Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
The most important thing I can say about Bill is that every time I spoke with him, I came away with another great example of how to live my life or see the world.
By Micah Mertes
J. William (Bill) Scott, the philanthropist and business leader who passed away last week at the age of 93, lived his extraordinary life showing a city, a state and a university what’s possible.
Look around the Omaha campus today, and you can’t miss the signs of Bill’s vision, generosity and love for Creighton University.
Many of those signs are made of brick and mortar.
Through personal gifts he made with his wife of 73 years, Ruth, or their family’s foundation, Bill Scott contributed significantly to the School of Dentistry building, the CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education and the entirety of the east-campus athletic corridor — The Championship Center, the Wayne and Eileen Ryan Athletic Center and D.J. Sokol Arena, The Ruth (named after Ruth Scott) and the Rasmussen Fitness and Sports Center (named after the Scotts’ close friend, former McCormick Endowed Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen).
The Scott family has likewise supported scholarships for medical students and student-athletes. They’ve also established innovative services across multiple schools and colleges — from an After-hours Clinic in the School of Dentistry to a financial literacy program in the Heider College of Business to student-attorney-run legal clinics in the School of Law supporting juvenile clients and Omahans filing for bankruptcy.
Bill Scott’s commitment to Creighton knew no bounds.
“I count myself among the many people whose lives were enhanced by his friendship,” said Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD. “Though he never studied at a Jesuit institution, Bill Scott most assuredly lived his life as a man for and with others.”
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A lifelong Nebraskan (and an Omahan for more than 65 years), Bill’s roots ran deep.
Beyond Creighton, Bill and his family have given tens of millions of dollars to more than 150 local and statewide organizations, with much of their support extended to higher education. They have given to all four University of Nebraska campuses, in addition to Metropolitan Community College, Bellevue University, College of Saint Mary and, of course, Creighton University.
Though Bill supported Creighton from every conceivable angle — buildings, academics, undergraduate research, student retention, community services and so much more — his heart belonged to the Jays. Particularly to Creighton women’s athletics.
The consummate Creighton fan and 2015 Jaybacker of the Year, Bill went with Ruth to every volleyball home game he could. Volleyball head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth recalled the many times she saw the couple sitting behind the team bench, Bill never failing to order a popcorn and Diet Coke.
“Bill and Ruth have truly advanced women’s athletics at Creighton,” Booth said. “When they came to the games, they could see the impact their support was having on our community. Thanks to them, we have some of the best facilities in the country.”
At both the grand openings of the Championship Center and Rasmussen Center, Bill and his son John Scott performed rousing renditions of Creighton’s “White and Blue” fight song on their trumpets. (Bruce Rasmussen joined them at the Rasmussen Center ceremony.)
Both Bill and John were members of the Polish polka band The Polonairs. Few things gave Bill — a member of the Sokol Omaha Polka Hall of Fame — greater joy than playing polka songs on his trumpet, an instrument he started at the age of 10.
Bill’s friends and family said he could be quiet and unassuming in person, even shy. But once he stepped onto that stage, he knew how to put on a show.
Bill loved to combine his passions whenever possible, so performing the Creighton fight song with the Creighton Pep Band for an audience of Creighton student-athletes in a facility he made possible was about as good as it gets.
“It is a privilege and obligation to support others,” Bill Scott said in 2014. “It is especially a privilege to support student-athletes as they pursue athletic and academic excellence in the best college environment possible.
“Creighton is that university.”
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Coach Booth recalled a story she felt captured the Scotts to a tee. At the Championship Center opening about 10 years ago, Ruth Scott was touring the facility’s beautiful lounge for the men’s basketball team. Ruth happened to be standing next to a female student-athlete.
“Do you have a lounge like this?” Ruth asked her. She told Ruth she didn’t.
Ruth then turned to Bruce Rasmussen: “I’ll pay for a lounge for women’s basketball and volleyball, but it has to be nicer than the men’s lounge.”
Not long after, the women’s teams had their own very nice lounge in the D.J. Sokol Arena.
“That’s just the kind of people the Scotts are,” Booth said. “It’s hard to put into words just how transformational they’ve been to Creighton.”
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It’s also hard to put into words how transformational the Scotts will continue to be to Creighton.
The family has impacted generations of students, said Marcus Blossom, McCormick Endowed Athletic Director.
“The reason our teams are where they are today is because of people like Bill,” Blossom said. “With his support of facilities, programs and scholarships, he has ensured that our student-athletes and coaches can compete with the best in the nation.
