BELMONT ---- Rick Scott (Richard Arthur Scott) the irascible curmudgeon with a heart of gold died in his home on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
Rick was born in Jamaca Plains, NY, 73 years ago, but moved when his mom and stepdad sought a more rural life. He grew up in the Canterbury Shore area around Stump Pond, now officially New Pond, Canterbury. Rick tells tales of roaming the woods with his younger brother. “We didn’t need hunting and fishing licenses back then.”
Rick attended Winnisquam High School for a while but dropped out to join the Navy during the end of the Vietnam War. Later he drove a school bus around Canterbury and then bummed around the country. He worked on fishing boats out of Gloucester, MA, drove big rigs as a relief driver (a CDL about as necessary as hunting licenses), and worked as a dishwasher in a Mexican restaurant in NM.
For a while, Rick lived happily in a self-built cabin in Earth Peoples Park, VT. He was called home to help his mom and dad in their home on RT 140 in Belmont, NH. Once back in NH, he worked many different jobs at restaurants, nursing homes, and Rumford Press. Much of the time he was a painter. As he travelled around the region, he could point out many houses that he had once painted.
Eventually his dad Arthur died. Rick lovingly cared for his mom Franny and kept her supplied with whiskey and cigars (Rick preferred beer and smokes). He strove to be self-sufficient. He heated their home with the wood fireplace. When the well was acting up, Rick collected rainwater to wash and flush. Rick did not realize that his dad had taken out a reverse mortgage and Rick had little use for paperwork. Eventually HUD became the owner of the Scott family homestead. A few times HUD attempted to evict the family, but a wonderful pro-bono lawyer kept finding issues with HUD's paperwork.
After Franny died, the VA became Rick’s godsend. For a while Rick attempted to live on the meager Social Security that his mostly off-the-books life had earned him. The VA signed him up for medical care and eventually a VA pension.
Rick loved to make people laugh. When he was in a store, he tried to warm the hearts of the cashiers and everyone in the line. He had some loyal friends who managed to weather his occasional anger and still bring him firewood and give him rides to the store and appointments. Rick vowed that the only way they would get him out of his house was when they carried out his dead body. He won that one. He hopes you are laughing with him.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH, 03246, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit wilkinsonbeane.com.