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Scott, Thomas D.
Thomas D. Scott WWII
Thomas D. Scott WWII
  
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Date of Birth: 8/4/1923
Died On: October 28, 2018
Street Address: Blind Brook Lodge
Service Number: unknown
Branch of Service: U.S. Army-WWII


Veteran Code: UNK-64


BIOGRAPHY Extended Information
 

Thomas Dunlop Scott
Thomas D. Scott was born August 4, 1923, in Larchmont, N.Y., to Thomas Dunlop Scott and Katherine McKean Scott. He had two brothers Fred and Andrew. In Rye his family lived in Blind Brook Lodge and were members of the Presbyterian Church.

Thomas attended Rye High School and graduated from White Plains High School. Growing up, his grandparents were the center of the large Scottish-American family that included Tom’s two brothers and three cousins. These six boys grew up together as brothers.

Tom enlisted and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was attending Syracuse University at the time of his enlistment.

Tom received military training at the University of Alabama, Amherst, and finally at Camp Maxey, Texas, before being sent overseas in September, 1944. As a member of the 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, he saw action during "the Battle of the Bulge" in Belgium and Germany.

The 99th Infantry Division, outnumbered five to one, inflicted estimated casualties on the Germans in the ratio of eighteen to one.
The division lost about 20% of its effective strength, including 465 killed and 2,524 evacuated due to wounds, injuries, fatigue, or trench foot; German losses were much higher. In the northern sector opposite the 99th, this included more than 4,000 deaths and the destruction of 60 tanks and big guns.

Historian John S.D. Eisenhower wrote, "... the action of the 2nd and 99th Divisions on the northern shoulder could be considered the most decisive of the Ardennes campaign.

Tom was invalided home in January, 1945 with trench foot. He convalesced at Camp Butner and completed his three years of army service as a weapons instructor at West Point..

Tom graduated from Syracuse University in 1948 with a Bachelor’s degree and then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The two degrees were obtained over a twenty-year period interrupted by WWII, work and starting a family.

Back at Syracuse University, he completed his undergraduate degree. The University selected him to be their Syracuse-in-China Representative to West China Union University in Chengdu, China in 1949. He taught history and then literature there until the overthrow of the government by Mao led him, and other foreigners, to be expelled from the country in 1951. His journey out of China is a story in and of itself.


His interest in the Far East led him to take a job with the Asia Foundation in Hong Kong in 1952. In 1954, he returned to the US to marry Mary Denison of Skaneateles, New York. They lived in Hong Kong and Singapore where their two daughters were born. In 1959 they returned to the US and Tom finished his long relationship with Syracuse University by earning his MPA.

His early work with the Asia Foundation, and his subsequent work with the Peace Corps in its infancy, the Foreign Policy Association, and the Ford Foundation (that took him to the Middle East and East Africa), was aimed at supporting people’s efforts to improve their own lives. His last job in International Programs in the State University of New York allowed him to merge his interest in the world with his love of education.

In 1989, he retired and he and Mary moved to Venice, Florida. His retirement years gave him the opportunity to enjoy his love of opera, birdwatching and traveling with his wife, and reading widely and deeply.

Throughout his life, Tom was an active volunteer. He was a member of both the Hong Kong and Singapore Junior Chamber of Commerce and became a JC Senator. In Maryland he was active in the civil rights movement. In retirement he served a term as President of the Venice Opera Guild and he and Mary produced the organization’s newsletter for many years.


Tom will be sorely missed. He will be remembered for his love of family and his generosity, quick wit, marvelous sense of humor and his never-ending intellectual curiosity about the world and the people in it.

Thomas Dunlop Scott, 95, died at home, surrounded by his family on Sunday, October 28, 2018 in Sarasota Florida. Private memorial services will be followed by interment of his ashes in the Scott family plot at Kensico Cemetery, New York in the spring.

At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary D. Scott, his two daughters: Helen Margaret Scott and her husband George Barnett; Katherine MacKinnon Scott and her husband Peter Hanson; his grandchildren, Denison S. Ryan, Charlotte Wolbrodt, Nathan Barnett and Katie R. Hampton, and his three great grandchildren: Morgaine, Vivianna and Theo.

Name: Thomas Dunlop Scott Race: White Age: 18 Birth Date: 4 Aug 1923 Birth Place: Larchmont, New York Residence Place: Syracuse, New York Registration Date: 30 Jun 1942 Registration Place: Syracuse, New York, USA Employer: Student, Syracuse U Weight: 155 Complexion: Light Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Brown Height: 5'' 11" Next of Kin: Nina S. MacIntyre
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5 of 5 thomas d scott March 25, 2021
Reviewer: robin russell  
he had been a member of rye presbyterian church

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