10 Facts About Josephus Stevenot

Josephus Hamilton Stevenot was an American entrepreneur and US Army officer in the Philippines with many accomplishments, but today mostly remembered in the Boy Scouts of the Philippines as a co-founder.

Josephus Emile Hamilton "Joe" Stevenot was born in Melones, California to Emile Knoepffler Stevenot and Sarah Elisabeth Hamilton Stephens Stevenot.

Emile Knoepffler Stevenot was born in Alsace-Lorraine, trained as a mining engineer, and migrated to the USA to join his father Jean Dieudonne Gabriel Knoepffler Stevenot, a California miner.

Josephus Stevenot recruited his flying instructor Alfred John Croft, and together they established the Curtiss School of Aviation in Camp Claudio, Paranaque, Rizal, where they trained the first 25 Filipino pilots.

In June 1941, in Washington DC with Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson, Josephus Stevenot urged closer cooperation between Philippine Army Field Marshall Douglas MacArthur and US Army Philippine Department Commander Maj.

Josephus Stevenot performed the paper work, obtained the support of six prominent national personalities to lend their names as incorporators, and lobbied the Philippine National Assembly for a legal charter, imitating the Congressional charter obtained by the Boy Scouts of America from the United States Congress.

Josephus Stevenot's efforts resulted in a legislative bill sponsored by Assemblyman Tomas Valenzuela Confesor and signed into law as Commonwealth Act 111 by Pres.

In 1939, Josephus Stevenot supported the establishment of a Girl Scout organization by sending Josefa Llanes Escoda to the United States and Britain for training.

Josephus Stevenot was buried in New Caledonia but was later exhumed by the US Army and his friend fellow Boy Scouts of the Philippines charter member Don Gabriel Daza, and his remains were later buried with full Scouting honours at La Loma Cemetery in the Philippines.

Forty years later, Josephus Stevenot's wife passed in California and one of Josephus Stevenot's daughters and Daza brought the ashes to the Philippines to be buried along with her husband.