Scott McMahon

Scott D. McMahon, 58, of San Carlos, CA, passed away peacefully at home on November 24, 2019 with his loving partner Scotty Kirk by his side. After a devastating diagnosis last year of malignant melanoma, Scott pursued extensive medical interventions. When his disease eventually showed widespread progression, he made the courageous decision to spend his remaining months in hospice care. Scott’s family remembers his great love of books and learning. He read widely in law, medicine, philosophy, evolution, architecture, and historical fiction. He enjoyed the music of Debussy, Mahler, Palestrina, Gregorian chant, Benjamin Britten, and other choral music. In high school and college, he composed choral and keyboard music and lyrics, writing hymns, children’s musicals, plays, and poetry. Scott was born in Toledo, OH in 1961 to Shirley Binns, Toledo, and the late Leonard D. McMahon. His stepfather Llewellyn Binns also preceded him in death. His parents-in-law, Sandy and Ken Kirk, and his partner’s aunt, Judy Brown, are also deceased. He graduated from Whitmer High School in 1979 and from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, MI in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Humanities. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN in 1987 and then served faithfully as an ordained Lutheran minister in three churches in Nebraska and Ohio. He received a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Toledo in 1994 and served the university as a philosophy instructor. He also completed a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Legal Assisting Technology at the University of Toledo in 1998. He was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society and the Lambda Epsilon Chi National Honor Society. Scott had great enthusiasm for his career in legal publishing, working for sixteen years as an index editor and as a freelance indexer with LexisNexis, San Francisco, CA. He had extensive and published experience in research, analysis, writing, and management of countless projects. He amassed through indexing his publications an encyclopedic knowledge of the law – substantive and procedural, civil and criminal, federal and state. Scott met his partner Scotty at a party given by friends in 1996. They became domestic partners in California in 2001 and married in 2008. They spent over twenty-three wonderful years together, with travels to Seattle, Portland, OR, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as road trips around northern California. In addition to his partner and his mother, Scott is survived by his stepmother Terry McMahon, Toledo; brother Todd (Kris) McMahon, Summerville, SC; sister Connie Welling, Toledo; sister Ellen (Scott) Swartz, Walbridge, OH; and brother Shawn McMahon, Toledo. He is also survived by his partner’s uncle, David Brown, Shillington, PA; sisters-in-law, Kathleen (Charles) Mohn, Bernville, PA; and Michele (David) Jenks, Stewartstown, PA. His nephews and nieces are Beckie, Brian, Chad, Corey, Hannah, Heather, Jamie, Julia, Karen, Kristin, Rachel, and Samantha. Family and friends are invited to visit with Scott’s family on Saturday, January 4 at 10 a.m. at Friedens United Church of Christ, 337 Main Street, Oley, PA 19547. Rev. Dr. Tyson Frey will officiate at a memorial service at 11 a.m., with a luncheon afterward. In lieu of flowers, Scott has encouraged donations to the National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington DC, 20418, nasonline.org