MEMORIAL MINUTE

A Memorial Minute for Scott Minor

    Frank “Scott” Minor became a member of the Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in September of 1995, but he had been familiar with Friends from childhood. . He was born in Pennsylvania and attended Newtown Friends School and Newtown Friends Meeting as a child.

    Scott served in the military during the Vietnam War.  When he was inducted, he wrote “Quaker” on the line requesting religion.  The man behind the desk smiled and asked, “Don’t you know Quakers are pacifists?”  Scott didn’t know that. He earned several military decorations while in service.

    When he returned from the war, like many other Vietnam veterans, he was left with a residue of anger about the war and a sense of exclusion from the mainstream culture.  He bought a motorcycle and had two crashes which injured him physically more than the war had.

    Scott loved popular music and amassed a collection of long playing vinyl records which he hoped would increase in value over the years.  He also liked to play music for his own pleasure and in performing groups. He enjoyed the role of disc jockey. He tried his hand at writing lyrics and succeeded in writing a popular song called, “My Baby She Wrote Me a Letter.”

    Scott found a partner in Debbie Weaver, a birthright Friend from Indiana.  They attended the worship group which met at George Newkirk’s house in Ocala.  A bond grew between George and Scott. The meeting itself was a point of stability in Scott’s life through many ups and downs, illnesses and separation from Debbie.  He called the Quaker Meeting his family.

  

  Scott helped the meeting as much as he could.  He would ride a tractor style mower over the large area around George’s house.  He drove George to Half-yearly Meeting where he helped George set up the crafts activities for the children, when George could no longer do that by himself. 

Many people fondly remember the painting and decorating of the pine cones George had collected as one of these activities that Scott helped him with. For a joint outing of Gainesville and Ocala Friends at Wayside Park, he borrowed a friend’s boat and took us all on rides along the streams of Silver Springs.

Late in his life Scott suffered injuries and illnesses which required multiple hospitalizations and surgeries.  A brutal home invasion left him with only one kidney. An aortic aneurism was almost fatal. The scar tissue left from the motorcycle crashes made surgery impossible for any heart attack he might suffer.  He tenaciously held on to life in spite of his weakened body. He kept rebuilding his strength and resuming his active life after each bout of illness. His final illness was sudden and his death, on February 27, 2009 was unexpected.

Scott loved dogs and cooking and he had a knack for making us laugh.  He knew the meaning of friendship. He was willing to give of what he had and accepted the hand of another when it was offered.