August 22, 2017 - Announcement of upcoming BSA award to Sir Knight Bill Desmond, member of St. John's Council #1622 and Bishop McNamara Assembly No. 384.
Bill Desmond, center, will receive the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award on Sept. 12, 2017. The award is one of the highest honors bestowed by the Boy Scouts of America. At left is Fred Broadrup, who organizes the annual Gathering of Eagles, where Desmond's award was announced. At right is George B. Delaplaine Jr., the first recipient of the award in Frederick County. Photo by Jim Sundergill.
On Sept. 12, during the annual Francis Scott Key District picnic at the Walkersville watershed, William J. "Bill" Desmond will receive one of the highest honors bestowed by the Boy Scouts of America, the Distinguished Eagle Award. This award is presented jointly by the Boy Scouts and the National Eagle Scout Association to a person who achieved Eagle Scout rank as a youth and went on to have an exemplary career in his adult life. This is only the third such award that has been earned in Frederick County. The first was presented to George B. Delaplaine Jr., the second to the late Joe Davis.
Desmond's career started with the then Atomic Energy Commission in 1967 and progressed through increasingly more responsible positions. Among his more noteworthy assignments, he served as the chief of physical security with the Department of Energy; director of the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention Program doing work throughout the former Soviet Union; and culminating in the position of associate administrator and chief of defense nuclear security for the Department of Energy.
Outside of his professional career, Desmond is a Eucharistic minister for the sick and homebound and in the bereavement ministry at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Frederick, He is also a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus and has served as Grand Knight, Faithful Navigator, district deputy and state secretary.
He has served in various key roles in his Scouting life as well. He has been a den leader with Cub Scout Pack 274, sponsored by St. John's Church, and assistant scoutmaster with Troop 274, sponsored by Trinity United Methodist Church. Desmond has also served as the district chairman of the former Catoctin Mountain District, National Capitol Area Council, and recently served as the district commissioner for the Francis Scott Key District of NCAC.
In both his professional career and his personal life, Desmond is indeed a Distinguished Eagle Scout.
Extracted from Frederick Newspost article dated Aug 22, 2017.