Jan 17, 2018 By Jacob Calvin Meyer staff Writer jmeyer@thealmanac.Net 5 min read

According to ScoutingMagazine.com, only 2 percent of all Boy Scouts have earned Eagle Scout since it became the organization’s ultimate award in 1912.

That makes the fact that Brian Martin of Peters Township and his two sons, Tim and Connor, all earned their Eagle, a statistically rare feat. But the Martin family didn’t stop there, as Brian’s two youngest sons, twins Kevin and John, both earned their Eagle last year at Troop 4 at St. Louise de Marillac in Upper St. Clair, giving the Martin family five Eagle Scout awards.

“I’m really proud,” Brian said. “When you get to 14 or 15 years old there are a lot of things competing for your time. They were all involved in swimming and other things and they still made time for scouts. They thought it was important. I think they appreciated the organization and discipline they learned from scouts, and you have to have that to get your Eagle.”

The Martin Eagle Scout tradition started about 50 years ago, when Brian joined Troop 131, which was right behind his house in New Jersey. He originally joined because he liked the outdoors aspect of being a Boy Scout, but he got hooked on the relationships he made, which he said played a big part in who he is today as a metallurgical engineer.

“When I got older, scouts got me started in kind of being interested in engineering, which is now my career, and there were really some great people who mentored me along the way,” Brian said. “That’s why I thought scouting was important and why I wanted my kids to do it and I wanted to help kids the same way people helped me when I was younger.”

Brian’s wife Tonya Martin said her husband let the kids choose what activities they did growing up, but it was well known he wanted them to be scouts.

“My husband, he felt like he owed his career to scouts,” Tonya said. “He always hoped our boys would be involved.”

Brian and Tonya’s first son, Tim, wanted to do what Dad did, so he became a Boy Scout in Troop 4. Then Connor, like most younger brothers, wanted to do what his older brother did, so he became a Boy Scout, as did Kevin and John like Connor and Tim.

“They saw their brothers do that, and I think they learned a lot from watching their older brothers on how they developed their leadership skills and handled the other scouts,” said Brian, who was an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 4. “You could see them building on each other.”

When Connor, now 22 years old, first joined Cub Scouts as a child, he didn’t really enjoy it, so he stopped. But he said being a Boy Scout was something that he was expected to do, and if it weren’t for his older brother Tim, now 26, or his Dad, he may not have stayed in it.

“There were times when I was younger when I didn’t really like it or I didn’t get along with some people,” he said. “My parents kept telling me to keep trying at it, and that taught me that sometimes in life you have to put the work in before you get the reward or the satisfaction.”

The Martin boys weren’t just Boy Scouts, but rather they excelled. Tim, Connor and Kevin, now 18 years old, were all senior patrol leaders, and John, Kevin’s twin, was an assistant senior patrol leader. Brian said the natural competition among brothers drove the four of them to try to be the best scouts they could be.

“It may not have been at the forefront all the time, but I think in the back of their minds they were always trying to top what their other brother did, whether it was in swimming or in scouts, they were all competitive,” Brian said.

Brian said the leadership all four of his sons learned as Boy Scouts are transferable to the real world, especially the project each scout has to do to earn his or her Eagle. Tim led a group to gather bikes to donate the parts to a nonprofit that send medical equipment to third world countries. Connor’s project collected books for a female orphanage in Kenya. Kevin collected clothes for an orphanage in Mexico, and John led a group to gather medical equipment, similar to Tim.

“(That leadership) carries on in adulthood,” Brian said. “When they come back from college, they know how to lead people and they’re organized. To see them use the skills that they developed in scouts out in the work world and in school and in athletics is pretty rewarding to see.”

Now, Kevin and John are both freshmen at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. Tim graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland four years ago and is now a software engineer. Connor, the middle son, is a senior at Penn State and is in the ROTC Air Force program. After he graduates this semester, he plans to go to his first duty station in Mississippi.

Connor said many different aspects of being a scout prepared him for the military, but “servant leadership” is the top contributor.

“Servant leadership is the thing that was always stressed to me by my scoutmasters and other scouts. When you’re put into a position of leadership, it’s not about you getting what you want it’s about making sure the people under you get what they deserve,” Connor said. “Boy scouts set me up for the rest of my life in terms of leadership.”

Brian and Connor both realize that being a Boy Scout isn’t for everyone. But that’s not the case for the five Eagle Scouts in the Martin family.

“It was just natural for us to be in scouting,” Connor said.