Juliette Gordon Low

Back in June of 2014, the First Lady and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by visiting Savannah, Georgia. We had a fabulous time, saw some marvelous sights, and ate some delicious food.

One of the touristy things we did was to visit the home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. Ann has always spoken very highly of her time as a Girl Scout, and I believe those years were very important in forming the woman she has become. And in learning about Ms. Low, I found it very easy to identify with her and how she was able to find a way to make a significant difference on the world we live in.

The Juliette Gordon Low home in Savannah, now a National Historic Landmark.

In learning Low’s life’s story, everything so clearly points to the formation of an organization like the Girl Scouts. As a child she was always interested in the arts, writing plays, poetry, and was skilled in sketching. She and her cousins helped sew clothing for children in the neighborhood. She attended school in Virginia and also in New York City, and did a fair amount of traveling in Europe and in the United States. She even returned to the states during the Spanish-American War to help care for wounded soldiers. So she was definitely a woman of the world who saw and learned a lot of things.

In 1886, she married William Mackay Low at Christ Church (Episcopal) in Savannah [side note—we worshiped in this church during our trip and it was an amazing experience]. They lived in England although she continued her travels. The marriage lasted 19 years, but they were not happy years. They were separated at the time of his death in 1905.

This is where I really started to connect with Ms. Low. Her life was suddenly at a bit of a crossroads, much like mine is at this point.

She spent several years casting about for meaning until 1911 when she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts. In 1912, Low returned to Savannah and created the Girl Guides. The ambition was to teach young girls self-reliance and resourcefulness, and maybe even help them learn about a life as a professional and not necessarily as a homemaker. Starting with 18 Girl Guides, the Girl Scouts USA are now 2.8 million strong, and this organization has shared its values with 59 million women and men worldwide.

And what makes this story more remarkable is that she did all these things despite having back problems and being mostly deaf in both ears for most of her life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1923 but kept on working until she died in 1927. President Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the highest civilian award in the U.S.

Juliette Gordon Low definitely chose the right path—certainly an untraveled path, and made a difference in the lives of countless young girls, my wife and her friends included. Ms. Low found a way to help people and to make a difference, and I truly admire her for finding a way. She serves as a role model to me.