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A tribute to David Scott
David Scott was a man of many parts: a great friend and good companion, yet meticulous and punctilious in all he did, and, best of all, able to grasp the smallest of technical details and explain them in plain language, even to simpletons like me.
David was progressive and political. He was overjoyed to see Senator Obama become President-Elect in early November. He talked longingly of a last trip to Obama’s America, but died just a week before the new President’s inauguration.
And David knew how to live, whether in England, his home for many years, or when travelling, covering conferences for the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Federation of the Society of Auto Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, visiting motor manufacturing plants or attending motor shows in the UK, mainland Europe or the US.
David surprised us, his colleagues and friends alike, as he found new angles, more technical details, as he talked to automotive engineers with GM, Ford, Chrysler, VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, Renault, Peugeot and Citroen, and parts makers about projects, current and future, and technical changes being developed. His skill was in adroitly asking and then explaining simply and clearly.
At a Geneva Motor Show dinner he once described the different car classifications as: pre-1905, ancient; from 1905 to 1918, veteran; from l9l9 to l935, vintage; and from l936, onwards, modern. And today? Changing all the time, 'truly future shock', he thought.
David was creative, with a lively mind, highly intuitive, yet able to give heed to what might seem irrational to others.
As an occasional contributor to my publication Vehicle Engineer, his articles, neatly typed, without a single correction, used to arrive in plastic folders, with photographs or diagrams, usually his own, but about three years ago he switched to sending by email, and then about a year ago, his material stopped arriving...very sad, hugely missed.
David devoted the best years of his long life to cars and their components, their design and engineering with the passionate enthusiasm of an automotive engineer and analytical writer. He was especially proud of his two daughters, Miriam and Ann. He gained great pleasure from his house and little garden.
I can hardly believe you were 90 last spring, David. You never talked about age...But you'd talk well about most other things! Thank you for your contribution to our industry and for your friendship. We'll all miss you.
Anne Hope
David Scott – from a colleague …
David, who was a physics graduate from an American university, had a highly inquisitive mind over very many subjects and could truly be described as a polymath. He took his journalism very seriously and was fastidious in the collection of background data and lucid in the communication of quite complex facts to his readers. In his private life his active mind also made him a keen adventurer and great traveller who took in the details of his surroundings with a remarkable keenness. He was also a keen observer of the political scene and a devoted Democrat, who was able to rejoice in Barack Obama’s election before he died. He was a keen jazz enthusiast, too, and could turn in a nifty jazz tune on the keyboard.
Computers fascinated him and he was a pioneer user of Acorn’s BBC model which he kept in working order for some jobs until well after he had equipped himself with state-of-the-art equipment. Meanwhile he had a very dry sense of humour which was a great entertainment to his colleagues and friends. He would feign deafness on some occasions and ‘brought the house down’ at the presentation of a new Alfa-Romeo model at the temple of its birth in Italy, where, in front of a crowd of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable motoring journalists being addressed by a senior company executive using the abbreviation ‘Alfa’, shouted out … Alfa who?
John Fenton
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