William Hillcourt

Hillcourt was a prolific writer and teacher in the areas of woodcraft, troop and patrol structure, and training. His legacy and influence can still be seen today in the BSA program and in Scouting training manuals and methods for both youth and adults. Hillcourt developed and promoted the American adaptation of the Wood Badge adult Scout leader training program.

About William Hillcourt in brief

Summary William HillcourtHillcourt was a prolific writer and teacher in the areas of woodcraft, troop and patrol structure, and training. His legacy and influence can still be seen today in the BSA program and in Scouting training manuals and methods for both youth and adults. Hillcourt was born in 1900 in Aarhus, Denmark and was the youngest of three sons of a building contractor. He was given the name Vilhelm Hans Bjerregaard Jensen. Around 1930, he changed his name by anglicizing \”Vilhelm\”, translating into \”Hill-court\” and dropping \”Jensen\”. Hillcourt developed and promoted the American adaptation of the Wood Badge adult Scout leader training program. He traveled all over the world teaching and training both Scouts and Scouters, earning many of Scouting’s highest honors. He died in 1992 and is survived by his wife, Grace Brown, a former BSA national instructor, and his son, William Hillcourt, a Scoutmaster and Scout leader. He is buried in Mendham Borough, New Jersey, near Schiff Scout Reservation, the center of BSA’s national training center, so he could put his theories to a practical test in order to put them to the practical use he wanted.

He also had a son, David, who became a BSA Scoutmaster in the 1970s. He had a daughter, Victoria, who was a B SA Scoutmaster from 1986 until her death in 1992. Hill court was a member of the Aids Brotherhood, the Boy Scouts of America’s Aids Council, and served as its president from 1988 until his death. He has a grandson, David Hillcourt Jr., who is also a Boy Scout, and a son-in-law, Michael Hill, who served as the National Scoutmaster for BSA Troop 1 in New Jersey in the 1990s. Hillcourts and Baden-Powell were close friends for many years, and Hillcourt served as Baden Powell’s scoutmaster in World War II. The two men were also close friends in the 1930s and 1940s, when Hillcourt moved to the U.S. to be with James E. West, the chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scout of America. He wrote the first Handbook for Patrol Leaders which was published in 1929. His signature was superimposed over the two green bars that are the emblem of the patrol leader, which led to his moniker \”Green Bar Bill\” and its adoption as the logo of his regular Boys’ Life column.