When most people think of Scouting, they think of the milestones: earning a merit badge, advancing in rank, reaching Eagle Scout, etc. But for Matt Read – an Eagle Scout, former advertising executive and marketing professor at Le Moyne College, and now co-host of the PBS cooking show Spatchcock Funk – one of Scouting’s most lasting gifts was something less visible: the confidence to fall, recover, and keep going.
“No Scout learns a skill perfectly on the first try,” Read said. “In Scouting, and in life, embarrassment is the cost of entry.” Tying a square know may take several attempts, and those first camp meals do not always go as planned. But, he said, young Scouts quickly learn that failure is survivable. He emphasized that a lesson breeds a willingness to try again. Over time, that resilience became one of the defining traits of Read’s professional life.
After graduating from high school in Baldwinsville, Read attended Hartwick College, where he studied psychology and sociology. From there, he took a chance on a position at Ogilvy & Mather, the global advertising, marketing, and public relations firm based in New York City. “I was competing against candidates from top-ranked business schools with marketing degrees,” he said. “But what I found out later was that they were impressed with my background as an Ele Scout. hy figured if I could overcome obstacles and achieve the Eagle rank, I could learn the skills necessary to be successful in this field.”
After starting his career at Ogilvy, Read returned to Central New York, where he held a series of advertising marketing roles before joining Eric Mower & Associates (now Mower), the nationally recognized firm headquartered in Syracuse. It was there that Read was encouraged to teach an adjunct class at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. During that semester, Read quickly discovered his love for teaching. When a full-time opening became available at Le Moyne College in 2017, he took the leap and reinvented himself once again. This time as a professor of creativity, advertising, and public relations. In the classroom, he drew on another lesson from Scouting, one he learned as a Patrol Leader “If you want people to learn something, make it fun and make it entertaining.”
That instinct for making things engaging extended beyond the classroom. In 2019, Read took another swing with his close friend, award-winning videographer, and Creative Director Alex DeRosa. Together the two launched a cooking show built around stories, food, and fun. The result was Spatchcock Funk, which began online and had a steadily expanding audience. Currently, the show airs on PBS in more than 75 cities. After nearly six years of building the project, Reade and DeRosa concluded that taking it to the next level would require their full attention. In May 2025, Read left Le Moyne College to focus on the show full time – a decision that already appears promising with the interest from multiple brands and streaming services.
Ironically, although Read has showcased Scout-learned cooking skills on the show – including Dutch oven peach cobbler and foil stew, the latter of which he cooked on a car engine – he said the most valuable lessons Scouting gave him were not culinary. He points instead to the planning required for a trek to Philmont. “We had seven or eight activities that we had to plan for,” he said. “We had to be prepared for multiple contingencies for our back up plans. We do the same exact thing when we hold a live event or plan a show, because you never know what is going to happen.” Still, Read said, the most important lesson Scouting taught him was how to work with other people.
In an era where technology can isolate as much as it connects, he believes that skill matters more than ever – especially for young people. “As a Scout, you have to learn how to work with your patrol to get things done.” he said. “These are critical social skills that, unfortunately, many kids are not learning today, which is why Scouting remains both necessary and relevant.”