1st Chairman of USC School of Cinema Dies

Warren Paul Scott, first chairman of the USC School of Cinematography (now the School of Cinema and Television), has died in Chicago.

Scott was 77 and died Oct. 26 at a son’s home there, it was learned this week.

He was a 1925 Santa Monica High School graduate and received a political science degree from Pomona College in 1929. He did doctoral research in China, Japan and Mexico and then joined USC’s history faculty in 1934.

The USC cinema school had started in 1929 as a single class, Introduction to the Photoplay, said Herbert Farmer, now an associate dean of the cinema school but a student when Scott taught there.

Speakers from the industry, including executive Irving Thalberg and actor Conrad Nagel, would lecture as would USC professors.

As the film industry grew, so did interest in it and by the mid-1930s the single class had become several and a separate department was formed.

Scott earned a Bronze Star for World War II Army combat duty in China and after the war went into business in Chicago and New York. In 1960 he formed North American Engineering Co. in Washington.

He retired from that firm in 1981 and produced a documentary film, “Faith in Exile,” a depiction of Tibetans exiled from their spiritual homeland.

Survivors include his wife, Tei, and sons Geoffrey and Anthony. Contributions are asked to the Tibetan Study Center, 5603 16th St., NW, Washington, 20011.