Our History: Featured Alumni/ae: Scott, Hugh D., Jr., 1922

U.S. Congressman and Senator from Pennsylvania

Hugh Scott was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 11, 1900 and attended public and private schools. During World War I he enrolled in the Student Reserve Officers Training Corps and the Students’ Army Training Corps. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia, in 1919 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1922, where he was a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. He was admitted to the bar in 1922 and commenced practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Scott served as assistant district attorney of Philadelphia from 1926 to 1941 and was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Reform of the Magistrates System (1938–1940). During the Second World War he was on active duty for two years with the United States Navy, rising to the rank of commander. Scott was also vice president of the United States Delegation to the Interparliamentary Union. He was elected as a Republican to the 77th United States Congress and reelected to the 78th United States Congress (January 3, 1941–January 3, 1945). He failed to be reelected in 1944 to the 79th United States Congress and resumed the practice of law, serving as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1948 to 1949. He then returned to Congress (the 80th) and was reelected to the five succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1947–January 3, 1959), leaving his seat to run for the Senate.

In 1958 Scott was elected to the United States Senate and was twice reelected, in 1964 and again in 1970, and served from January 3, 1959, to January 3, 1977. He was Republican whip in 1969 and minority leader from 1969 to 1977, serving as Chairman of the Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents. He wielded tremendous influence. He was one of the congressional leaders to meet Richard Nixon to tell him to resign following Watergate. He did not run for reelection in 1976. The same year, he chaired the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention. Scott was a resident of Washington, D.C., and later, Falls Church, Virginia, until his death there on July 21, 1994. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Interviews with United States Senator Hugh Scott, Jr. in Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.