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Bryan-College Station Eagle Wednesday, April 27, 1994 Page A7
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By MELINDA RICE
Eagle staff writer
When Bryan resident Ruby Lee Crawford
heard that former President Richard M. Nixon
had died, her first thought was of her xor~.
In 1974, while the nation was
focused on Watergate, the
beleaguered president took
time to make sure that her
oldest son, Paul Kennedy, be-
came Brazos Valley's first
black Eagle Scout - an award
that racism initially stole from
him.
"He really bragged to his
friends that, K it hadn't been KENNEDY
for Nixon sending down his representatives, he
might never have gotten his ceremony," Craw-
ford said Tuesday.
Kennedy was the oldest of four children whom
Crawford raised on her own. Iri 1974, Kennedy
was an i&year-old senior at Bryan High School
who already had plans to join the U.S. Army.
Willie Pruitt, then assistant principal at the
high school, remembers Kennedy as respectitxl,
reliable and a hard worker. "I remember Paul al-
ways being a gentleman," said Pruitt, who retired
- ---_._
Officers honored at ~n
Eagle Staff Repof•t
Officers of the year from
local law enforcement agen-
cies were honored last week
during the 11th Annual Law
Enforcement Appreciation
Day at the Bra-
zos Center. i
The pro-
gram was p u r
together b~~
the citize;~ M "~~ 3
academies and
alumni associ- ~ . ~" .~ `
ations from ~ ."'
the Bryan
Police Depart- 1NILLIAMS
ment, the Col-
lege Station Police Depart-
ment, the Brazos County
Sheriff's Department and
Brazos County Crime Stop-
pers.
"This is our way of showing
the officers from all the differ-
ent agencies how much we
appreciate what they do in
the coanmunity," said Sandy
Police Academy's Alumni
,, ,~,,_
,y~
i
,za~
MOHL~R
nYeC7atinn
preciation day
Association. "It was a busy
year this year. They really
had a lot going on."
Officers of the year from
each department are:
Bobby Williams from the
Bryan Police Department,
Mike Mohler from the College
Station Police Department,
Clay Perry from the Brazos
County Sheriff's Department,
Bill Zikus from the Texas
We Carry
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dealers lighting
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in 1990 after 34 years with the Bryan school dis-
trict.
If Kennedy wasn't in school, he usually could
be found at work or with the Boy Scouts. "He
loved the Boy Scouts," said his mother.
Kennedy had earned 47 merit badges in his
time with the Scouts -only 21 were required for
Eagle Scout status. But Kennedy was black and,
for him, there was no ceremony.
That is, not until Nixon stepped in.
In his paperwork for the Army, Kennedy had
noted that although he had not been named an
Eagle Scout, he had earned the honor. Somehow,
to this day no one knows how, the president
found out and sent two representatives to make
sure the ceremony took place.
On May 15, 1974 Kennedy officially earned his
wings during a ceremony at Mount Zion Mis-
sionarYBaptist Church.
"It seems like he went right into the Army, so
he didn't have much time to talk about it," said
Kennedy's brother, Don Crawford of Bryan.
Twenty years later, Kennedy is a'sergeant first
class and a veteran of Desert Storm stationed
with his family in Karlsrhue, Germany. He is in
the field this week, but his wife Patricia, also of
Bryan, said he mentioned the incident this week.
A&M University Police
Department and Michael Nix
from the Department of Pub-
lic Safety.
The event was in conjunc-
tion with National Law
Enforcement Week.
The Eagle
Saint Michael's
knnetnnc~ a'i. e doe.A~ ~y
t,°i I:prscupcxJ Scb~~ol of K-11
- ` C ~ allege Ave., Bryar~ 82? '?715