June 1, 1964, Page 29Buy Reprints
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. May 31 — Harry Scott, a grain and feed dealer who emerged from political retirement to win a write‐in campaign for Mayor here 29 years ago, died of a heart ailment today in New Rochelle Hospital. He was 88 years old.
Mr. Scott, who had been Mayor before, was drafted as an emergency candidate by the Republican party five days before the 1935 November election and two weeks after the death of Mayor Paul M. Crandell. The Mayor had been the Republican nominee for re‐election.
Mr. Scott's name was simple to spell, but party leaders took nothing for granted. They mailed postcards to 50,000 prospective voters with the candidate's name in bold‐face type. They also distributed by hand 10,000 free pencils bearing the legend, “Use This To Write‐in Harry Scott.”
Paper ballots, authorized by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, recorded for Mr. Scott a plurality of 1,400 votes over Stanley W. Church, Democrat, and Antonio Lombardo, Communist. After Mr. Scott retired again four years later, Mr. Church served five terms as Mayor.
Mr. Scott, in his youth, and two brothens joined their father in operating Robert H. Scott, Inc., a grain, feed and fuel concern. It was closed two years ago, when its place of business was acquired as part of an urban‐renewal site.
After serving for eight years on the Board of Aldermen and the City Council, Mr. Scott was elected to the first of three twoyear terms as Mayor in 1919. In 1938, before his last retirement from political life, he presided at ceremonies for the 250th anniversary of the town's founding by French Huguenots.
Mr. Scott, who was a bachelor, is survived by two brothers, Alex of New Rochelle, and Alfred of Melbourne, Fla., and four sisters, Mrs. Elmer Doolittle and Mrs. Robert Burnett of New Rochelle, Mrs. Harry Briggs of Melbourne, and Mrs. John Fredericks of Rochester.