I have the opportunity to share some stories at Scott’s funeral on Friday, and I know myself well enough to know I may accidently delete m remarks and I don’t want to lose them. So I’m going to share them here so I always have them. If you’d like to know him a little bit better, read on.

When we were growing up, Scott didn’t like quiet very much.  He like to keep things stirred up and keep people laughing.  Sometimes it worked well, sometimes it made us mad.  Whenever he walked into a room at home, he would clap really loud, startling everyone in the room.  He enjoyed teasing us siblings incessantly, and he loved a good practical joke. 

I remember at Christmas watching him wrap a present, I believe it was for his friend Joe.  The present went into a plywood box that he had built as solidly and impenetrable as he possibly could.  It was then wrapped in heavy wire and given as the gift.  At the time, I thought to myself, what kind of a present is that, he’ll never get it open!  I’m sure he did, and I believe Scott received something in similar fashion that year as well.

Scott and I were 3 years apart in school so we never were together at recess, or through middle school.  But in high school when I was a senior and he was a freshman; we started to hang out more as friends.  We went to several afterschool activities together, and enjoyed each other’s company. 

The year after I graduated, I got married.  Early in the summer, a couple of months later, a very large fire started in Alaska, burning many homes and moving north toward my husband’s parents’ home.  My husband needed to fly home to help, and he asked Scott if he wanted to go along because of his interest in firefighting.  He was excited for the opportunity and willingly went. 

That was his first, and he said his last trip to Alaska.  There are a lot of mosquitos, and the fire ended up getting stopped before it reached Willow, so nothing exciting really happened.  But because of the fire, they didn’t get to go see any of the fun things of Alaska either.

When my husband and I got married, Scott being the prankster that he was, he decorated Les’s car during the reception.  Now, we think of the typical, Just Married on the back window, the cans tied to the back, cutesy type decorations and you have to know, that was not Scott!

He went all out.  When we got out of the church, we saw the mayhem that awaited.  The car was wrapped in shrink wrap, the shrink wrap was covered in whipped cream.  There were Oreo’s on the windows, and possibly some writing, but I can’t remember for sure.  We cut our way into the car only to find Vaseline on the steering wheel and the gear shifter. 

My husband, who had never experienced Scott’s love of pranks, had expected something, but this was above and beyond what he thought might happen.  Scott stood by, grinning from ear to ear.  Later my husband told Scott, just you wait, I have a very long memory!

When Scott and Betsy got married they hid Betsy’s car in fear of what Les might do.  Scott told Les that he was welcome to decorate his truck any way he wished.  Well, that wasn’t what Les wanted.  Nothing got decorated.  They thought they got away without anything at all.  But we knew where they were going that first night.  We waited until sometime around midnight, and drove to the hotel.  We found the car.  Les was irritated it was locked, but proceeded to decorate, toothpaste on the wiper blades, Oreo’s and a variety of other things, topping it off with cocoa powder down the windshield. 

When they came out to the car the next morning I know that Betsy was not happy.  But I imagine Scott, while maybe wondering how he was going to clean it all up, had a smile on his face, because he dished a lot out, but he also could take it well too. 

When they started the car, the cocoa powder was sucked in through the air vents and shot clear through the car.  But, Scott in his quick-thinking way got the last laugh.  He called me the next day and told me of their ordeal getting to the car wash, that they had gotten pulled over for littering, and they had gotten a very large ticket.  I felt horrible and told my Les we needed to pay for the ticket.  When I talked to him again and offered to pay for the ticket, he just laughed and laughed, he had been joking the whole time.

Through the years he has been better and checking on me than I was at checking on him.  I would receive text messages periodically with curiosity questions about thing happening in Alaska.  Earthquakes that made the news, dignitaries flying through, just whatever he found interesting happening. 

2 summers ago Scott finally made it back to Alaska.  It was Jack’s turn to come with grandma and grandpa and Scott came too.  It had been raining the entire summer, but the week they came it warmed up and was beautiful the whole trip.  Jack wanted to go fishing and Scott loves fishing, so they came and fished on Willow Creek with Les, Tyler, and Matthew.  Jack and Tyler were the only ones who caught anything that day, but they enjoyed the time out on the river.  We also were able to go and see a number of things he had read about, the train tunnel you drive in to get to Whittier was top on his list and he enjoyed the 2-mile-long tunnel.  We ended the trip at our ward party.  Wrapping up the party is a softball game.  A lot of people had left but my boys and Jack wanted to stay and play the game.  I told Scott he could go home with grandma and grandpa if he wanted, that we’d get Jack home.  But he didn’t want to, he stayed and enjoyed watching Jack play the game and have fun.

Scott loved a good puzzle, not the jigsaw kind, but things like puzzle boxes.  The last few years we have received a puzzle to figure out.  One year we received a Grecian Bottle Puzzle with a note that said, tell me how long it takes you to figure this one out.  Only one of my sons figured it out.  When I told Scott, he said, now try to put it back together!  Last year we received a box with 2 colors.  It was obvious that it opened somehow, but we never could figure it out.  He said call if you can’t get it and I’ll give you a hint, so we finally did.  He gave my sons one hint and they immediately figure it out.  They enjoyed the connection with him, even though they didn’t get to spend much time with him.

When Katie came to SUU for in person studies, she got to know Scott.  She stopped to visit him in his office a couple of times and he always made her feel welcome.  When she had accounting questions, she knew she could ask him and he would try his best to help her figure it out. 

When Megan came to Utah just before her mission.  In the rush to get out the door in Alaska with the visiting family that was also leaving at the same time, we hadn’t remembered to give her a father’s blessing.  I don’t know if Scott was aware of this, but he came just before she entered the MTC and asked if she would like a blessing.  She said yes, and He gave her one of the most beautiful blessings to help her on her journey.

I am grateful for the plan of salvation, to know that even though we can’t see Scott right now, he is still there, and his utmost concern is his family.  We love you Scott and look forward to the day we will see you again.