By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY

Staff Writer
After 40 years, the East Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America has renamed its summer camp on the southside of the Pamlico River in honor of the Boddie family of Rocky Mount, long-time supporters of the Boy Scouts in eastern North Carolina and owners of several restaurant chains in the area.
The announcement was made by Al Patrick, a Greenville lawyer who served as chairman of the ECC-BSA’s Camp Renaming Committee.
The camp, currently known as Camp Bonner, will be named Camp Boddie effective tomorrow. The part of the Herbert C. Bonner Scout Reservation located on the southside of the Pamlico River, which will contain Camp Boddie, will be renamed the East Carolina Scout Reservation, according to a press release from Council Executive H. Ray Franks.
The reservation, located near Blounts Creek, is also home to the nationally-accredited Pamlico Sea Base, which provides water-based activities for older Scouts.
The Boy Scouts have camped at this location for over 40 years. The property was purchased from Weyerhauser and private landowners and was opened in 1969, according to the ECC.
It will be dedicated at a ceremony to be held June 19.
The soon-to-be renamed Camp Boddie provides camping opportunities for more than 10,000 Scouts served by the East Carolina Council. The Boy Scout’s annual summer residence camp is held at the 950-acre site, as well as year-round camping, training and recreational activities for Boy Scouts from throughout eastern North Carolina.
The council executive board had never officially named the property and it was only “by default and custom” that it carried the Bonner name, said Washington lawyer Herman Gaskins, a former president of the East Carolina Council.
The renaming of Camp Bonner to Camp Boddie will also help attendees end up at the right location for their activities and camping trips because in past years many Scouts have first arrived at a site on the wrong side of the river, only to have to make an hour-long trip to arrive at the right location, according to Patrick.
And, although the name of Herbert C. Bonner, a former Congressman from Beaufort County, has been dropped from the site, the Bonner name will still be an active part of scouting in eastern North Carolina because a camp on the northside of the Pamlico River will continue to carry the family name, Gaskins said.
The Herbert C. Bonner Scout Reservation, located near Pamlico Plantation along Broad Creek, includes the Camp Herbert C. Bonner Camporee site, the Bonner farm operation and Camp Hannah Bonner, named for the congressman’s mother, which is used by Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Venture Scouts for short-term camping.
The camps on the north side of the Pamlico River were made possible by a bequest from the late congressman with the intent of promoting camping and outdoor activities by the Boy Scouts and other young people from throughout eastern North Carolina.
“Congressman Bonner’s name will remain at the place that it is more appropriate to be named,” said Gaskins.
Herbert C. Bonner, a Washington native, served as secretary to U.S. Rep. Lindsay C. Warren before being elected to Congress in 1940 to represent the 1st Congressional District. He served in that post until his death in 1965. During his tenure, he served as chairman on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, among other committees.
Washington native Jim Hackney III, a former council president, praised the Boddie family for decades of service to scouting in eastern North Carolina.
“They are great folks with a rich scouting heritage,” he said. “And for more than 30 years, they have been extremely generous to the scouting program in eastern North Carolina.”
The Boddie family owns Boddie-Noell Enterprises, which operates over 350 Hardee’s and 35 Texas Steakhouse and Saloon restaurants, among others. When the dining hall at the soon-to-be Boddie Camp burned in 1994, the Boddie family funded a new dining hall and each year the Boddie family holds a golf tournament in Pinehurst which raises over $140,000 a year for the council’s operating budget, according to council officials. Nick, Mayo and William Boddie serve as members of the East Carolina Council Executive Board. Nick Boddie is a past president of the East Carolina Council and a Distinguished Eagle Scout.