Week 20 – MILITARY SERVICE – Son of a Preacher
We can’t thank you enough for your service to our country. Your commitment to our freedom and safety deserves thanks. It takes a special person to serve like you did.
Son of A Preacher
James H. Scott, Jr. grew up in the Harrington community and attended Harrington School. When Glynn County consolidated schools and closed the Harrington School, his father Reverend Scott drove the children to school in Brunswick.
Four Scott brothers – Samuel, Charlton, Robbie and Jim — enlisted in the Air Force. Jim enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 and retired in 1996 after having attained the rank of Colonel in Command of the Defense Commissaries Agency responsible for 45 DOD (Dept of Defense) Commissaries from North Dakota to Texas.
Colonel Scott continued to serve after his retirement. He was VP of USAA’s Executive Management Group and Chief of Procurement in 2001. Next he was Vice Chairman of the Texas Veterans Commission which serves Texas veterans, their dependants or survivors in all matters pertaining to veteran benefits. Scott also served on the board of Disabled American Veterans and National Association of Black Veterans. Colonel Scott was proudest when he talked about the youth he mentored in Texas and his grandsons.
At least once a year he and his wife drove back to coastal Georgia to visit family. Scott was related to most everyone in the Harrington community — Hunters, Davis, Johnsons, Hecks, etc. — and he stayed close to his roots. In 2010 he volunteered to be on the board of the Friends of Harrington School and helped raise funds to restore his old school. At fundraising events he shared his stories of the community and the school. He was most proud when the school restoration was completed and the Historic Harrington Cultural Center opened in 2017. “Each year on Mothers Day, Colonel Scott called or texted me to thank me for helping to restore the schoolhouse and to ask about my family,” recalled Patty Deveau, Founding President of the Friends of Harrington School. In their last conversation about the upcoming 100th Anniversary Celebration, Deveau remembered, he told me “he was in if I was.”
Col. Scott passed away in October 2023 and is buried with his ancestors at Village Cemetery. His obituary recalled, “Throughout his career Jim traveled extensively and had many laudable accomplishments, but never forgot where he was from and the community that shaped him. “