About Bob Scott
Statement
About Bob Scott
I am a native of East Tennessee- with roots here. My great great grandfather, John Stoltzfus, donated the land for the Concord Mennonite Church at Lovell Road. My great grandfather Christian Stoltzfus was chairman of the committee that started Farragut High School and my great aunt Amanda Stoltzfus was principal during the first year. My grandfather, Charles Ferris, was the first dean of engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (he also played on the first U.T. football team).
My father, Bob Scott, came to the University of Tennessee from Memphis and stayed in Knoxville after graduating. He was an insurance man with M.F. Flenniken Co. in Knoxville. I have had strangers come to me, when they heard who I was, and say " your father was the finest man I ever met"-quite a legacy. He was also an athlete- he played basketball for UT and was one of the best handball players and golfers (hole-in-one three times) in Knoxville.
My mother, Katherine (Kitty) Scott is from Knoxville and now resides at Shannondale Assisted Living. My brother, Charlie Scott, played basketball for U.T. and my sister, K. K. (Scott) Cooper, worked for the Knoxville News-Sentinel before going to Florida.
My wife, Julia, is from Knoxville. Her father, John Montgomery was an ophthalmologist and a cattle breeder in Knoxville and McMinn County. Her older brother, John Montgomery Jr. is a retired ophthalmologist, red angus breeder and developer. Her younger brother, Tucker Montgomery is a physician and a lawyer.
Julia and I have been married for 47 years. We have two sons. Rob Scott is a computer engineer with EVENTBOOKING.COM in Knoxville. Joe Scott is a physician in Murfreesboro.
I went to Knoxville High School and West High School and graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in chemical engineering. I also have a masters degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and I attended UCLA. I am a licensed professional engineer (since 1962) in the state of Virginia.
I worked in the chemical industry for 15 years with Dupont, Olin and Shell Chemical Companies in Delaware, Texas, Virginia, California, New Jersey, New York and Alabama. I have worked in design, construction, chemical manufacturing (synthetic rubber, heavy chemicals, pesticides, consumer products and pharmaceuticals), government research and development (Oak Ridge National Laboratory and U.S. Army Signal Corps R&D Laboratory) and economic evaluation of manufacturing projects. I taught at what is now Pellissippi State Technical Community College for 26 years before retiring.
I lived in Arizona, South Carolina, New Jersey and Alaska while in the Army. I had a small farm (2.6 acres with an old barn, steers, sheep, ducks and chickens) near Princeton, New Jersey when I worked in New York City. I acted as my own general contractor in building the house we now live in.
I am currently a member of the following organizations:
Church of the Savior-UCC
Technical Society of Knoxville
Tennessee Ornithological Society
Sierra Club
American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Mensa
American Association of Retired People
Audubon Society
I have been interested in studying nature since I took bird study merit badge in the Boy Scouts and I probably would not have directly gone into a job in industry manufacturing pesticides. When I completed graduate school I went to work for Shell Chemical Company making synthetic rubber. Shell transferred me to the Agricultural Chemicals Division making consumer products, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Most of the people who made pesticides regarded environmental concerns as unwarranted and they had an "us versus them" attitude. I remember being in a meeting to design a new plant and one of the other engineers stopped what he was doing , looked at me and said " Scott, you are the closest thing to a double agent I have ever seen." But, I never did anything I didn't believe was in the long term best interest of my employer and when Shell started the plant the Shell top management gave the plant manager a pointed directive "you will be a good neighbor." Later on, the plant was given an award by the State of Alabama for being a good neighbor.
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