Remarks by Anahit LaBarre

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who is here in person, here virtually, and everyone who is present in spirit. I want to say a special thanks to the Colorado Center for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind for the incredible job they have done putting this event together to honor Scott and to honor his memory and to celebrate the life that he lived, the accomplishments he has had, along with everyone who has worked with him. It has been an incredible experience as far as how much support we have gotten as a family throughout these difficult few months.

As I was thinking about what to say, the task was very difficult for me because there is so much to say, and it’s hard to figure out how to narrow this down to the three to five minutes that Kevan wanted this to be. [Her tone of voice and the laughter that accompanied it indicated that three to five minutes was not at all realistic.]

Scott loved quotes. Before there was a convention or a meeting of some sort, he spent hours just going through different quotes trying to find just the right one. So have I. I read a lot of quotes, but the one that caught my attention was the following: “To do what you wanna do, to leave a mark—in a way that you think is important and lasting—that's a life well-lived.” The quotation is by Laurene Powell Jobs. I felt this quotation was so appropriate for Scott because, even though his life was cut short, he has left this world a better place. I cannot possibly tell you how many times he mentioned to me, to our family, to anyone who would listen how important it was for each of us to leave this world a better place than what we found. I certainly think that he has accomplished that.

I do want to say though that none of it was done just by himself. Part of what he enjoyed the most was the collaboration, working together, being a part of something big, and he absolutely loved it. His dedication to the National Federation of the Blind had no limits. He loved the organization, he loved the people in it, and it was definitely his family.

Scott enjoyed tremendously being a part of the American Bar Association. He treasured the friendships that that work brought to him, but he also really loved the work that they did, the challenges that they got to face, and the progress they made. Everything that Scott did he really treasured, so this is his professional life.

We have heard from many colleagues, friends, and as all of them are unanimous in saying, he was a very genuine person. You didn’t have to guess where Scott stood on an issue or what his mood was like or any of that, and I absolutely love that about Scott.

What I want to talk about gets me back to the quotation. “To do what you want to do and to leave a mark” took on a completely different meaning when Scott became a father. He loved being a dad. He was goofy when the kids were little. He would come up with all kinds of stories with permanent characters in them, and they had funny names. As someone said earlier, we did have a tent in our living room, and that tent traveled all over the place. I’m telling you that whoever made that tent deserves a medal, because even with Scott and the kids in it, it rolled all over, and it never broke. It took two years before it finally was disassembled. We also had a plastic car that could be pushed around the house, and he pushed that car with the kids in it so fast that it was like they were engaged in the race of a lifetime.

Not only did Scott love being a dad, but he loved showing the world to me as well as to the kids. Every time there was an opportunity where there was a meeting in an interesting place, he sincerely asked me to join him. We would go to these places, and he was always so busy. He was in meetings or negotiating something, but he’d always make sure to sit down and say, “Let’s look up tourism opportunities. I’d love for the kids to learn about history.” So it was that we learned about spaceships and all kinds of other ships and history and architecture. He wanted to bring all of that to our family, whether that was directly through him or through me.

Then there was another part where I stepped back and I said that he should absolutely have at it because Scott loved water. He loved boats, and he loved boats that went fast. I had to allow him to enjoy some time with the kids on his own while I went to the coffee shop and enjoyed the good coffee.

“Do what you want to do and leave the mark you want.” That was a good motto for Scott in everything that he did. He loved his sports teams, and I will tell you that it was best for everyone not to be in close proximity when any of the teams he was highly passionate about were playing because he took things very seriously, win or lose.

Scott had yet another hobby; he loved anything connected with aerospace, whether that was airplanes or space itself. You will probably be hard-pressed to find anyone outside the profession who cared that deeply and was as curious about space and airplanes as Scott was. He wanted to make sure that it was interesting to everyone around him as well.

Sometimes we would review our subscription to cable channels, and I would try to convince him to cut back on some of them. It turned out that was nonnegotiable because part of the channel package that he wanted featured the NASA channel. He would turn it on, and for those of you who have never watched the NASA channel, it is not the most action-packed channel on the planet. Not a whole lot goes on there, but he would turn it on, it would be in the background, and I would forget about it. All of a sudden, as I would go around doing my business, all of a sudden I would hear the astronauts start communicating in my living room. I have to confess it startled me every single time. Even after being startled, I would just have to laugh, because I knew this was something that was very important to Scott, and he was very passionate about it.

Another thing he absolutely loved, which you’ve heard many, many times here, was music. He explored all different genres. Some of our neighbors are here, and I apologize on behalf of our family, because I know many of them knew when I was not home. We had outdoor speakers. Scott was very proud of these, and when I got back home, I would find him on the back porch swing blasting the music like there was no tomorrow and singing to it full force. Everything Scott did he did with all his heart whether that was work or singing or having fun.

Let’s come back to “To do what is important to you.” One of my favorite things about Scott, one that I will treasure most, is how intellectual, full of curiosity, and open our conversations were. Often dinnertime turned into a debate, inquiry, or just a plain discussion. We all asked questions, doubted, agreed, argued sometimes—but it was so powerful, loving, and full of curiosity. I love that about our family.

Scott had this incredible sixth sense in him. I probably drove him crazy, because whenever we were about to embark on a new journey, I would go to him and ask, “does this feel right to you?” He tried so very hard to teach me how to trust myself and how to listen to myself and how to know when something is right. He tried very, very hard, and I hate to say that he hasn’t succeeded completely.

This brings me to one of the last things I want to say. What he has taught me is to be a part of a larger community, and especially in these last few months, there is absolutely no way our family could have gotten through this time without our communities, so many of them. There is our National Federation of the Blind family, our biological family, our friends, our neighbors. I just started a new job, and it is incredibly touching how supportive the team is on my job. I want to thank every single person, and while my heart wants to name everyone who has been deeply involved, I know I will accidentally forget someone and then lose sleep over it. So here is what I want to say: to every single one of you who called, sent a card, brought dinner, held our hands, just listened, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I want to conclude what I say, Mark Riccobono, you and I think alike. Actually this song came up twice already. And while I was listening to many, many songs and trying to figure out which one to play for our wonderful visitors who cannot be here in person and are on Zoom, I was also trying to listen and find songs that I heard Scott play many times. It doesn’t matter which songs I like, this is about Scott. I remind you that when he listened to music, he didn’t just listen. One of the songs that kept coming up over and over again was the song titled “One.” I mentioned earlier how deeply I appreciated our conversations where we talked about ethics, human rights, so many different things. So my point is that, although Scott really appreciated the music that U2 did, he also appreciated how enthralled they were with social justice and human rights. He told me many times how important it was to him that not only did they sing and produce good music, but they also cared about people. I did a lot of research in choosing this song, and part of the reason is that it is so open to interpretation. The song also reminds me of the community we are part of, so diverse, yet somehow so complete and so right. What this song says is, “We are one, but not the same. We get to carry each other.” I invite you all to continue the work that Scott started. Diversity and acceptance were very important to Scott, so let us embrace the diversity; let us embrace the fact that there are conflicts. How do we look for resolution? Let us move forward and embrace the one but not the same and the idea that we get to carry each other. Thank you.