College Chief Turns Freshman

When Jack Scott took the oath of office last week in the ornate splendor of the state Assembly chamber, he began a week of intense study unlike any he had experienced during his 34 years in higher education.

At the side of the former Pasadena City College president was his wife, and watching in the packed gallery were other members of his family, celebrating his transformation from citizen to legislator.

The easygoing, gray-haired Scott, though, is anything but a typical freshman.

Not only is Scott the first Democrat to represent Pasadena in the Assembly since the city was incorporated in 1886, he is following in the footsteps of his father, who served in the Texas Legislature. He is also a historian who wrote a book about the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence.

And as Scott was sworn in, a strong personal emotion tugged at him: the memory of his son, Adam, a 27-year-old attorney who was shot to death in 1993 by a friend at a Wilshire district dinner party.

Adam was fatally wounded in the neck as the dinner’s host showed off a new 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun. The host, Ethan Dubrow, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

“My son was on my mind even more than my father, because to lose a child is a much deeper grief than to lose your parents. You expect to lose your parents and you never expect to lose a child,” Scott said in an interview.

“It’s bittersweet. There are times when I feel very saddened that [Adam] can’t be here, but you don’t have any option,” said Scott, who has four other children and eight grandchildren. “All I can do is just go on and live my life and on occasion . . . say I don’t want to see that folly repeated.”

Scott, 63, defeated Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena), partially on a platform of “sensible controls on guns,” sending out targeted mailers that prominently mentioned his son’s death.

A little more than three years ago, Scott was preparing for his college’s homecoming festivities when he got the news about Adam’s death. Adam was a UC Berkeley graduate who hated guns and favored stricter gun controls.

His death prompted Scott to join others in pressing for stricter gun controls. He helped form a group called the Coalition for a Nonviolent City after three young people walking home from a Pasadena Halloween party were slain shortly after his own son’s death.

When such a tragedy occurs, Scott said, “you are so grief-stricken you almost feel that your life is over.”

“He would have wanted me to run. He was always for me doing something like this . . . but to tell you the truth, I had always envisioned that I was going to watch him run for office one day.”

Now, Scott is one of 32 rookies in the lower house. He is part of a new era when, for the first time, the Assembly will be exclusively made up of legislators elected under voter-imposed term limits.

Scott is the sort of new-breed citizen-legislator whom term-limit backers envisioned would be sent to the Capitol. “I think I can probably walk these halls and accomplish more than I could have 20 years ago just by the sheer nature of my experience and knowing how to get things done . . . how to make compromises,” Scott said, speaking in the homespun cadences of his native Texas. He will be paid $75,600 a year.

Some of Scott’s earliest memories are of politics.

Born in Sweetwater, Texas, while his father was serving in the Texas House of Representatives, Scott recalls that as a child he attended political rallies in the courthouse square.

But his father, a New Deal Democrat, decided he couldn’t support his family on the $5-a-day salary he earned while the House was in session. So he started a tractor business, which became a place for politicians to visit.

At Abilene Christian University, the deeply religious Scott met his future wife, Lacreta Isbell. In addition to a bachelor’s degree from Abilene Christian, Scott earned a master’s degree in divinity from Yale University and considered becoming a minister before focusing on education.

His doctoral thesis from the Claremont Graduate School was on John Witherspoon, an early president of Princeton University who signed the Declaration of Independence. The thesis was later published as a book.

Scott’s academic career included a decade at Pepperdine University. Before coming to Pasadena City College, he served as president of Cypress College in Orange County.

A year before the election, as he prepared to retire from the college, Scott began to eye Hoge’s Assembly seat. Hoge, a staunch conservative, was plagued by personal and campaign finance problems. Scott was urged on by local residents, including former Democratic Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp.

Unlike many challengers, Scott had a record he could cite, having presided over a $100-million construction program at Pasadena City College. He also hammered Hoge on gun issues and emphasized his ability to reach out to Republicans.

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Scott outdistanced Hoge by 12,000 votes in the 44th District that includes Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge, Sunland and Tujunga.

Last week, Scott busied himself with orientation sessions on such topics as how a bill becomes law. He also interviewed job applicants and found time for a few victory parties.

What surprised him about his hectic first week?

“Just the sheer amount of information, the legislative process, the budgetary process. Any time you set up in a new environment you have to learn the rules of the environment . . . they are numerous in nature.”

Scott seems to be quickly learning one rule of political survival, the need for campaign cash. He plans to hold a fund-raiser soon, saying, “It would be nice to get started with a little bit of funding and to get ready for the reelection.”