This past month Beaverhead Search and Rescue had one of its pioneer members retire from the unit. Parke Scott was one of the original members of this organization. He joined the group in 1979 putting him at 45 years of dedicated service. Parke is one of the greatest advocates of Search and Rescue you will ever find. He served as Vice Commander for two years and then as Commander for two years. Since then, he has been on the board of directors for numerous terms. He also served on the equipment committee giving directions on what types of equipment the unit should be purchasing. He was also a strong supporter of our two fund raisers, the annual ice fishing derby and the unit’s annual auction.
Parke was one of three members to attend a week-long class called “Managing the Search Function”. It was held in Columbus, Montana back in the early 80’s. He brought back with him valuable information on just exactly how to search for a lost individual. It became a science. This included using topography to limit the search area and contain the individual, knowing how different classifications of individuals respond when lost, as well as many other methods used to find lost people. He helped put Beaverhead Search and Rescue on the map as being one of the top search units in the state. Since that time, he has attended other “Search Management” courses and is retiring as one of the unit’s top ICs (incident commander).
Parke also attended numerous other training courses. One of these was “Man Tracking” put on by Ab Taylor, a renowned man tracker. He attended the class held in Boulder, Mt and then another man tracking course put on up Birch Creek. He has been through avalanche training, swift water training, ATV training, and on and on. Parke takes with him a wealth of knowledge that will be deeply missed by the unit. And his knowledge of Beaverhead County is unmatched by anyone else in the unit.
Thank you, Parke, for your years of dedication and service to this outstanding organization. You and your experience will be greatly missed. Please give Parke a hardy thank you when you see him out and about. You can bet if the unit gets in a tight bind, we’ll be calling.
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