Girl Scouts leader was devoted, honoured
Frances Hesselbein was living with her family in Johnstown, Pa., in the late 1940s when a neighbour asked whether she would be willing to take over a local Girl Scout troop that was about to lose its leader. At first, Hesselbein declined.
“I'm the mother of a little boy,” she recalled saying, confessing that she “knew nothing about little girls.”
The neighbour did not give up. She later told Mrs. Hesselbein that if no new leader came forward, Troop 17 — more than two dozen 10-yearold girls who gathered weekly at a Presbyterian Church — would be disbanded. She relented and agreed to serve for six weeks, until they could find “a real leader,” she said.
In the end, she stayed with the girls for eight years. She began ascending the local and regional ranks of the Girl Scouts until she was hired in 1976 to run the national organization at its headquarters in New York.
Hesselbein led the Girl Scouts as chief executive for 14 years, recruiting new generations of members and volunteers, increasing the group's minority ranks and modernizing its mission of empowering young women.
For her leadership of the Girl Scouts and her subsequent work training non-profit executives, President Bill Clinton in 1998 awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.
“Frances Hesselbein has devoted herself to changing lives for the better,” read the citation.
Hesselbein died Sunday at her home in Easton, Pa. She was 107. Her niece Frances Eckman confirmed her death but did not cite a cause.
She was credited with tripling the number of Black and other minority Girl Scouts and with recruiting from immigrant communities and public housing projects. She sought to expose young members to careers in science, technology, engineering, math and business.
Hesselbein stepped down as chief executive of the Girl Scouts in 1990. At that time, according to the Girl Scouts, the total of girls and adult volunteers was nearly 3.3 million, compared with more than 3.1 million in 1977.
Frances Willard Richards grew up in Johnstown, Pa. Her father worked for the railroad, and her mother was a homemaker.
Her husband died in 1978, and son, John R. Hesselbein, died in 2011. She was also preceded in death by a grandson. Survivors include a grandson, three great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.