He was a happy child and inherited a strong sense of humor from his mother and his grandfather, Henry Van Dyne. He liked to say one of his goals in life was to make someone laugh every day and he generally thought that he had succeeded.
Scott attended elementary and middle school in the local Troy schools. Summers were spent at nearby Mountain Lake where he became a strong swimmer and a devoted hunter of turtles. Starting at age 12, he worked every summer, including a stint as a dishwasher in a Boy Scout camp, but primarily as a house painter.
He was a very active Boy Scout and reached the rank of Eagle Scout when he was barely 13, at the time the youngest Eagle Scout in Pennsylvania history. Scott like to joke that his greatest scouting skill was ferreting obscure merit badges.