Nov 16, 2009 6:04 pm US/Central
Longtime Friend Remembers Scott's Dedication
Rep. Art Turner Says Scott Did Not Run Away From Problems In His Neighborhood
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
For Michael Scott's old friends on the West Side, even more stunning than the school official's sudden death
was the medical examiner's finding that it was suicide.
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports.
Attending Fordham University on scholarship, Mike Scott earned a degree in urban planning, and then did a very Chicago thing: He moved back to his old neighborhood, North Lawndale, which is plagued by poverty, drugs and crime.
The soft-spoken, but fearless Scott never stopped working to improve the community, even after street thugs shot him in a confrontation near his home in 1986.
Art Turner met Michael Scott when both were students at St. Agatha's Elementary School on a block in North Lawndale more than a half-century ago. When, in 1986, Scott was shot a few hundred yards away, Turner was not surprised by his friend's reaction.
"It didn't take him away, it didn't make him say, 'Look, I'm gonna move out of the neighborhood, I'm going to run away,'" Turner said. "It just made him stronger and more committed."
Turner, a state representative and deputy majority leader of the Illinois House, said he is surprised by the suicide ruling in Scott's death because of his friend's interest in being a role model. Both he and Scott won scholarships to college from Lawndale's Better Boys Foundation (BBF).
Unlike some others, Turner and Scott returned to help rebuild the community. Scott served mayors Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer and – on and off for two decades -- Richard Daley.
"Michael could get it all done," Troy Ratliffe, executive vice president of the BBF, said of his longevity at City Hall.
Community activist Richard Barnett recalled meeting Scott when the future president of the Board of Education was three years old. He said Scott had already mastered the skill of winning over strangers.
"He'd just walk up to everyone with a smile on his face," Barnett said.
At the offices of Scott's real estate development company, telephones were "temporarily disconnected" today -- a possible sign of financial trouble.
Schott had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about alleged favoritism in admission to elite public schools. And Scott had parted ways with Chicago 2016 after some questioned his purchases of real estate near potential Olympic venues.
Flannery told Turner about once seeing Scott outside his home with a garbage bag, picking up beer bottles and other trash.
"That's all part of living in the inner city, and Mike understood, he accepted it," Turner said, smiling. "You know, you live by example."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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