William Stephen Scaff

1947 - 2020

BORN

1947

DIED

2020

About

Tustin High School

William Scaff Obituary

May 22, 1947 - October 14, 2020 William Stephen Scaff died of lung cancer, surrounded by friends, in the VA hospital near Sacramento. He was born in Austin, Texas, to Dorothy and William Scaff.William graduated from Tustin High School and studied Art at Orange Coast College. He met lifelong friends, Helen and Bob Sheffer, at the Paradox Club while leading a jug band and providing artwork for posters and fliers. He spent one term at Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles before being drafted and sent to Vietnam.William was fortunate to be assigned to a photojournalism unit, where he became editor and producer of both a magazine and a yearbook. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his exceptional work. While in Vietnam, he made his own field recordings, which later became a collection called The Bong Song Blues.After 14 months he returned to Texas and earned an Arts Degree at Dallas Baptist College. There, he met his first wife, Mary McKenzie (now Cannon). They moved to Pasadena where he soon became involved with Pasadena Filmforum, now Los Angeles Filmforum, where he met his longtime friend and collaborator, Terry Cannon, who died earlier this year. At Filmforum in the 1970's and 80's, he showed some of his Super 8 films, which are currently in the Academy of Motion Pictures. In November of 2010, his films were shown at the Alternative Projections Symposium in conjunction with the Los Angeles Filmforum. In 1983 and '84 William was awarded the Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowship.He met and married his second wife, Carol Lewis, who died at the age of 31 from environmentally caused cancer.He continued his work in art, film, and journalism and in the mid-80's, he met Helen Cooper and her two daughters, and became part of their family.William was also a fantastic creole cook, giving himself the title Chef Guillaume. He loved to celebrate Mardi Gras with exciting parties.William was also the graphic artist for many projects, designing baseball card sets for Little Sun Productions. Later, for the Baseball Reliquary he created the original design for the plaques, trophies, and awards given to the inductees.William remained a dedicated artist and gardener and was in numerous shows in the communities where he lived, especially Pasadena and Nevada City. His fine art included paintings, collages, and found art assemblages. He traveled extensively to visit family, cook, and enjoy his grandniece. He was a kind, fun-natured, easy-going, gentle, non-judgmental, and incredibly loved son, brother, partner, uncle, and stepdad. William was Influential, creative, eccentric, detail-oriented, and immensely talented.William Scaff is pre-deceased by his parents and his two siblings, Suzanne (Sellers) and Lee. He is survived by his nephew, Daniel (and Candice) Sellers, grandniece Elizabeth Rose, long-time companion Helen Cooper, and stepdaughters Corina and Maya Haywood. Memorials will be planned as soon as it is deemed to be safe

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Published by Los Angeles Times on Nov. 10, 2020.

Memories and Condolences
for William Scaff

1 Entry

Kevin Cloud Brechner

November 22, 2020

I met Bill Scaff and his wonderful wife Mary at the Hotel Carver in Pasadena, California in the late 1970s or eqrly 80s. He was friends with Carver resident composer Gary Marston. We shared an interest in film making, so Bill and I were instantly friends, a friendship that lasted 40 years. Pasadena in the 1970s and 80s was a Mecca for creative souls, and Bill was a big part of that scene. He made some films inside the Hotel Carver and did a wonderful series of films documenting Old Town Pasadena. One film I remember had him driving up iconic Colorado Boulevard shooting movies out of the side window of his car, capturing the old buildings, the upper floors of which were often the studios of artists like Richard Jackson, Norman Zammitt, Judy Chicago, Lloyd Hamrol, Don Sorenson, Jan Orbaum, James Mayer, Helga DeKansky, Film Forum, and the Bank Playhouse. Bill Scaff was also a great chef. My favorite memory was when he brought in a dessert tray filled with meringue treats that were photorealistic beige replicas of button mushrooms. You had to bite into the light crunchy sweets to prove they weren't real mushrooms. Bill was a trend setter, and always on the cutting edge of the arts. I would see him every year at the Baseball Reliquary's annual Shrine of the Eternals induction ceremony. which was as much about performance art as it was about baseball. Bill designed and built all the colorful plexiglas plaques awarded to the winners and displayed in the permanent collection of the Baseball Reliquary. Bill was thin, bordering on skinny, and often scruffy looking with a three-day old beard, long before that became a trademark of Millennial men. He often wore a skeptical half smile on his face as he told you about some obscure yet fascinating oddity that he had just learned. It is sad to see him go, but he made a lasting impression on a lot of people.

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