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Title
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Dudgeon, Wesley J.
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The Fl int J ou1
C-8
'We roughe.d it''
Ex-lea,d er rec.alls ea
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By CAROL J. WI NDSOR
Jouri1al Clio Bureau
CLIO - The maver ick minister and
his Boy Scout troop found a wooden
plank for a table and then went hunting
for a frog leg dinner.
That was decades ago near Grass
Lake.
'' Now boys li ve in nice cabins and
have everything. We 'd put a pack on our
backs and blankets around our necks.
We roughed i t ," said the Rev. Wesley
Dudgeon.
Besi des bem g a self-proclaimed
maverick minister, Mr. Dudgeon was
one of t he earliest Boy Scout troop
leaders. He becam e a troop leader in
1914 when the scouting movement was
four year s old.
The Boy Scouts celeb rated the anniversary of their founding this week
and Mr. Dudgeon recalled many earlv
memories of being a leader.
Mr. Dudgeon. 88, of 41 7 Allen, is a
MC'thodist minister. Once when the men
in his chur,ch in Mid land were discussing raising money to send bovs 10 scou t
c<.~mp. his response was, "Wiiut art' you
doing that for? You're destroying ·t he
very thing scout ing was started for."
He said he bel ieves in teachi ng
young men by example, not by comrnand. "We wen t by the laws of scouti ng
and that seemed to be enough."
~ is troop was hiking in the early
spnng once and came to a creek. The
boys were eager to go mto the wate r and
one asked his permisston.
Mr. Dudgeon did not make a
decision fo r them, he just sai d he wasn't
going and let the boys figure out for
themsel ves why.
The Rev. Wesl ey Dud~eon reads a book each day
"Stlow had been in thcrC' not too long
bC'forc. TheY W('t·en't in there long,"
Mr. DudgC'on sai<J.
. F riday, Fe bruary 15, 1974
al, Flint. Michigan
rly days of scouting
HE SAID he "never had a troubl ed
or sick boy. I never gave commands. I
never had to chastise a boy. I wou ldn 't
have done it if I 'd had to."
We nd el l Neeland who was in Mr.
Dudgeon's troop in Clio 50 years ago,
sa td, ' ' I've often thought how he put up
wtth a wild bunch of kids in the chu rch
basement.''
Mr . Dudgeon, who says friend s call
hiln Wes, was a leader for 20 years, first
in Newber ry, then Owosso, Grass Lake.
Clio and the Fenton area.
Today, he and his wife of 63 years.
Mina, recall those early years of their
marriage fondly , bu t with no yearning
to go backwards. The scout wo rk was
one facet of Mr. Dudgeon's Methodist
mmistry, from which he ret ired in 1952.
Mr. Dudgeon's scout troops of th e
past have inCI!Jded four school superinten den ts, a man who began a na t ure
cent er near Mid land and the owner of a
Clio grocery store.
Scouting seems to be a natural extl'nsion of Mr. Dudgeon 's philosophy:
' 'Prayer is useless, unless you live it. "
He said one of his ai ms in life is 10 g row.
lie cx plai ned, "We <.Jrc all <Jblt> to play
more than one role in life."
Dudgeon reads a book a day and
chooses a topic to study each yea r . Thi s
yea r hi s subj ec t is genetics and th e
ballered chi ld, but that doesn' t stop hi m
from reading about Emil y Dickinson,
his favorite poet, or India.
Hi s dail y four-mile wa l k usua lly
leads him past the library, about three
blocks from home. where he takes llis
list or books to be order ed. He sai d,
"The library has been my second home
since the age of 10. "
He illustrates much of his philosophy
and hi s ex penences with quota tions
from his study, choosing first rhe Bible.
then Socrates, Jean Paul Sartre, and of
course, Emi ly Dicki nson.
Mr. Dudgeon said duri ng his 40-yea r
peri od as a minis ter , he has attempted
to teach rel igion as i t appli es to
everyday life. One topic he sugges ted
for a discuss ion group really revived
them. he said.
The topic? " Rel igion, the curse of
the world .· ·
HE R EMEM B ERS the group of ;>(}
wo men he led in weight reduct ior> exer cises at rh e Clio Methodi st Chu r c h.
"They were all in bloomers and middies," he said , remember ing that i t was
during his mini stry th ai the buildiJi g
whi ch now houses th e Fir);! Bapti st
Church in Clio was buill by th e
Methodists.
"If two women were enemtes, I 'd get
them playing games together ," he said .
He and his wi fe met when he succeeded an ailing minister in Unionville
near ·Bay City. When he saw her giving
a commencement add ress and playing
the church organ, he knew he wanted to
marry her even before being i ntroduced
to her, he said.
Mrs. Dudgeon remem bers that she
prayed that God would send her a
min iste r to marry. "Then I heard we
were going to have a substi tute, and I
knew it was him." she said.
When she saw th at the M r. Dudgeon
was short , about five fee t ta ll , she
wasn't happy. She had always wanted a
fa ll man li ke her father. she said. She
~ nd M r . Dudgeon were marr ied wi th in
a yea r . Mrs. Dudgeon is less than fi ve
feet tall.
Mr. Dudgeon's most recent contact
wi th Boy Scouts came Jan . 12, when he-·
was inv ited to an outing i n Thetford
Twp. attended by 10 troops. A snowmobile ride, his first, ca rried him to the.
various stat ions on an 80-acre sire where
scour s we re buil ding fires and demonsrrar i nf outdoor skill s.
One troop he stopped to talk wirh
answered correct ly all the quest ions he
put to them, he sa id. They knew what to
do for snake bi te and how 10 rescue a
drown ing person , he added.
Of his Clio troop of 50 yea rs ago, Mr.
Dudgeon said. "all these fe llows I knrw
as boys are retiring now."
'Mr. Dudgeo"n, however, says, " I intend to keep on keeping on. "
"My Peace I Give to You . .. "
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REV. WESLEY J. DUDGEON, 90, a r~t1rea
member of the Detroit Conference, died
March 13 in the Alachua General Hospital ,
Gainesville, Fla. He leaves his wife, Mina; a
daughter, Mrs. John Biery; and two grandchi ldren . Mr. Dudgeon served churches at
Newberry; Flint: Kearsley; Owosso: Corunna
Ave.; Grass lake; Clio; Bay City: Fremont
Ave.; Mid land; West Branch; Fenton; ·Mt.
Morris; and Flint: Trinity. He retired in 1952.
Formerly of Clio, Rev . and Mrs . Dudgeon had
moved to C. .sea Home this past December
and were visiti ng their daughter and husband
in Florida when he became ill of double viral
pneumonia. The body was cremated and
because of illness to Mrs. Dudgeon no
memorial service is being planned at the
present time.
MINA PEARL DUDGEON died on
March 18, 1980 in Gainesville, Florida. Mrs.
Dudgeon was born in Unionville, Michigan,
a daughter of William and Lily (Newkirk)
Wilson. She attended school in Unionville.
In 1910 she married Wesley J. Dudgeon, then
a student at Boston University School of
Theology. Rev. Dudgeon died in 1976 after
serving forty years in the Detroit Conference
of the UMC. Following his death, Mrs.
Dudgeon moved to Gainesville, Florida. She
is sur vived by her daughter Glee Biery, a
granddaughter Gay Hamilton, and a grandson John D. Biery, all of Gainesville. A
memorial ser vice will be held at Bethany
UMC, Clio, M ichigan on Sunday, April 13,
3:00p.m .
Dudgeon, Wesley J.