William Hillcourt

William Hillcourt (August 6, 1900– November 9, 1992), known within the Scouting movement as "Green Bar Bill", was an influential leader in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization from 1927 to 1992.

Hillcourt was a prolific writer and teacher in the areas of woodcraft, troop and patrol structure, and training; his written works include three editions of the BSA's official Boy Scout Handbook, with over 12.6 million copies printed, other Scouting-related books and numerous magazine articles.

Hillcourt developed and promoted the American adaptation of the Wood Badge adult Scout leader training program.

Hillcourt was Danish but moved to the United States as a young adult.

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.

From his start in Danish Scouting in 1910 until his death in 1992, he was continuously active in Scouting.

He traveled all over the world teaching and training both Scouts and Scouters, earning many of Scouting's highest honors.

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.

For Christmas 1910, Hillcourt's brother gave him a Danish translation of Scouting for Boys by Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement.

He went on to earn the highest award in Danish Scouting, Knight-Scout in 1918, at age 17.

He was selected to represent his troop at the 1st World Scout Jamboree in Olympia in 1920 where he first met Baden-Powell, with whom he was later to work.

While Hillcourt studied pharmacy in Copenhagen, he became more involved in Scouting.

As a Scout leader, he became a Scoutmaster, national instructor, writer and then the editor for the Danish Scouting journal.

He wrote his first book, The Island, recounting his early Scouting experiences.

After deciding to experience Scouting around the world and to return home with the best ideas, Hillcourt worked his way through Europe and England and then arrived in the United States in February 1926.

Hillcourt worked at a BSA camp at Bear Mountain in Harriman State Park, New York, in 1926 where he became an instructor in American Indian dance.

He then worked for the BSA Supply Division where he broke his leg when a crate fell on him.

He met James West while riding in an elevator at the national office.

West solicited Hillcourt's thoughts on Scouting in the U.S. Hillcourt later sent West an 18-page memo detailing issues with the lack of patrol structure and leadership.

He recommended that the BSA write a handbook for patrol leaders, and that it needed to be written by someone who had been both a patrol leader and a Scoutmaster.

West hired Hillcourt as a writer and editor and was later persuaded to commission Hillcourt to write the first Handbook for Patrol Leaders which was published in 1929.

Around 1930, he changed his name by anglicizing "Vilhelm", translating "Bjerregaard" into "Hill-court" and dropping "Jensen".

His first published work was a poem about trolls and elves, printed by an Aarhus newspaper when he was nine years old.

From 1932 until his retirement in 1965, Hillcourt was a major contributor to Boys' Life, the magazine for Scouting youth.

Each monthly issue included a page on advancement and Scoutcraft, outdoor Scouting skills, and included his signature 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.

In 1933 Hillcourt married Grace Brown, the personal secretary of Chief Scout Executive James E. West.

Hillcourt was tasked to write a new manual for Scoutmasters in 1934 and worked with his good friend and colleague E. Urner Goodman, the national program director of the BSA.

He and his wife moved to a house in Mendham Borough, New Jersey, to be near Schiff Scout Reservation, the BSA's national training center, so he could be in place to put his theories to a practical test.

In order to do so, he founded Troop 1 of Mendham in 1935 as a unit directly chartered to the National Council of the BSA.

As the Scoutmaster, he used Troop 1 to test and validate his work for 16 years.

The Baden-Powells visited Schiff in 1935 and began a steadfast friendship with the Hillcourts.

To encourage the creation of Rovering in the U.S., J. S. Wilson travelled from the UK to oversee a Wood Badge course in May 1936 at Schiff.

Hillcourt was a participant in that first course and four days later, he was the senior patrol leader for the second course.

Baden-Powell died in 1941.

After World War II, Baden-Powell's widow, Olave Baden-Powell, allowed Hillcourt to edit Aids to Scoutmastership into the World Brotherhood Editions to help the Scouting movement recover from the war.

She then allowed Hillcourt access to Baden-Powell's letters, diaries and sketchbooks when she and Hillcourt co-authored the narrative biography of Baden-Powell, Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero.

The BSA national office moved from New York City to North Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1954, and the Hillcourts moved with it.

He completed the sixth edition of the Boy Scout Handbook in time for the BSA's 50th anniversary in 1960.

He was soon hired by the BSA's national office and worked for the BSA until he retired as a professional Scouter in 1965.