Born and raised in Mason City, IA, Scott Alan Crandall joined the Class of 1971 shortly after high school graduation. As a Company F-1 plebe, he quietly stood out in intramural football and as a WKDT disc jockey. He later described himself as “a loner,” but the whole Corps knew his voice. In a rare plebe year “West Point Good Deal,” he spun Top-40 hits before breakfast formation, sitting comfortably in Building 720 while classmates stood uncomfortably in squad leaders’ rooms, listening with necks “cracked back” during special inspection. As a First Classman, Scott’s interest in history led to his selection for an independent elective on the Spanish Civil War.
Scott and Peg met during yearling year, beginning their marriage three days after graduation. Commissioned in Military Intelligence, Scott’s first assignment, detailed to the 1-61st Infantry Regiment at Fort Carson, CO, was followed by MI branch school, then Schofield Barracks, HI in the S-2 and G-2 sections of the 3-4th Cavalry Regiment and 25th Infantry Division. Scott served admirably but realized the Army was not for him, resigning in 1976 to begin a 34-year career with Michelin Tire.
In 1984 Scott and Peg adopted their beloved daughter, Kate, from Korea. She brought mountains of joy into their lives, along with granddaughter Becca, who was born in 2019.
With Michelin, Scott was hired as a sales manager, and his diligence led to completing his career as national sales training director. With a laser focus on salesforce training and leadership, Scott combined his passion for history and his USMA and Army experiences to change his company’s service culture, recruiting and selection processes, and salesforce organization.
After retirement from Michelin, he continued to influence his former company as well as numerous other businesses, churches, and non-profits through Trinity-Lincoln Consulting, its name representing Scott’s faith in the Holy Trinity and his appreciation of Abraham Lincoln’s leadership as the embodiment of faith and character. He continued to coach leadership through numerous seminars and workshops as well as consulting on strategic plans and negotiations.
Scott habitually concentrated on the daily task, self-characterizing himself as “slightly stubborn.” But he was never unwilling to change his mind in the face of good evidence, and he knew it when he saw it—such as when Kate and Peg gently suggested he become a better listener. And Scott did listen, wisely translating that key concept into some of the most compelling material in his extensive training curricula. He changed in many ways. Near the end of his life, he confessed that he had never understood or appreciated what it was like to be a Black man in America until he heard and then finally listened to South Carolina’s Senator Tim Scott and other African Americans tell their stories.
The greatest change in Scott’s life, perhaps only other than his first sight of Peg at the mixer after the Army-Rutgers game in 1968, was his realization that life has a greater purpose, and he found it in Jesus Christ. Although Scott said that as a cadet he harbored spiritual doubt, classmates noticed his sense of faithful searching. That searching culminated in a life as a committed Christian, beginning for him and Peg in 1987. Their faith never wavered, and its expression set the course of their lives. Their calling led them to proclaim the Gospel on mission trips to Kenya, the former Soviet Union, Lithuania, and Mexico and to provide servant leadership at their home church in Simpsonville, SC. Nowhere did Scott more live the Gospel than in his dedicated service with Kairos Prison Ministry of South Carolina and JUMPSTART prison ministry.
Scott’s creative drive led him to write two novels, neither of which he published but both focusing his thoughts and actions on positive responses to problems, failures, and issues he encountered in the Army and afterwards. In 2008 Scott self-published a book he titled It’s Not About You: Leadership for Sales and Other Managers, incorporating the core materials of his curriculum for his many in-person and online leadership training courses. The book’s cover shows the monument marking the Army’s left flank at the Battle of Gettysburg, anchored by the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which on July 2, 1863 held the line against the enemy assault on Little Round Top. The monument symbolizes the book’s key message, that leadership and character are the anchors of success. The bravery of those soldiers of the United States Army, inspired by the words and valor of their commander, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, repulsed the attack, which some consider the pivotal turning point of the Civil War.
Scott’s choice of It’s Not About You for his book title is the essence of his faith journey. He came to understand the nature of original sin as focusing inwardly. His faith led him to realize that “it’s not about me.” Scott said that he was not naturally a “people person,” but his acceptance of Christ transformed him. Once, on a mission trip, a Russian woman told him that she knew they were Christians because “Christians have kind eyes.”
Scott concluded It’s Not About You with these words: “…real leaders are those who leave their people, their organizations, and the customers better for having known them, and being served by them.” Those who knew Scott are much better for it. When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Scott soldiered on, holding the line as his kind eyes and brave heart never showed fear. He rests in peace knowing he had fulfilled his life’s purpose, with the Lord greeting him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
— His classmates