Legacy Markers provides commemoratives for Scouts

At age 7 Bob Capurso found his calling in life: Scouting.

He started as a Cub Scout and his since gone on to earn the Silver Beaver Award, the most prestigious award in volunteer scouting. In between that time Capurso was a cubmaster, a scoutmaster, he ran a junior leader training course and took a local troop to the National Scouts Jamboree. Today Capurso is an eagle advisor responsible for approving Eagle Scouts’ projects. He also assists Camp Dittmer in Phelps, Ontario County, with maintenance projects on the weekends.

Outside of scouting, the Bergen, Genesee County, resident worked as a design engineer at Kodak for 34 years before retiring in 2010.

In 2016, Capurso started his own business dedicated to scouting. Legacy Markers offers grave markers for scouting alumni. Capurso, 64, was inspired to make the markers after seeing his father-in-law’s World War II grave marker. He thought it would be nice to get something for his father—who was also a Boy Scout—but there was nothing on the market.

“Having a CAD (computer-aided design) background from Kodak, I have a CAD computer here and I started cranking out a medallion,” says Capurso. “It has a 5-inch diameter with the Boy Scouts emblem on it, and they’re cast in solid brass. The uniqueness of my medallion is—in fact I have two patents on it—the rank or title of the person is interchangeable. So I can make the indicators say Scoutmaster, Silver Beaver, Eagle Scout, et cetera.”

The first obstacle Capurso encountered was finding a manufacturer that has licensing for Boy Scouts of America. After reaching out to BSA he found Crown Awards, located in New Rochelle, Westchester County, which is BSA-licensed and agreed to manufacture the markers.

Accompanying the marker is a stake and a flag, both of which are made on American soil. The indicators are assembled by Mike Krahe, who does machining in Brockport. Except for the machinist and manufacturer, Capurso runs the company solo and handles design, advertising and sales.

Legacy Markers reaches clients around the country, including Texas, Illinois and New Jersey. Capurso finds that most of his clients come from eBay.

Capurso goes to roundtables or monthly meetings for scouting districts to advertise Legacy Markers locally. He sets up a table to show off his markers and spread awareness about his business to other local Scouts.

The markers are on the pricey side at $189 apiece, but Capurso sees many troops coming together and pitching in for a grave marker for their scoutmaster.

In addition to the markers, Capurso offers ceremonies to grieving families looking to celebrate the life of their loved one who was involved in scouting.

“I offer my services and my wife does a little script for people to do a ceremony,” explains Capurso. “We did a really nice ceremony in Dansville for a gentleman who was a professional scouter in Rochester. He passed away after retiring, and he was pretty young. We had a local Boy Scout troop come and we had a young man play Taps. A chaplain came and said a prayer at the gravesite and she put the marker and the flag in place and the boys saluted. It was quite moving.”

Capurso is currently working on making a petite version of the markers for past scouters resting in a mausoleum.

“One of the things that I keep hearing back from people is that their dad is in a mausoleum and the markers I’m making now are too big,” says Capurso. “So I’m working toward making a 2.5-inch diameter medallion that would fit on the face of a drawer. It will still have room for an indicator of their preference.”

Looking to the future, Capurso is aiming to expand into making markers for organizations without a registered trademark.

“The Silver Lake Association, which I’m a member of, wanted to have markers for people who passed away,” he says. “They don’t have a registered trademark, but their emblem is a sea serpent, so I created a marker with a sea serpent and Silver Lake Association on it. Again, the indicator will have their title like past president or past treasurer.”

Capurso passed his passion for scouting to his three children. He was the leader of his sons’ troop—Troop 133 in Churchville—and his wife was the leader of his daughter’s Girl Scouts troop. Both of Capurso’s sons made it to Eagle Scout and his daughter earned her Gold Award in Girl Scouts. It only seems right for the tradition to continue with Capurso’s grandchildren.

Capurso’s entrepreneurial side came out later in life, and, when it did, he made use of his past and encourages others to do the same.

“Use whatever resources and people from your past that you can,” he says. “Contacts I had through Kodak and through scouting really helped. Talking to people and networking is the key.

“Don’t get discouraged if things don’t go the way you think they will,” he adds, “because there are always ways around things. You just have to persevere and look at other avenues.”

Small Business is a biweekly feature focusing on local entrepreneurs. Send suggestions for Small Business stories to Reporter/Editorial Assistant Nicole Sheldon at [email protected]. (585) 363-7031