William T. and Ann H. Scott Papers

Ann Herbert Scott (1926-2018)

Ann Herbert Howe was born in Philadelphia on November 19, 1926, the only child of Henry Laux Herbert, a newspaper editor, and Gladys Howe Herbert, a singer and artist. She was educated at a Quaker boarding school and later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with distinction and honors in English and was class valedictorian. After teaching for a few years at various Friends (Quaker) schools, she entered Yale University, where she earned a Master's Degree in Social Ethics in 1958.

While at Yale, Ann became involved with and later employed by the Wider City Parish, an interdenominational group ministry program focusing on the problems of inner city children. She developed a program called "Link," which paired one Yale student with a few children in an ongoing counseling venture. She spent several summers as a camp counselor, and later director, of the University Girls Camp, which offered low-income teen girls the opportunity to escape the stresses of the city and to explore their spiritual beliefs. Ann did volunteer work at the Elm Haven Housing Project, the Dixwell Area Teenage Committee, the Social Relations Committee of the Council of Churches, and the Big Brother program. Ann met William Scott during his sabbatical at Yale in 1960, where they both attended Quaker worship services.

After moving to Reno in 1961, Ann began to explore her interest in multiethnic children's literature, and in 1964 published her first book, Big Cowboy Western, one of very few books at the time to depict African American inner-city life. She published twelve more children's books, including beautifully illustrated counting and picture books, many emphasizing Nevada or western desert themes. In addition, Ann also published a popular book on the U.S. Census for high school and college students.

Ann's interest in ethnic children's literature, coupled with her commitment to her community, led her to plan, develop, and direct a variety of festivals and workshops aimed at increasing literacy in Nevada. In 1979, she worked with librarians and teachers to create "Open Door to the Humanities," bringing popular children's authors to remote Nevada communities. Ann also planned and directed "All the Colors of the Race: A Festival of Ethnic Children's Writers" in 1982, which brought the Reno and University community together to explore ethnicity and culture in general, and in children's literature in particular. Ann co founded the Children's Literature Interest Group in Reno, which has planned the yearly "Art of the Children's Book Festival" since 1982, and has also been an active participant in several local writers groups.

Ann's Quaker beliefs have led her to live a life of commitment to pacifism, political action, and service to others. Upon her arrival in Reno, she helped form the Reno Area Committee of the American Friends Service Organization, whose activities included acquiring assistance for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and lobbying for prison reform and for victims of domestic violence-Ann and William Scott also co-founded the Reno Friends Meeting, the West Coast Quaker Association on Religion and Psychology, and Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace.

At the local level, Ann was committed to interdenominational solutions to a variety of social and political concerns. She helped plan vigils, fasts, walks, runs, tree plantings, educational forums, and discussion meetings as ways of furthering the peace movement in Nevada. The war in Vietnam, civil rights, poverty, women's equality, Central America, the MX missile, the death penalty, the nuclear freeze movement, and much, much more all found expression in Nevada, largely through the efforts of Ann Scott.

In 1995, Ann and William Scott moved to the Friends House, a Quaker retirement facility in Santa Rosa, California.

Ann passed away in Topanga, California on July 16, 2018, at the age of 91.

William Taussig Scott (1916-1999)

William Taussig Scott was born in 1916 in Yonkers, New York, to Carl and Dorothea Scott. He attended Scarborough School, a college preparatory school, and graduated from Swarthmore College in 1937. He received his graduate degree in physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where for two years he held a Rackham Fellowship.

While at Swarthmore College, William joined the Society of Friends and began a lifelong devotion to Quaker action and theological discussion. He was a conscientious objector during World War II, and received a deferment to teach civilians. After three years at Amherst, William accepted a position at Smith College, where he remained for sixteen years. His summers were usually spent at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he studied multiple scattering theory and worked with Samuel Goudsmit on time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

In 1959 William received a National Science Faculty Fellowship and spent a sabbatical year at Yale University, working with Henry Margenau on quantum measurement theory and studying theology with Robert Calhoun and other Divinity School faculty. In the spring of 1960 he met Ann Howe Herbert, a fellow Quaker. Their common interests, goals, and religious beliefs bonded their relationship. In 1961 William obtained a position at the University of Nevada, Reno, to create a graduate program in the Physics Department. After he established his residency he divorced his first wife, Helen, and married Ann. Together they decided to make their permanent home in Nevada.

During his tenure at the University of Nevada, Reno, William continued to pursue his interests in science, religion, and peace, and became an activist in both the University and local communities. At the University, he formed the Peace Studies Group, brought distinguished guests like Andrew Sakahrov and Kenneth Boulding to speak, and directed the Committee on Philosophical Inquiry, which developed courses bridging the gaps between disciplines. His courses on "Science and Religion" and "Philosophy and Methods of Physical Science" were well-attended by both students and colleagues, and he frequently attended conferences and gave papers on the topic of social responsibility and scientists.

William Scott was a prolific writer and published numerous research papers in theoretical physics, atmospheric physics, and the philosophy of science. He published two editions of a basic textbook on electricity and magnetism, and a biography of Nobel Prize nominee Erwin Shrodinger. He also served as associate editor of the American Journal of Physics and a referee for several physics journals. One of William's articles, a review of Michael Polanyi's Personal Knowledge, facilitated an ongoing correspondence with the author, and in 1969 William received a National Science Foundation History and Philosophy of Science grant for preliminary research on a biography of Polanyi. William spent his sabbatical year at oxford University, studying the philosophy of science under Polanyi and Ron Harre.

William's religious and moral beliefs led him to write and speak tirelessly on the subject of peace and nonviolent social change. His particular focus was on the dangers of nuclear weapons, a subject he approached as both a scientist and a Quaker. William headed the Peace Education Committee of the Reno Area Program of the American Friends Service Committee, and was a member of the East-West Committee of the Pacific Yearly Meeting. He also served on the College Park Education Association, and helped create John Woolman School, a Quaker boarding school in Grass Valley, California.

William Scott's efforts toward the cause of peace earned him the Thornton Peace Prize in both 1972 and 1990.

In 1995, William and Ann Scott moved to Friends House, a Quaker retirement facility in Santa Rosa, California.

William died in Santa Rosa, California in February 1999.