Interview with Nan Scott, December 4, 2018

MUMMERT: Uh--the following is an oral history interview conducted as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Retirees' Association Oral History Project. The person being interviewed is Nan Scott.[1] Dr. Scott--is a retiree of the Tennessee Valley Authority, she worked at TVA for about 24 years between September 1978 and May 2002. She is being interviewed by Philip Mummert as part of the oral history project. The interview location is the Fountain City Art Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Today is Tuesday, December 4, 2018, and the interview is now beginning. Well, hello Nan, I've been looking forward to interviewing you, and--um--I'm glad you are willing to--to go through this.

SCOTT: Well, thank you Phil, I appreciate you asking me.

MUMMERT: I'll be checking this occasionally.

SCOTT: Okay, no problem.

MUMMERT: Well, you're welcome and--um--First question, could you--uh--tell me what the circumstances were that led to your being hired at TVA?

SCOTT: Well--um--I had just completed my doctoral program at The University of Tennessee, and actually I was planning to--um--teach in a small university, but at the time both of my parents became ill with cancer, and so I decided I would stay in Knoxville. And I went to TVA and I spoke with John Bynon, who was the Director of Personnel. And I said: "John, you know I'd really want to stay in Knoxville and I thought perhaps you might have something for me here at TVA." And he said: "Well, Nan, what are your career goals"? And I said 00:02:00"Well, I'd like to improve the quality of life in the Tennessee Valley region." And he said: "Could you be a little more specific"? And the rest is history. I had twenty-four years of improving the quality of life in the Tennessee Valley region, and I was very, very happy to do so. It was never boring.

MUMMERT: Well, Nan, I'm going to ask you to be more specific, too.-- But at that time what was your background? You--you were a schoolteacher, weren't you?

SCOTT: Yes, I had gotten an undergraduate degree in elementary education and a Master's in counseling. And then my Doctoral program was at a time where you could create your own program, so it was an interdisciplinary option and I had an area in women's studies, an area in consumer economics and an area in human development. And the core--the core of my coursework was systems theory about how all the disciplines work together and. I thought that that 00:03:00was a really appropriate preparation for the interesting work I was hired to do at TVA.

MUMMERT: You had quite a broad background. And--uh--the--uh--for what--what were you hired to do--uh--at TVA on your first job?

SCOTT: Initially, I was hired in the Civil Rights Division--um--that had been a particular interest of mine throughout, I guess my life. And so I was hired by Frank--what--I was hired by Frank Robinson to bring the Title VI Compliance Program to the Tenn--to TVA. And I was on a team of four, including Frank, and we developed the guidelines for implementation of the Title VI Civil 00:04:00Rights Act to TVA which required that all appropriated money be appropriated in such a way as to have the widest impact for people regardless of income, race and--um--all the other kinds of social responsibility.

MUMMERT: So nothing like that had--had--uh--been administered at TVA before?

SCOTT: No, not the Title VI program. I think it was a fairly--it--it had just come out at the national level. I worked with the people from the Office of Civil Rights in Washington to do that, got to go to some nice parties in the DC area. I met Ed Bradley--uh--that was--that was an interesting time. Yeah from the news, he was a news guy back then.

MUMMERT: Oh, uh, on, uh 60 Minutes.

SCOTT: Yeah--yeah that's right, he was on 60 Minutes.

MUMMERT: Well, that was in 1978.

SCOTT: I think so. Yes, it was.

MUMMERT: So--uh--the civil rights--uh--objectives were just really beginning to be implemented at TVA, and you were one of the first on the team that--

SCOTT: I got to do that. It was exciting.

MUMMERT: Well--uh--this was an agency though that was--um--and you need to correct me if I'm wrong but that was probably predominantly--uh--white and also--uh--was filled with--uh--men that were--uh--professional engineers, scientists. And--uh--I suppose--um--most of the women that worked at TVA at that time were probably in clerical positions.

SCOTT: That's correct.

MUMMERT: What was it like going in to that job of yours, how old were you when you--?

SCOTT: Old enough to know better and too young to care. But--um--I 00:06:00was, I think I was about--I think I was about 30 years old when I started actually because I'd been in school so long and taught some--um--from first grade, well actually preschool all the way to postgraduate level at the university so. But of course the staff I was on, and it's probably true of most federal agencies, I was on our Title VI staff, I was the only woman and the only Caucasian. Everybody on the diversity development area and the civil rights compliance people basically were whi--I mean--excuse me, were black. So I was a--um--I was kind of a minority in that respect. But we did interface with all of the conservative--um--other elements of TVA, the more technical areas, which were mostly white male. And it was--it was an exciting time it was 00:07:00really--it was really fun. I was given a wide birth in so many ways because I was one of the first women and was educated. And by and large, you know at that time maybe more than now, women were really not a threat to anyone, we were more of--um--an oddity and so there were a lot of opportunities for being one of the first professional women workers at TVA.

