THE HON. JOHN W. SCOTT JR. ’70

THE HON. JOHN W. SCOTT JR, civil rights leader and circuit court judge, died of complications from eye surgery on April 16, 2008. He was 59 and had been blind since birth. As a teenager in 1963, he and several others won a federal lawsuit allowing them to attend James Monroe High School, considered a milestone in the integration of Fredericksburg, Va. At Wesleyan he was a member of Delta Tau Delta and earned his bachelor’s with honors in government. He received his JD from the University of Virginia, worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and became a managing partner at Hill, Tucker & Marsh. In 1989, he was appointed General District Court Judge in Stafford County, becoming the first black to serve on the bench in the Fredericksburg area, rising to the circuit level seven years later. He is survived by his wife, Alma, and three sons.