Fox Lake man well-loved by students, colleagues

Years after Howard “Bud” Scott stopped working at Grant High School, students would stop by his home and thank him for changing their lives.

“They would tell me, ‘I never would have made it through school without him',” his wife Roberta Scott said. “I've heard that about him so many times throughout my life.”

The former Lake County Board member and current trustee of the Lake Villa Protection District Board died Friday morning of complications due to diabetes. He was 75.

Scott, a well-known figure in Lake County, had been a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent at Grant High School in Fox Lake, as well as a former member and chairman of the Fox Waterway Agency Board.

During his tenure as president of the Lake Villa Fire Protection District Board, he presided over the construction and opening of its new substation in Lindenhurst in 2008.

Scott was also active in the local political circuit, serving as Lake Villa Republican precinct committeeman since the 1960s. There he made many of his political relationships with citizens and leaders at the village, county and state levels.

He was a two-term director of the Fox Lake Chamber of Commerce, a Lake Villa Township trustee and was a member of the Lake County Planning Commission.

“Bud loved the Lake Villa area,” said state Senator Suzi Schmidt, former Lake County Board chairman who knew Scott for more than 20 years.

“He was very active in the community. He showed people he cared through his actions, his volunteerism, his public service. He really was a cornerstone of our area.”

Born July 21, 1935, in Milwaukee, Scott was a lifelong resident of Fox Lake. He met his wife one summer at a resort on Fox Lake when she was vacationing there with friends.

They were married 52 years and had three children — a son and two daughters.

Scott's career at Grant spanned 22 years, allowing him to meet thousands of area students, faculty and parents.

His daughter Kristina Kazlausky fondly recalled her high school days when her father was the Dean of Students at Grant.

Whenever she forgot her lunch money, he'd send a messenger to deliver it to her French class.

“Some kids would be embarrassed to have their parents work at their school, but everyone loved my dad. He was the cool dean,” Kazlausky said.

As a young man, Scott served in the Marine Corps and later became very active in American Legion Post 703.

He was once a Fox Lake police officer and Lake County sheriff's office deputy.

In his spare time, he liked to golf at the Antioch Country Club and often went boating on Fox Lake.

Scott's family described him as “a man of the community” who put his hometown first.

“I admired him for his dedication to his family and to his community,” Roberta Scott said. “He was very proud to have grown up in Fox Lake and he was proud of all the things he did for his town. He gave it his all.”

Scott is survived by his wife and three children — Tom Scott, Kathy Scott and Kristina Kazlausky — as well as his mother, brother, sister, three grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

Services will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at Grant Community High School's Field House, 285 East Grand Ave., in Fox Lake.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in honor of Bud Scott to Grant High School Partnership Fund c/o Sharon Burr and/or Fox Lake Historical Society.