Richard Dick Scott

Mr. Richard P. ?Dick' Scott, 85, of Johnson City, passed away Sunday, November 19, 2017, at NHC Health Care. Dick was born in Tokyo, Japan, on April 6, 1932. He was the son of Ralph Walker Scott and Rose Ferraris Scott and the brother of Michel R. Scott, all of whom predeceased him. Dick was educated (grades 1-12) in Frankfurt, Germany, San Francisco, California and West Hartford, Connecticut, where his father held professorships at the time he was growing up. He graduated from State Teachers College in Salisbury, Maryland in 1954, earned his BA degree in 1956 from University of MD, and was awarded his MLS in 1958 from Catholic University of America. In 1959, he began employment at the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. as Head Research Librarian; a job he ?loved' for the next 37+ years and proved time and again his professionalism, dedication and conscientiousness in serving the information needs of the Foundation demanding staff. His career spanned a period of the most remarkable change in the tools of library and information service from the days of card catalogs and microfiche to the days currently of the internet and World Wide Web. Dick eagerly adopted new computer information tools to imprve services to his beloved National Science Foundation actively seeking out new software tools, professional training, and keeping up with the rapid changes in products and services. Evidence of this was his well-deserved reputation as the most expert dialog database searcher in the Foundation. After nearly four decades of service to the Science Foundation, he was presented with numerous awards and citation by co-workers and the Federal Government; for his high degree of training, great knowledge of online searching and cataloging, and expert knowledge of NSF documents and publications. His retirement in 1996 was greeted with great praise as well as great sadness by those co-workers for whome he did research. He was married in 1981 to a Johnson City native, Dawn Janelle Mauk, who he called his ?Edelweiss' because they both loved the mountains and hills of East Tennessee so much. After retirement in 1996, they returned to Johnson City because they both said they wanted to be ?planted' in these beautiful red clay hills where (until health prevented) they hiked and took photographs of God?s beauty. Dick and Dawn were members of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, where Dick always wanted to sit on the back row (right in front of the sound booth), where he said he could always hear so much better. Survivors include his wife of thirty-six years, Dawn Mauk Scott, and several cousins in New York and California. There will be a memorial service for Dick at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church on Sunday, November 26, 2017 at 3:00 PM in the sanctuary with Pastors Gerald Casson, Ken Lytton, and Hubert Shropshire officiating. The graveside committal service will be conducted privately in the future at Carr Family Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Diabetes Foundation, the Johnson City/Washington County Animal Shelter or Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church.