February 3, 2011

Sellen's Bill Scott remembered as a mentor and teacher

It's only fitting to note with sadness the Jan. 20 passing of William N. Scott, former chairman of Sellen Construction.

Mr. Scott was lauded at a gathering in his honor on Sunday by many who knew and worked with him in his nearly half century at Sellen. His influence on the direction and culture of the organization was repeatedly acknowledged, including by those who have succeeded him at Sellen. Speakers said Mr. Scott was a mentor to them, and more importantly, a teacher.

Scott

Despite not having spent nearly the time with Mr. Scott that those speakers did, I knew exactly what they meant.

Mr. Scott (I never felt qualified to call him by his first name) was a gigantic figure in the Seattle construction community for decades, which is why he was in one of the first class of inductees into UW's Northwest Construction Hall of Fame in 1995.

His stature at Sellen and in the industry, and the deference he commanded, were awfully intimidating to me when I became a young “assistant project manager” (translation: know-nothing kid who lucked into a job) at Sellen in the mid-1980s. Even though I was firmly entrenched on the lowest level of the Sellen organizational chart, Mr. Scott always made sure that I knew I was part of the team.

In 1986, Sellen bid the Husky Stadium renovation. I worked the bid room that day, and Mr. Scott was right in the middle of the process, bringing his ever-present lucky coin and rabbit's foot to the bid room, and working closely with bid “quarterback” (the late, great) Scott Greenwood to hone Sellen's price on a project we really wanted.

I went with current Sellen CEO Bob McCleskey to the bid opening, where we were devastated to finish second, just $20,000 high on a project worth more than $16 million.

Fast forward to the following February. Mr. Scott heard that our family was planning a trip to Maui, where he and Mrs. Scott had a home. Despite my lowly position in the company, he and Mrs. Scott insisted that we join them one evening for cocktails. We arrived at the appointed time, and when Mr. Scott answered the door, he displayed for me the front page of that day's edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In a big photo above the fold I saw a pile of twisted steel, which until the day before had been Husky Stadium's north grandstand structure.

Rather than focusing on the stadium contractor's unfortunate problem, Mr. Scott made our cocktail hour a learning time for me. He talked about structural steel construction (about which I knew almost nothing) and what he knew and surmised about the possible causes of the accident.

And, he recounted what he felt were important differences between Sellen's bid and the low bidder's on the stadium job, including telling me about the discussions he and Sellen's bid team had about how Sellen likely would have built the job, and how those discussions informed the way Sellen chose to bid.

On Sunday, as I listened to those who knew him much better than I recount how much they had learned from Mr. Scott, I recalled our Maui cocktail hour, now nearly 24 years ago. And, it dawned on me that I have repeatedly applied the things he told me on that single long-ago evening, especially about really thinking through a project before putting a price on it.

I join the long-line of others celebrating Bill Scott's life, and like them, express gratitude for his influence on mine.

Todd Henry is a construction law lawyer and partner at Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker. He worked in the Seattle construction industry for nearly 20 years, including for Sellen Construction.