Ron Green, CEO of the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, reads a plaque commemorating Chancellor Tom George as a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award before presenting it to him Saturday at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. (Photo courtesy of the Greater St. Louis Area Council)

Ron Green, the Scout Executive and CEO of the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, presented University of Missouri–St. Louis Chancellor Tom George with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award on Saturday evening at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center.

The presentation occurred before a dinner gathering of the Greater St. Louis Area Scouting Heritage Society with attendees sticking around for the Music City Hit-makers show in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall.

The rank of Eagle Scout remains a high honor achieved by only about 4 percent of individuals who enter scouting. The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award was established in 1969 to acknowledge an even more select group of Eagle Scouts who have received extraordinary national-level recognition, fame or eminence within their field and have a strong record of voluntary service to their community. Eagle Scouts must have earned the rank 25 years prior to be eligible for nomination. The National Eagle Scout Association gives the award upon the recommendation of a committee of Distinguished Eagle Scouts.

Since its inception, the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award has been presented nationally to fewer than one in 1,000 of those who have attained the rank of Eagle Scout.