Dorothy "Dottie" Pihlblad
Inducted onto the Wall of Fame on April 6, 2024.
Tribute by Jo Nelson
I met Dottie Pihlblad in the 1950s when I was an Intermediate and then Senior Girl Scout in the Jamestown Area Girl Scout Council. Dottie was the kind of woman who you just knew was a Girl Scout and had been for many years. She was kind but firm, compassionate and caring, and very active. She loved the outdoors, camping and kids, and had a wonderful sense of humor.
She directed our council camp, Camp Newatah, on Chautauqua Lake for many years and while I never heard her play it, we found a bugle in our archives that had her name on it. I later found a picture of her playing it at Camp Newatah. She was an active staff member on the Camp Committee while a field advisor and took the 1959 merger of the Jamestown Area, Salamanca Area, and Norther Chautauqua Girl Scout Councils right in stride, staying just as active and committed to Girl Scouting. As the details of the merger were being ironed out, she worked with Ester "Skipper" Keyser while training her daughter, me, and six others as we prepared to go to the 1959 Girl Scout Roundup.
After the merger, she continued to direct camp and became very involved with Girl Scouts in Salamanca where she was adopted into the Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation. In 1963 she became the first day camp director for the Jamestown area girls at what was to become Camp Timbercrest. She continued in that role through 1965 when girls from the entire council were invited to come to day camp. When residence camp began in 1967, she was joined by her daughter, Marty, who worked a couple of years before she married. In the late 1980s Dottie’s son-in-law, Bob, became the Girl Scout board chairman, making Girl Scouting a true family affair.
Dottie was very interested in documenting the creation of Camp Timbercrest and I can remember listening to her as she showed the slides she had taken. She was so proud of our new camp and just beamed as she talked about it. She knew that this camp would be a wonderful place for Girl Scouts of all ages and that hundreds and hundreds of girls and women would leave camp with fond memories that would last a lifetime.
Dottie showed her love and respect for camping and the outdoors to everyone she met and was an integral part of the reason many of us stayed in Girl Scouting. She should be on our Wall of Fame because of the very positive impact that she still has on people of all ages who heard her speak about the outdoors, our environment, and especially about Girl Scouting and our own Camp Timbercrest.
Joanne E. "Jo" Nelson
Camp Timbercrest Director
1969-1978
Inducted onto the Wall of Fame on April 6, 2024.
Tribute by Jo Nelson
I met Dottie Pihlblad in the 1950s when I was an Intermediate and then Senior Girl Scout in the Jamestown Area Girl Scout Council. Dottie was the kind of woman who you just knew was a Girl Scout and had been for many years. She was kind but firm, compassionate and caring, and very active. She loved the outdoors, camping and kids, and had a wonderful sense of humor.
She directed our council camp, Camp Newatah, on Chautauqua Lake for many years and while I never heard her play it, we found a bugle in our archives that had her name on it. I later found a picture of her playing it at Camp Newatah. She was an active staff member on the Camp Committee while a field advisor and took the 1959 merger of the Jamestown Area, Salamanca Area, and Norther Chautauqua Girl Scout Councils right in stride, staying just as active and committed to Girl Scouting. As the details of the merger were being ironed out, she worked with Ester "Skipper" Keyser while training her daughter, me, and six others as we prepared to go to the 1959 Girl Scout Roundup.
After the merger, she continued to direct camp and became very involved with Girl Scouts in Salamanca where she was adopted into the Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation. In 1963 she became the first day camp director for the Jamestown area girls at what was to become Camp Timbercrest. She continued in that role through 1965 when girls from the entire council were invited to come to day camp. When residence camp began in 1967, she was joined by her daughter, Marty, who worked a couple of years before she married. In the late 1980s Dottie’s son-in-law, Bob, became the Girl Scout board chairman, making Girl Scouting a true family affair.
Dottie was very interested in documenting the creation of Camp Timbercrest and I can remember listening to her as she showed the slides she had taken. She was so proud of our new camp and just beamed as she talked about it. She knew that this camp would be a wonderful place for Girl Scouts of all ages and that hundreds and hundreds of girls and women would leave camp with fond memories that would last a lifetime.
Dottie showed her love and respect for camping and the outdoors to everyone she met and was an integral part of the reason many of us stayed in Girl Scouting. She should be on our Wall of Fame because of the very positive impact that she still has on people of all ages who heard her speak about the outdoors, our environment, and especially about Girl Scouting and our own Camp Timbercrest.
Joanne E. "Jo" Nelson
Camp Timbercrest Director
1969-1978
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Friends of Timbercrest preserve, enhance, and promote Camp Timbercrest in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Western New York.
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This website is owned and operated by the Friends of Timbercrest (FOT). It is not an official website of GSUSA or GSWNY.
FOT works in partnership with GSWNY to preserve, enhance, and promote Girl Scout Camp Timbercrest so that it may always be a place where girls can connect with nature, try new things, and build confidence & self-reliance.
FOT works in partnership with GSWNY to preserve, enhance, and promote Girl Scout Camp Timbercrest so that it may always be a place where girls can connect with nature, try new things, and build confidence & self-reliance.