Robert W. Scott


Robert Walter "Bob" Scott was an American politician who served as the 67th Governor of North Carolina from 1969 to 1973. He was born and died in Haw River, North Carolina.
The son of North Carolina Governor W. Kerr Scott, and grandson and nephew of state legislators, Scott was a dairy farmer before being elected to the post of lieutenant governor in 1964 and that of governor in 1968. In May 1969, during his term as governor, racial violence at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, a predominantly black campus in Greensboro, resulted in one student death, and the injury of a National Guardsman, five Greensboro police officers and two students.
Constitutionally barred from seeking another term, he later served as co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission and as President of the North Carolina Community College System, from 1983 until 1995. Scott unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1980, losing in the Democratic primary to Jim Hunt.
His daughter, Meg Scott Phipps served as North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture from 2001 to 2003.
Scott was honored in 2008 by the North Carolina Society for preserving state archives and historic artifacts and his efforts to increase awareness of the state's history.
Scott died in 2009 at the age of 79 and is buried in Hawfields Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Mebane, North Carolina.
His father's farm and birthplace, the Kerr Scott Farm, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.