were a vacation for me,” she said. She enjoyed the time with her daughter.

On one Connecticut River canoe trip, Swede said, the troop camped on the sandy river bank. The following morning one of the boys fell into a freshly dug hole that had not been there the day before. Swede realized someone could have been seriously hurt. The boys were packed and prepared to resume their paddle, but Swede told them they wouldn’t be leaving until whoever was responsible came forward. The boys waited and waited, growing restless. No one said anything. Finally, a platoon leader told Swede nobody would talk.

Swede told the leader he knew who was responsible.

Minutes later the three boys he suspected confessed.

Lasting friendships

Scouting has made for some strong and lasting friendships. David Minto, who went on to be awarded three Bronze Stars while serving in Vietnam is one of them. Swede tells the story of Minto climbing out of a foxhole after an attack to dive in another hole where a member of the unit was seriously injured to administer first aid.

“He (Minto) told me all he could think of was what he had learned in Scouts,” said Swede. The soldiers’ life was saved. Of all the Scouting skills, Swede says first aid “is what you need to know.”

When the brewery closed, Swede went to work for Minto salvaging parts from trashed lawnmowers and other small engines at the Mintos’ small engine repair and sales operation on Warwick Avenue.

He worked for the Mintos for a year before landing a job with Warwick Schools as a janitor at Pilgrim. He was looking for something that brought him into contact with students, after all that’s what he was doing in scouts. He was teamed up with the late Louise Parker, driver of a special education bus. They struck it off. They sang to the handicapped kids and got them to laugh.

One student, who they delivered to the Trudeau Center, had no eyes and like “divots” from his scalp. Marcus had a habit of banging his head on the side of the bus between uttering guttural sounds. Swede and Louise affixed padding so as to avoid injury. Swede stroked him to soothe him.

On picking up Marcus, Swede would call out his name. Marcus would brighten and on occasion Swede would say, “I need a hug, I’ve had a bad day.” Marcus was delighted to give out hugs.

One of Swede’s longest stints in scouting – 25 years – was with East Greenwich Troop 2 where he was assistant scoutmaster. Jim Essex, who recently retired, was Scoutmaster. At one time the troop had 62 scouts. Swede’s role was to be the disciplinarian, “the bad guy.” From East Greenwich he connected with Lakewood Troop 49. Now that the troop has ceased meeting, Carol is looking for him to hitch up with another troop.

“He just loves it,” she said.  Swede keeps a hand in scouting attending alumni meetings and doing demonstrations on knife and axe sharpening at Camp Yawgoog.

What has Scouting given Swede?

“It’s given me a lot of pleasure,” he said.