MUMMERT: What sorts of things did you do?

SCOTT: Well--um--after implementing the Civil Rights Compliance--um--Manual and Program,which--for which we had a valley-wide conference I'll never forget. And I actually wrote a speech for Chairman Freeman not knowing that he had his own speech writer. And I remember taking my speech up there, and his speech writer tearing it to shreds and throwing it in the trash. But it was 00:08:00actually a good speech that I wrote, but I never really then or now perceived any limitations to what I could do. But--um--.

MUMMERT: Did Chairman Freeman ever see your speech?

SCOTT: I guess he didn't, but he heard about it from me that his staff person had torn it into pieces and thrown it in the trash. But anyway I--um--after that I went pretty soon to personnel[2] to develop--um--a program that was funded.[3] At that time TVA had a lot of appropriated money, and there was an older Americans Act at the time that was developed to help older people who are on fixed income, supplement their incomes out predominantly in rural areas. And there were also situations where women were coming into the workforce, and we wanted to have women working in construction because those are more highly-paid jobs than most of the traditional women's jobs at the time. So I was hired to develop 00:09:00family daycare networks around some of TVA's nuclear construction projects. And the one I remember--uh--most vividly was the one that we did around the Hartsville Nuclear Plant. And I--at each of my--I think there were four sites, and at each of them, I selected a site coordinator and worked with her, and they were all women, in that instance and they were all over 50, to develop--um--to select daycare homes. And then I had some funds that--to bring them up to meet the regulations that existed for being able to have family daycare homes. Uh--there were some safety concerns and other things that we had money to bring their houses up to standard. And then--uh--my--I had to kind of train 00:10:00my coordinators to train the family daycare homes in how to manage children and what their requirements were. And then those homes opened up, we had about, seems like we had four to five homes around the nuclear plant site. And----um--I remember the woman I worked with at Hartsville, her name was Christine York, and she was the most delightful person, she was an older black woman who happened to live in the Hartsville area. She was known and loved by everybody, so having her associated with the project was really helpful. And--.

MUMMERT: Now, Hartsville is--uh--near Nashville, and that was one of the--uh--nuclear plants that ended up not being constructed--.

SCOTT: Mothballed I know, exactly.

MUMMERT: But, this was a period that there were quite a number of nuclear plants at different phases of--of development.

SCOTT: Fascinating time to be out there.

MUMMERT: How many, you--you said there were on the average four or five--

SCOTT: Daycare homes.

MUMMERT: For each nuclear site. And--um--I forget exactly but how many nuclear sites were there then--about--uh--six or seven I think?

SCOTT: Yeah, I know we weren't at all of them, but we were I--th--as I recall we were at Phipps Bend, at--um--Bellefonte, and Hartsville and maybe Sequoyah. I--anyway I'm pretty sure I had four nuclear plants. It was one of my first jobs and--it was exciting.

MUMMERT: While the construction--uh--proceeded at these places, were there many women construction workers?

SCOTT: Well, we were doing our best to recruit them and at each of the sites, yes there were. And so--um--I think it was just.--

MUMMERT: A--a few or ten or fifty?

SCOTT: The majority were--were male but I would say as an 00:12:00estimate--um--that there were probably between thirty and forty women in construction at each of the sites, and they used the daycare centers. They had a priority, I think that obviously other families could use them as well. But, women in construction had the priority for having their children in the network.

MUMMERT: So the--um--there were--um--thousands of employees at these sites at peak employment, if it ever reached that, and--um--that was very interesting. So at these daycare centers what--uh--do you remember some of the things that you were trying to--um--assure--um--were implemented in terms of meeting certain standards or objectives of families, and--and that sort of thing?

SCOTT: Well, for one thing, we had to, this is one thing I remember 00:13:00is that, it had to be, we had to have like 24-hour coverage in some instances because they were working around the clock. And so--um--that was an issue having some you know off. It was and then in terms, of there weren't really curriculums; these were for younger children--uh so it was basically--uh--training in food preparation--um--just really basic childcare kinds of issues. These women who were older Americans kind of functioned as grandparents really, who had a home that was up to standards for children to stay in.

MUMMERT: TVA--uh--you know, at this point in its history had built--uh--of course dams and coal plant---fired plants. Uh--had TVA done anything like this for those that you know of?

SCOTT: I'm pretty sure they hadn't. You know, this was the time I was 00:14:00at TVA was when a lot of the new social programming was--was starting and the thing about trying to get women into nontraditional jobs was fairly new, as was employing civil rights issues at various TVA work plants and well really in all TVA facilities. It was an exciting time, for someone who's kind of a--a--you know--. I've always been a person who's liked to work for change and--and inclusion.

