About Us

Troop 47's History

The Early Years

Troop 47's history began in 1967 when Steven L. Darling, pastor of the Methodist Church of Foster City, set up the charter for a Foster City Boy Scout Troop. His church was the original sponsor. Two years later the sponsor was changed to the "Dads of Troop 47", with Clifford H. Lipson as Scoutmaster. Meetings were held at Audubon Elementary School. An exceptional Scoutmaster during the 70's was Frank Marchi. His administration graduated 6 Eagle Scouts, bringing the total to 17 Eagle Scouts in the 1970's.

1980's
In 1984, the Mariner's Island/Foster City Rotary Club became Troop 47's sponsor. Troop 47 moved its meetings to the Foster City Recreation Center. Notable Scoutmasters in the 80's included Rick Ely, Rick Wykoff (former Mayor of Foster City), Rich Meux, Ev Benton, and Tim Hyer. Troop 47 graduated 9 Eagle Scouts in the 1980's.

1990's
In the 1990's, under the leadership of Scoutmasters Rich Cloues II, the late Hank Balough, Don Hanson, Ric Mauricio and Russ Wilder, Troop 47 graduated 28 Eagle Scouts. The 21st Century has brought a new era to Troop 47. Meetings have moved to the new Foster City Community Center building.

2000's
Scoutmaster Alvaro Orozco (Eagle Scout and Troop 47 alumnus from the early 1990's) provided leadership from 2000 until 2002. Tim Hyer returned for a second term from 2003 until 2007 and Jason Quan has provided leadership from 2007 until 2011.

2010's
Mark Watson served as Scoutmaster until 2016, graduating 13 Eagle scouts during his tenure. In Summer 2016, Harry Wang took over as Scoutmaster, serving until 2020. Troop 47 graduated ___ Eagle Scouts during that time.

2020's

In 2020, Danny Gan took over as Scoutmaster. Together with a dynamic group of Assistant Scoutmasters (including Harry Wang, Mark Watson, Tim Hyer and Jason Quan, all former Scoutmasters), he will lead Troop 47 into the rest of the "twenties" years and beyond. 

Troop 47 has graduated over 100 Eagle Scouts. In fact, we are proud to have promoted 102 Eagles since the Troop's inception through July 2017 and still going!

Troop 47 Today

Troop 47 is a very active troop with about 60-80 active Scouts at any given time. We meet every Tuesday during the scout year which normally runs from August through May. As Scouts, we love to camp. So we have campouts once per month plus several additional day outings scheduled throughout the year. We have a strong PLC Program (Patrol Leader Council). We conduct our leadership training in-house, at what we like to call our PLC "Boot Camp". Our program is very much “scout run”. 

Troop 47 is a member of the Redwood District which is part of the Pacific Skyline Council (#031) in San Mateo County. When we are not camping, on an outing, doing community service, or working on merit badge days, we continue to meet on Tuesdays at Foster City Community Center during the school year. 

On July 2017, Troop 47 celebrated its 50th Anniversary. And we look forward to the next 50 years!

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