Dr. Clifford John Scott
1880 -1936
Born in Conneatville, PA, Dr. Scott received his
bachelor's degree at Allegheny College. He played football, was
president of the debating society, manager of the Glee Club, and
belonged to Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He was also a member of the
Quill Club literary society.
His first school administrative post was as a supervising
principal at Reynoldsville, PA. Then he went to a similar
position at Uniontown, PA. In 1914, Dr. Scott became
superintendent of schools at Wilmington, DE. He later served
three years as president of the Delaware State Board of
Education, and was a trustee of Delaware University where he
obtained his doctor of pedagogy degree. He also served as a
member of the Board of Managers of the Delaware State Industrial
School.
At a convention of the National Education Association (NEA), he
happened to meet Miss Blanche P. Durgan of the East Orange Board
of Education. She recommended him to the board to succeed Dr.
Edwin C. Broome who had recently resigned to take a post as
superintendent in Philadelphia. Although he was not an official
candidate, the East Orange Board of Education offered the
position to Dr. Scott and he accepted. He served as East Orange
Superintendent of Schools from 1921 to his death in 1936.
Dr. Scott took up residence at 131 Woodland Avenue in East
Orange. One of his projects as Superintendent of Schools in East
Orange came from work he had done earlier as Superintendent in
Wilmington, Delaware on establishing junior high schools. As a
result he was instrumental in establishing the Vernon L. Davey Junior High School in 1930
(today it is known as the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and
Fine Arts- and is about to be replaced yet
again with another school named after Cicely Tyson). Dr.
Scott died before the school that bears his name was completed,
but he envisioned it as a combined junior and senior high school.
Dr. Henry E. Kentopp, succeeding Dr. Scott upon his death,
reorganized the school as a senior high school and it was named
Clifford J. Scott High School in 1937.
Today, Clifford J. Scott High School has been
renamed as East Orange Campus 9.