Champions of Scouting

William ‘Green Bar Bill’ Hillcourt “ Green Bar Bill” and “Scoutmaster to the World”, was “the foremost influence on development of the Boy Scouting program.”

Hillcourt wrote three editions of the official Boy Scout Handbook , The Patrol Leader’s Handbook, The Scout Fieldbook and numerous magazine articles. For 32 years he wrote the”Green Bar Bill” column in Boy’s Life , championing the patrol method. His nickname came from the two green bars that were the emblem of a patrol leader. Bill developed and promoted the American adaptation of the Wood Badge program.

Hillcourt was born in Denmark on Aug. 6, 1900, as Vilhelm Hans Bjerregaard. “The girls in the national office of the BSA had trouble with Bjerregaard,” he said years later. “It came out like ‘beer garden,’ and I thought that was a little bit too much for the Boy Scouts.”

Freely translated, “bjerre” means “hill” and “gaard” means “court,” so he adopted the last name “Hillcourt”. In 1910 at age ten Bill received a copy of the Danish translation of Scouting for Boys soon thereafter he formed a patrol and was camping regularly. 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.