By Khalida Sarwari
Hank Aaron, Neil Armstrong and Bill Gates may have come from different walks of life, but all three are familiar with the motto: Be Prepared. It’s the motto of the Boy Scouts, the one that scouts attempt to live up to as they navigate the teenage years to adulthood. Standing behind every scout on this journey is a great scoutmaster.
For the last dozen or so years, that person for Saratoga’s Boy Scout Troop 535 has been Joe Beyers. After 400 scout outings–including a weeklong sailing trip in the Bahamas, backpacking through the mountains of New Mexico, sleeping in the snow in the Sierras and camping at Manresa State Beach–Beyers is stepping down as the troop’s scoutmaster. He will be replaced by Walter Spector, one of the troop’s assistant scoutmasters.
“I love nurturing those boys and setting a good example for them over those years,” Beyers said. “When you’re in charge, you’re really accountable for their development. I take a very personal interest in all the boys. It’s a personal disappointment if any of them don’t succeed.”
Success is a mark of Troop 535, one of the oldest troops in Saratoga which has more than 40 scout members, including some who reside in the neighboring cities of Cupertino, Campbell and San Jose. This year alone, 11 boys made Eagle, the highest rank that can be reached in the organization. Beyers’ own three sons and stepsons each achieved their Eagle rank.
Patrizia Fazeli, the mother of Kayvon Fazeli, a member of Troop 535 who recently became an Eagle Scout, said Beyers is the anchor of the troop. He’s also always prepared. Beyers is the kind of guy, she said, who takes along an extra shovel or three or four extra sleeping bags on outings.
“One of the things that he’s always had is a big heart. If scout members can’t afford to go on a trip or something, he’ll say, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and sure enough it’ll come out of his own pocket,” said Fazeli. “He has always had this very generous heart and is always there for the boys.”
Beyers started with the Boy Scouts in 1988 as an adult leader assistant for the Cub Scouts, and then followed his eldest son to the Boy Scouts, serving as assistant scoutmaster, then back to the Cub Scouts when he started a pack at the Saratoga Elementary School and became their cubmaster for the next four years. He then switched back to the Boy Scouts, becoming an assistant scoutmaster, and finally, scoutmaster.
“It’s been an incredible 25 years,” Beyers said.
Beyers had an upbringing quite different to the Silicon Valley life he leads now. Before moving to Saratoga in 1984 after living in Loveland, Colo., for some time, he grew up on a farm in Illinois, where his family owned hogs, chickens and cattle. His parents, who are now in their 90s, are still farmers. Farm life helped him build “quite a work ethic” when he was growing up, Beyers said.
“I used to get up in the morning and collect 1,000 eggs before I went to school,” he said. “Some of these kids can’t even get up out of bed. Imagine doing that every morning.”
Beyers went on to graduate from the University of Illinois and later worked at Hewlett-Packard for 34 years, serving as the company’s vice president for 25 years.
Part of the reason he is resigning from his scoutmaster job is to focus on his Cupertino-based startup, Inventergy, an intellectual property business where he serves as CEO and chairman. The company is expected to go public in the next six months and is undergoing rapid transitions, Beyers said.
But it’s not adieu to Beyers just yet. He plans to stay involved as an assistant scoutmaster over the next three years.
Aside from giving him time to run his startup, retirement from scoutmaster duties may allow Beyers to focus on his hobbies, which include running and skiing, and his family. He has two adult sons and a daughter from his first marriage and three stepchildren from his second wife, Kathy.
Troop 535 alumni and friends have a chance to wish Beyers well at a retirement party on Dec. 21 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the gymnasium at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, 13601 Saratoga Ave., Saratoga.
