R. Gordon and Patricia C. Scott Fund

“They always had ties with South County and lived most of their married life in Wakefield. They were very giving people who loved South County,” explains Tracey Barber of Gordon and Patricia Scott, whom she assisted for more than 20 years. Through their will, the Scotts established this permanent fund to support nonprofit organizations in Washington County.

Born in Providence, Patricia (Champlin) Scott moved to New York City after high school to study acting at the Rehearsal Club. “She didn’t want to be an actress. She just wanted a free place to live in New York,” says Ms. Barber, noting that Mrs. Scott later worked as an artist for NorCross Cards, then as a designer/decorator for Design Centers Interiors. She returned home to marry, earned degrees in interior design and architecture from Rhode Island School of Design, and became an architect.

It was shortly after World War II when she married R. Gordon Scott, a native of Syracuse, NY, who had earned both undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University before serving in the Army. The couple resided in Wakefield but moved to Providence where he pursued his legal career with Greenough, Lyman & Cross before joining Tillinghast, Collins & Tanner and specializing in estate planning. “He was a very, very intelligent and respectable man who found escape sailing in his boat, the "We'll Sea" which was changed to "We Saw" upon marriage,” Ms. Barber recalls.

Their lives changed abruptly when Mrs. Scott suffered an aneurysm at age 41. The couple returned to South County and, at her husband's suggestion, Mrs. Scott enrolled at the Saunderstown Weaving School where her artistic talent was rediscovered. She learned to weave tapestries with one hand, replicating whimsical designs she first created on paper, Ms. Barber explains. "The Scotts should be remembered for lives well lived. Although they never had children, they had many animals that were loved and pampered," Ms Barber concludes. Mr. Scott died in 1999 at age 86; Mrs. Scott in 2007 at age 83.

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