John L. Scott Jr.
1923 – 2010

PLANTATION, Fla. — The Rev. John L. Scott Jr., 86, of Auburn and Davie, Fla., died peacefully on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Westside Regional Medical Center after a long illness.

He was born in Lewiston, March 27, 1923, son of John L. Scott Sr. and Alice Beaumont Scott. He enlisted and served with the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. In 1945, he graduated from Bates College and continued his studies at Seabury Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., graduating in 1949.

He was ordained priest on March 25, 1950, at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland. During his 59-year ministry, he touched countless lives in the communities and congregations of St. James Church, Old Town, All Saints Church, Springfield, Mass., Grace Church, Amherst, Mass., St. Paul’s Church, Norwalk, Conn., the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York, N.Y., Trinity Church, Lewiston, St. Michael’s Parish, Auburn and, for the past 17 years, he served as a retired assistant priest at St. Benedict’s Church in Plantation, Fla.

Active in the 1960s civil rights movement, he was honored to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. He also served as chaplain and professor of religious studies at St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s Independent School in New York, N.Y., from 1974 to 1983.

A man who lived in constant awe and wonder of the Lord’s divine creation, ‘Father John’ will also fondly be remembered enjoying the simplicities of more ‘earthly’ pleasures: breakfast with the ‘regulars’ at Roy’s Hamburgers, a burger and hot chocolate at Taber’s on a cool summer evening and companionable conversation overlooking another ‘most memorable’ sunset from the porch at Taylor Pond. One phrase guided his life from beginning to end: “Our Father who art in Heaven…” Indeed!

He married his beloved wife, Barbara S. Grant in September 1954; she predeceased him in August 1994.

He is survived by two sons, the Rev. John L. Scott III and wife, Cynthia, of Burnt Hills, N.Y., and Christopher E. Scott and wife, Luisa, of Poland; a sister, Jean Scott Holcombe and husband, John, of Columbia, S.C.; his four grandchildren, Nicholas, wife, Sarah Robinson and great-grandson, Noah of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Andrew, Joanna and Aidan of Burnt Hills, N.Y.

He was predeceased by a brother, William L. Scott; and two sons, Martin and Nicholas.

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