James (Jim) Scott
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James M. Scott (1911 - 2001), an author, inventor, and Senior Olympian, was born in Wisdom, Missouri, on May 28, 1911, to James Baker Scott and Cordelia Susan Suiter. One of five children (a sister of whom died four days after birth), he grew up in Fairfield, Missouri, near Warsaw. The town was buried under water in the early 1970s when the Truman Dam was built.
[edit] Biography
Scott taught school for five years in a one-room school in Wisdom, Missouri. He attended Teacher's College in Liberty, Missouri, for two years to earn his teaching credential. He headed west in 1937, settling in San Diego two years later. One of his first jobs in San Diego was delivering milk door-to-door for Golden Arrow Dairy in a time when the milkman was part of daily life in America. While working for the dairy, he invented the Zip Whip in the late 1940s -- a device for whipping cream[1]. Scott switched from delivering milk to selling insurance and later became a real estate broker, which he continued well into his 80s.
Scott began playing racquetball in the 1950s and was ranked a top player for many years. During the 1980s, he won gold, silver and bronze medals in both singles and doubles competitions for players 70 years and older in the Senior Olympics.[2] Scott also played basketball, and in 1995 won a free-throw basketball competition in the 80-to-85 age bracket.
He wrote a book in 1999 about growing up in the Missouri Ozarks titled The Missouri Kid. He also wrote a pamphlet about salesmanship, which was published in the 1950s.
Scott married Eileen Rose Busby in 1940, and they had five children, including scientist J. Michael Scott and true crime author Cathy Scott. After they divorced 26 years later, he married Helen Scott.
[edit] Book
The Missouri Kid by James Melvin Scott
