Boy Scouts honor Bill Gates with Silver Buffalo award

Recognizing his leadership and philanthropy, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday presented Bill Gates with its Silver Buffalo award, putting him in the company of recipients such as Walt Disney and Neil Armstrong.

Before he co-founded Microsoft, Gates was a Life Scout in Troop 186 in the Sand Point neighborhood. Among those attending the award luncheon were his former scoutmasters, Don Van Wierengen and William Christoffersen and current Troop 186 members Lucas Trautman, 15, left, Erik Kivimaki, 17; James Campbell, 17; and Brendan McGovern, 16.

Gates said fond memories are usually the result of doing well at something, "but I wasn't good at hiking, I wasn't good at cooking food, but it was the overall experience of challenging ourselves to do tough hikes and being out in the woods, figuring out new things."

"Those were fantastic times," he said, relating how he received merit badges in basketweaving and woodcarving at Camp Parsons in Jefferson County. "Now I understand they really have updated their merit-badge program — they've got nuclear science, American business, they've got computers, so it's interesting — I might have to go back and get a few."