Kit, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, was active in Girl Scouting locally, nationally, and internationally for over 80 years. In December 1917 she was the first girl in the Red Clover Troop in Newport to step forward to be “pinned” as a new Girl Scout member, and that troop was the first Rhode Island troop to be registered with the National Girl Scout Headquarters in New York.
A few years later, at a time when most adult Girl Scouts were volunteers, Kit became one of the first professional Girl Scout workers in Rhode Island. She went on to become a longtime member of the National Girl Scout staff, specializing in camping and out-of-doors.
After eight years on the national staff, she was “lent” to UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), under the auspices of the United States Department, to help set up a refugee camp for 10,000 people in the Egyptian desert. Following this, she went up to Greece where she was responsible for recreational and vocational training for 50,000 girls and boys who with their families had fled wartime German occupation. At the end of this assignment, the Greek Minister of Welfare cited “her devotion, belief, and precious contribution” and thanked “the American girl whose help and encouragement contributed so much to the Children’s Camps of 1945.”
That “American girl” continued for almost five more decades to care about good camping and out-of-doors, and Girl Scouting. As a trainer and writer, Kit is known and revered by thousands of girls and adults who have been captivated by her skills, her creativity, her enthusiasm, and her belief in the values (and fun) of good camping and out-of-doors experiences. Her writing, in her books and in many periodicals, is straightforward, practical, and convincing – all “bestsellers,” crammed with new ideas and variations of old ones. She directed all sorts of camps and conducted workshops and training courses all over the United States and beyond – in Latin America, England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Belgium.
Catherine “Kit” Tilley Hammett