“He changed Creighton Athletics forever.”
Bill, said Greg McDermott, head coach of men’s basketball, “left an indelible mark on Creighton with his generosity, philanthropy and dedication to helping others. His vision helped transform the lives of so many, and his spirit will live on.”
Though Bill Scott wasn’t a Creighton alumnus himself (having graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business), he and Ruth had been rooting for the Bluejays for decades. In the mid-’90s, his love of Creighton athletics led to him meeting Bruce Rasmussen. They became close friends for the next 30 years, so close that Bill eventually named a building after him.
(Rasmussen didn’t want the Rasmussen Center to be named after him, but Bill insisted. Rasmussen did want The Championship Center to be named after Bill — in fact, to be called “The Bill,” which would have matched its sister facility, The Ruth. But Bill wouldn’t have it. He didn’t want to see his own name on any Creighton buildings. He much preferred to see his wife’s name or his friends’ names gracing the east-campus corridor.)
Rasmussen recalled the first time he met Bill. It was over a game of golf, one of Bill’s favorite pastimes up to his final days.
“I was enthralled by him,” Rasmussen said. “He was just so in love with life, and he saw the world differently from anyone I’ve ever met. The word that comes to mind is joy. Bill and Ruth have expressed such joy in their lives. It’s been infectious.
“The most important thing I can say about Bill is that every time I spoke with him, I came away with another great example of how to live my life or see the world.”
Bill Scott, of course, achieved great success in his career, starting as one of Warren Buffett’s first two lieutenants, joining Buffett Partnership in 1959 and Berkshire Hathaway in 1970, where he remained until the early 1990s.
But Rasmussen said he thinks Bill had an even more successful second career, as a full-time philanthropist.
“The more money Bill made, the more he wanted to give away,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve never met anyone who got so much enjoyment from helping others as Bill and Ruth. I think there’s a great lesson there for all of us.”
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A small-town boy from Ashland, Nebraska, Bill believed from the start in being a friendly neighbor and offering assistance to anyone he met.
It was Bill’s willingness to lend a helping hand that led him to the love of his life.
Working at a grocery store in Ashland, Bill met a Saunders County farm girl named Ruth Lind. He made sure to carry her family’s groceries to their car every time they came in.
Later, Bill and Ruth would wed, have three sons — John, Don and David — and spend 73 happy years of marriage together.
Bill and Ruth were partners in every sense of the word. Everything they supported, every improvement they made in their community, they did together.
“Everything my parents have done starts with the commitment and belief that wealth is best shared with others,” said John Scott. “When they found people doing work that aligned with their values, they wanted to make an impact however they could. They found those people and those values in Creighton.”
The Scotts also found them in other educational institutions and programs — from ages preschool up through collegiate — and in innovative healthcare and childcare initiatives in Omaha, rural Nebraska and all the places in between.
“My father found it very rewarding to do the things that have a long-term impact on people’s lives and the lives of their children,” John Scott said. “He wanted to make a difference in ways that lasted for a long time.”
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Bill Scott also gave because he was himself grateful. For the life he’d been blessed with and for the state he called home.
After Bill suffered an injury in 2005, for instance, he gave $5 million to the Great Plains Hospital in North Platte, which had provided him care.
At Creighton, Bill and Ruth supported the things that filled them with gratitude. The things that produced immediate outcomes for the community they love.
Bill and Ruth supported the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation Simulation Center in the CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education because they saw it would provide excellent training to the future physicians and nurses of Nebraska.
They supported the School of Dentistry because they saw dental students not only getting a great clinical education but also providing a vital service to the community in the process.
They supported the School of Law Bankruptcy Clinic and Juvenile Justice Clinic because they saw the programs empowering student attorneys to give Douglas County’s most vulnerable clients the legal aid they need as soon as possible.
They supported Creighton women’s athletics because they loved to see thriving young athletes become role models to the next generation of women.
“For Bill and the family, Creighton has always been more than an academic institution,” said John Levy, president of the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation. “Creighton is a college that reaches out to the community and looks to help any way it can.”
Nothing could have aligned more with Bill Scott’s values.
“Bill had significant wealth, and it allowed him to do a lot of amazing things,” Levy said. “But that wasn’t what made Bill special. With or without the money, he was the type of person you aspire to be. He was an incredible human being who made a difference in ways that will carry on for a long time to come.”
In Omaha, at Creighton and in the hearts of all who knew him, Bill Scott’s song plays on.
