Another One Slipped Through the Cracks in BSA’s IV Files—Dr. Allen Ewalt

We are looking for information on Dr. Allen Clarence Ewalt, who held several positions in the Boy Scouts of America in the mid-1960s to late-1980s.  Records indicate that Dr. Ewalt sexually molested several boys involved in Boy Scouts.

BSA placed Dr. Ewalt in its Ineligible Volunteer Perversion Files in 1965 for his abuse of Scouts.  This step should have resulted in Dr. Ewalt being banned from Scouting for good.  It did not.  Dr. Ewalt went on to hold many more positions and be given several awards in Scouting over the next 20 years, until he was finally removed in 1987 for again sexually abusing Scouts.  Dr. Ewalt’s case is just another egregious example of the complete inadequacy of BSA’s IV File system at effectively keeping child molesters out of Scouting.

Dr. Ewalt was born on September 16, 1940.  He was a Church of Christ member and served in the U.S. Navy from 1959‒1962.  After serving in the Navy, he attended Marshalltown Community College from 1962‒1965.  He was the Scoutmaster of Troop 323 in Green Mountain, Iowa from December 1963 through July 1964.  In 1965, BSA added him to the IV Files for “homosexual activities with the boys in the Troop.”  BSA claimed that adding Dr. Ewalt to the IV Files would “enable [BSA] to identify Mr. Ewalt should he ever again attempt to register in the Scouting program.”  However, as with many other child molesters, the IV Files did not keep Dr. Ewalt out of Scouting.

In 1980, BSA denied Dr. Ewalt’s attempt to register as the Commissioner of Unit 8602 of the Evergreen Area Council in Everett, Washington.  Dr. Ewalt and the Council Executive wrote to BSA National wondering why Dr. Ewalt’s registration had been denied when he had been “a registered Scouter serving either as a Troop Committee Chairman or as a Commissioner” for the Evergreen Area Council for the past six years.  Dr. Ewalt then sent a list to BSA National of all of the different positions he had held and awards he had received for those years, imploring BSA to let him register again.  BSA did.

In 1980, BSA allowed Dr. Ewalt to register on a probationary basis for “two to three years.”  In 1985, Dr. Ewalt abused Scouts again while working as the Camp Health Officer at the Fire Mountain BSA camp.  Scout employees and volunteers became aware of these incidents in 1985, but did not take steps to remove Dr. Ewalt from Scouting until 1987.  We believe he died in 1996.

If you have any knowledge of Dr. Ewalt, any of the Scouting groups he was involved with, or child abuse within Scouting generally, please call us today at 1-888-407-0224 or use our private online form.