Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 25, 1992 TAG: 9201250296
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
YOUNGEST ASSISTANT TO CARTER, 34, DIES
Blacksburg High School graduate Scott Douglass, who was the youngest staff assistant in Jimmy Carter's White House, died this week at age 34.Douglass was just 19 and a year out of high school when he became Carter's first national advance man during the 1976 presidential race.
He went on to jobs in the federal government before moving to San Francisco and becoming a real-estate agent and community activist.
Carter said Friday that he was always touched by Douglass' unwavering support.
The former president said he was "deeply impressed by his intelligence, his youthful exuberance and his integrity. Scott has remained very close to me and my family and is a special friend . . . we will miss."
U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Douglass died Wednesday at his Bay area home after a long battle with AIDS.
"Scott Douglass' death is a great loss to our community," Pelosi said. "Scott died as he lived - proud, dignified and surrounded by friends."
Douglass grew up in Gainesville, Ga. At age 13, he volunteered to work on Carter's campaign for governor.
"Scott has always been a remarkable person," Carter said. "My first memory of him is a young boy in north Georgia, not yet old enough to vote, riding through the streets on his bicycle, tacking up Carter for governor posters."
He moved to Blacksburg with his parents when he was in the eighth grade, and graduated from Blacksburg High School in 1975.
That summer, he joined Carter's presidential campaign as a volunteer.
At the time, Douglass once remembered, no one in Blacksburg or Christiansburg believed Carter could become president.
"People would just laugh. . . . They all called me a redneck, an outsider who came in from Georgia. I said, `You just wait: Jimmy Carter's going to surprise you some day.' "
Douglass worked as a field coordinator in New Hampshire. The primary victory there helped make Carter the solid front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
Douglass was named Carter's national advance man.
His job, Douglass said at the time, was to take a trip schedule and "make sure it works."
He took care of small details - such as where Carter's chair would be located on a speaker's platform - and worked closely with U.S. senators, governors and other Democratic leaders.
Carter said Douglass planned some of his most effective political rallies.
After Carter's victory, Douglass attended George Mason University while working at jobs in the State Department and the White House appointments office.
He also worked on Carter's 1980 campaign.
After Ronald Reagan defeated Carter, Douglass moved to San Francisco.
Douglass was a major fund-raiser for community organizations fighting AIDS and worked on Democratic congressional and local government races.
He continued serving on the podium production staff for the Democratic Party's national conventions.
He also was a member of last year's site-selection committee that chose New York for the 1992 Democratic convention.
He is survived by his mother, Norma Douglass of Roanoke; two sisters, Cynthia Wells of Charlottesville and Nancy Allen of Roanoke, and his maternal grandparents, Norman W. and Feral Ryals of Atlanta.
A memorial service is planned for Saturday, Feb. 8, in San Francisco. Contributions in his memory can be made to the BRASS/HANDS Fund, P.O. Box 598, Roanoke 24004.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.