Former botany department chair William Wallace Scott, of Charleston, died June 24 at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center. He was 85 years old.

Although his many achievements will not be easily forgotten, Scott will probably best be remembered for his easy-going personality.

“He was a very warm, compassionate individual,” said surviving wife Jeanette of Charleston. “He was truly devoted to student research. He was always there to help students and graduate students, which were many.”

Scott certainly was devoted to his students. Before taking a position at Eastern, he was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, worked as faculty at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, James Madison University in Harrisonburg and the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. When he became chair of the botany department at Eastern in 1968, he did not want to leave the position.

“He came out here as head of the biology department, and then got a different job in Old Main, but he went back to the biology department because he missed being around the students,” said son Robert Scott, of Charleston.

He was also a teacher outside of the classroom as well. Robert remembers that even though he was the last one to go to college, his dad did not harp on him for it, accepted what he did, and was a listener.

When Robert’s daughter, Emelle, was having trouble biting her fingernails, Scott had the perfect cure.

“Emelle would always chew her fingernails, and we’d try to get her to stop,” Robert said. “So dad took her up to the university, scraped the dirt from under the fingernails and put it under the microscope and let her look at it. So he was always trying to teach something, instead of just shoving it down your throat.”

When World War II came calling, Scott served in the Navy Medical Corp in the Pacific, and later was involved in the United States Marine Corps in Korea during the Korean War.

“His willingness [to go and fight], I think it made me very patriotic,” said son William W. Scott Jr., of Richmond, Va. “He gave up a lot for the service that he did.”

He also served as an active member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Mattoon, and was also a part of the Charleston Country Club, Charleston Elks E.P.O.E. #623, the Masonic Lodge A.F. & A.M. in Barton, Vt., and was even an Eagle Scout, getting a chance to go to the first National Scout Jamboree in Washington D.C.

But that’s not all. He also served as president and executive secretary-treasurer of the Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society, a member of Sigma Xi and Phi-Kappa Phi Honor Societies, director of the Virginia Jr. Academy of Science, president of the ACHS (Association of College Honor Societies) and was active on the boards of the AIBS (American Institute of Biological Sciences) and the AAAS (American Association of the Advancement of Science) and belonged to the Sons of American Revolution. With all his work and activities, it’s hard to imagine Scott had time for anything else.

“He was a devoted father, grandfather and was always there to help them in any way he could,” Jeanette said. “He was interested in what was going on about it.”

“He used to always like to take the grandkids where they had the stuffed birds at the university, the greenhouse and he was especially happy when his nephew, James, went into the same study he did,” Robert said.

Scott was also interested in many hobbies from stamp collecting, bridge and watching or participating in almost all sports.

“We went to stamp shows and he had a large collection,” Robert said. “I have some of the postcards he used to collect, one of when a tornado came through Charleston in 1917.”

But perhaps what his youngest son remembers most about him was his easy-going personality.

“He was a fun loving, easy-going person that was always having a saying about him and a smile on his face,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any one specific thing that stood out in my mind that made me remember him,” Scott Jr. said. “But he was always there.”