Robert Scott

1944 - 2019

Robert Andrew Scott
Dec 2, 1944 - Dec. 7, 2019
Robert A. Scott left this world for the Abhá (Most Glorious) Kingdom on December 7 at age 75. He and his wife Wendy lived in Ceres for 41 years, and he will be sorely missed.
Born in Detroit on December 2, 1944, Bob was a gifted musician who had studied clarinet with some of the best, including his first teacher, Robert Willaman, who had played with the original Sousa Band. Bob was a graduate of Michigan State University, which he felt loyalty towards and had supported ever since. There he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and a Master's in Woodwind Specialist. He studied with Pasquale Cardillo of the Boston Symphony and Pops, Paul Schaller of the Detroit Symphony, and Keith Stein, formerly with the Chicago Symphony before he became Bob's professor at MSU. Bob decided to move to California after he played in the MSU Marching Band for the Rose Bowl in 1966.
Besides playing in many bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles, Bob taught music in the Castro Valley Unified School District from 1975 until his retirement in 2006. During his time there, he had Rachel Maddow of MSNBC as a student when she was around ten. She wrote that "he was a great teacher." Before that, he had taught woodwinds and directed the bands at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, and then spent a year in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands teaching elementary school music.
Locally, after moving to Ceres with their son Drew in 1988, he and Wendy, then a contrabassist, started playing with several orchestras, including in the pit of the Townsend Opera (now Opera Modesto). They traveled to the USSR with the Cal-State Stanislaus Orchestra to perform five concerts in Ukraine in 1990.
After retiring from Castro Valley, he taught instrumental music for about 7 years at St. Stanislaus School, as well as chamber music and woodwinds at Modesto Junior College for over a decade. He also played in the MJC bands and orchestra. He is remembered by colleagues with a fondness for his musical knowledge, as well as his friendly and helpful nature. He also had many private students. He organized several chamber ensembles that gave free concerts over the years. And of course, he often played with MoBand.
Bob was a dedicated member of the Bahá'í Faith and had opportunities to share his talents at several major events including an orchestra for the Bahá'í World Congress in 1992 in New York City and at Carnegie Hall in 2002, one of the biggest thrills of his life. His wife and son sang in the choir for that concert. Bob made a pilgrimage to the Bahá'í holy places in Israel in 2006, also with his family.
He volunteered and organized the local Bahá'í members to clean up a section of Highway 99 for about a decade, taught reading in the Learning Quest program, joined the nonpartisan Citizens Climate Lobby, and donated over 13 gallons of blood over the years.
He is survived by his wife, Wendy Colton Scott, his son Andrew Lawson Scott and his wife Leslie Sablan Scott, his two grandchildren Lua Claire Scott and Joseph Colton Scott, as well as his brother Walter Scott and stepdaughter Anissa Gerdts.
A service will be held at Franklin & Downs Funeral Home in Ceres on Friday, December 27 at 10:00 a.m. followed by burial in the Plainsburg Cemetery where many of Wendy and Drew's ancestors are interred. Donations may be made to the MJC Foundation.
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