Walter Scott, Jr.: A True Maverick

It is no hyperbole to say that the University of Nebraska at Omaha would not be what it is today without Walter Scott, Jr.

Scott, a business leader, philanthropist, and committed supporter of UNO passed away on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, at the age of 90. The Maverick community mourns his loss but celebrates all that he meant to this university.

“There are very few people in the business world who do not know Walter Scott’s name, as an innovator and as a philanthropist,” UNO Chancellor Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA, said. “But it is here on the UNO campus that we have grown to know who Walter Scott truly is, and that is a kind, generous, selfless advocate for the power of education."

Scott, a native Omahan, helped lead Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., a worldwide construction firm, for more than 30 years. He was named vice president 1964 and was named president in 1979 following founder Peter Kiewit's death that year. Scott ultimately served as chairman and CEO of Peter Kiewit Sons’ until 1998.

Scott, who graduated from Benson High School and then enrolled in Colorado State University before returning to Omaha in 1953, has also served as a director of Berkshire Hathaway, MidAmerican Energy Holdings and Valmont Industries.

The iconic philanthropist has four children by his first wife, Carolyn, who passed away in 1983, and married his second wife, Suzanne (Sue) in 1987. They remained married until Sue passed away in 2013.

Together, Walter and Suzanne saw a bright future for Omaha’s university and made sure others did as well.

Today, one doesn’t need to look hard to see the impact Walter Scott, and his family, have had on UNO’s success. Nowhere is that more evident than the campus named in his honor in 2017, 20 years after he changed the face of UNO – and Omaha – by helping the campus secure portions of the expansive AK-SAR-BEN property, which was once home to a coliseum and racetrack.

It would be this gesture, in 1997, that would set UNO on an upward trajectory to become one of the world’s premier metropolitan institutions. However, Scott’s commitment and belief in UNO stretches back even further. In fact, since 1990, Scott has provided more than $220 million in support to UNO either directly or through the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Not only did the Scott Foundation help secure private dollars to build the Peter Kiewit Institute as a new, joint home for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Engineering and UNO’s new College of Information Science & Technology, but he also helped provide full-ride scholarships to more than 100 UNO and UNL students in the form of the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Program.

“Walter Scott has literally helped thousands of young people pursue their dreams of making an impact in their communities with the scholarships his foundation has provided,” Wayne Watkins, BSME, MBA, JD, Executive Director of the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Program. “There is an entire generation of Scott Scholars who are in the workforce today – transforming Nebraska, and the rest of the world.”

Scott’s impact also resonated by greatly expanding opportunities for on-campus housing at UNO. With University Village serving as UNO’s first official housing unit in 1999, Scott led the way in building Scott Hall in 2000 to serve as a home for the newly-minted Scott Scholars.