Obituary: Christopher S. Scott, 1948-2023

Christopher Stuart Scott died peacefully at home in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom on April 2, 2023, one year after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The fourth son of Ohio farm girl Jean (Stephens) and Army Air Corps glider pilot Stuart “Dave” Scott, Chris entered the world at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, N. M., on November 14, 1948, and to his British grandfather’s delight, on the same exact day as future King Charles III and, it should be mentioned, 17 months after aliens purportedly descended upon Roswell.

Being a military family, the Scotts changed residences frequently during Chris’s childhood and lived in Japan, Ohio, Utah and California. Chris’s junior and senior years of high school were spent at the New Mexico Military Institute, where he thrived as a swimmer and broke state records in three separate events. His success as a swimmer earned him a full ride to the University of New Mexico, where he spent one “normal” year of college before accepting a last-minute invitation to attend the United States Air Force Academy’s class of 1971.

Post graduation, Chris spent eight years in the Air Force acquisition community, two years at the National Science Foundation, 17 years in project management instruction with the Department of Defense and, after civil service retirement, another 15 years in project management with a wider commercial community.

Coincident with job gigs, Chris continued his education, earning an MBA from the University of Puget Sound and another master’s in human resource development from American University. His career brought him to Washington D.C.; Seattle; Sacramento and San Diego, Calif.; Munich, Germany; Boston; New York City; and Oxnard, Calif. The final 10 years of his life were spent in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where his wife Sue has deep, ninth-generation roots. He loved Vermont and the fact that he was finally able to view the night sky from his own backyard.

Chris was a lifelong athlete who continued swimming on and off throughout his adult life and coached age-group and masters swim teams. In the summer of 1978, he completed his first marathon, Sacramento, on six weeks of training and quickly graduated to the then eccentric sport of ultrarunning, with an attempt at the Tahoe 72 that year, followed by a finish at the historic JFK 50 miler in 1979. Running, specifically trail running, became his activity of choice, and he completed over 100 50 km, 50 mile, and 100 mile running events over the next 35 years.

Perhaps even more than his own love of running was his love of bringing people together for fun and camaraderie on the trails. Being one of the founding members of the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club was a pivotal point in the union of his love of running and his penchant for race/event organization. On the West Coast, his Coyote Cohorts running events are legendary. Countless friendships around the country can pinpoint a Chris Scott running event as their genesis. In later years, Chris’s ShoeFly runs proved to be popular, biweekly summer gatherings on the trails of northern Vermont and New Hampshire.

Approaching retirement, Chris continued hitting the trails in the form of hiking and backpacking. California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains were perhaps his favorite playground, and a few happy summers were spent traversing the John Muir and High Sierra Trails and numerous other spectacular high-altitude adventures. On the East Coast, Chris hiked and ran about 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail, completed the White Mountain Grid (all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000 foot peaks in every month of the year) after age 65 and traversed Vermont’s notoriously gnarly Long Trail at the age of 70, usually decked out in flashy tights and a Hawaiian shirt. Living near Kingdom Trails provided an easy opportunity to pick up the sport of mountain biking in his seventh decade.

It wasn’t all activity and movement, however. Chris took great joy in feeding the backyard birds and squirrels, as well as collecting rocks, working on his flowerbeds, finding four leaf clovers, reading voraciously, listening to Mozart and Beethoven and watching sunsets from Darling Ridge, which he was grateful to experience with his wife and sons on the final evening of his life.

Chris was predeceased by his parents and, recently, by brothers Mike and Pete. He leaves a huge void in the lives of those who loved him, including his wife, Susan Johnston; children Meghan of Louisiana, Shane (Jessica), and Ian (Elysia); grandchildren Teddy, Sloane, Davis, and George; a brother Tim; and sister-in-law Sharon Hale, all of California; sister-in-law Mary (Gregg) Miller of Pennsylvania; father-in-law, Robert Johnston; and his beloved cats, Url de Purl and George.

Chris was a generous soul. For those inclined to make a donation in his name, his favorite charities were the Northeast Wilderness Trust, The Innocence Project, Doctors Without Borders, Northwoods Stewardship Center and Kingdom Animal Shelter.

There will be no formal service. Instead, please remember Chris whenever you are hiking up a mountain, biking smooth singletrack, admiring wildflowers or watching a beautiful sunset. 

This article appears in The Money & Retirement Issue 2023.