MUMMERT: That's--uh--you're the--the perfect person to do that, but did you run into any problems--um--with--resistance in different parts of maybe TVA or any of these communities that TVA--uh--was working in?

SCOTT: I really can't say that I noticed that must resistance. I think probably because it was so new. It wasn't threatening to people, they were 00:15:00just, people seemed to be interested. And TVA always attracted I think, a fairly--um--the employees there were o--open-minded for the most part, now in some--in some instances not so much. But I think that--um--by in large, it was just a really good time for social ac--activism.

MUMMERT: Well that's--uh--anything else you'd like to say about the daycare work that you did? How long were you doing that?

SCOTT: I was doing that for several years. And it was a challenging time, but it was incredibly interesting. I remember when I first went to TVA, going--um-- I had thought, cause I--my dad worked at TVA, he--in fact 00:16:00he met my mother there. So one of my things is to say is I owe my inception to TVA, my conception. But--I--as a child I'd watch him go off to work every day, and I thought, well it seemed kind of like just a boring thing to me. He worked in personnel, and so I thought well, I'll go to work for TVA and it will boring, but it will be stable. And as you know from your time at TVA it never was either one. But anyway, the daycare p--project was one of my favorites, but I had many others as well.

MUMMERT: Now, I just have one other question about the daycare. Um--did you--uh--you had to provide buildings or find them. Did you do that or did tv--ot--someone else in TVA?

SCOTT: It was family daycare hom--they were homes of residents, yeah--near--wh--that lived in areas. We tried to pick homes that were 00:17:00in--near major thoroughfares coming into the nuclear plant sites. But they were all rural homes. Yeah, it was family daycare in the homes. And that's why we had to bring some of the homes up to standards, work some in their kitchens and things to get them certified so they could be approved as family daycare homes.

MUMMERT: Did you do that like under contract or did TVA people do such work?

SCOTT: We did it under contract.

MUMMERT: And--uh--TVA paid for this?

SCOTT: Yes through, as I was saying, it was through the Older Americans Act--to--because--. Yeah, it was--it was a dual purpose. One was to create jobs for senior citizens, people on fixed incomes, and then to also provide opportunities for women to move into non-traditional roles working construction at the nuclear plant sites.

MUMMERT: Do you happen to know whether that sort of--uh--thing still 00:18:00happens today when there are such places like power plants built anywhere?

SCOTT: I really don't know of any.

MUMMERT: Was what TVA was doing at that time unique or did you know?

SCOTT: I think we were totally unique with that. Um--you know, in those days we were called a demonstration agency. We demonstrated work that hopefully would be picked up by other corporations or other agencies or businesses.

MUMMERT: So--uh--what did you do next?

SCOTT: Let's see.

MUMMERT: After you were--

SCOTT: After the daycare thing. I went into the economic development--

MUMMERT: Do you want to look at your--

SCOTT: Yes, Could I? My cheat sheet. Okay, graduated women's studies--

MUMMERT: I'm gonna put this on pause here for a minute.

[Pause in recording.]

MUMMERT: So--uh--what did you do next?

SCOTT: Well, another development that was--uh--underway was, as I was saying, women coming into the workforce. There was a federal women's program that was developed to help people at TV--um--the women there, to have lots of equal opportunities and also to work with people in the valley about women's issues. And since I had a background in that, and I was interviewed for that 00:20:00position and selected for it. And at that time it was a requirement that all federal agencies have a federal women's program manager. It was kind of a new program. I was not the first one, but--um--I was one of the first federal women's program managers for TVA. And it kind of served me well because--um--for one thing, I was extremely interested in it--um-- secondly because it was a requirement, when TVA started having to cut back its workforce, the--um--the federal women's program was off limits because we were required to have that program. So that saw me through some of the early cutbacks and gave me an opportunity to support women in TVA and I was a member of the federal--federally employed women's group, which was a group within TVA, and I was the president of that for a while when I was also the program man--the women's 00:21:00program--women's program manager, as well, so that was a really rich time for me and where I was able to help a lot of women. We did programs for women there at TVA on--um--all sorts of career development opportunities. And so that was a rich opportunity. And then I moved from that into our economic development program, which was one of my favorite times at TVA.

MUMMERT: Now, about when was this?

SCOTT: Uh--I believe that was in 1982. And I developed TVA's first program for working with small businesses. In the past, our economic development had been mostly industrial development, which of course created a lot of jobs, but there were fewer of them. It was known to me or I learned through that job 00:22:00that the majority of jobs created are in small businesses. And I was able to go around and--um--throughout the valley and do small business development weeks where we worked with the small businesses. We also had an affiliation with the Small Business Administration and got a lot of new small businesses developed throughout the valley. One that I am most happy about and that--that I have benefitted from over the years was when I helped--um--a couple of women that I had met before, when they were in--um--jobs working for the hotels and--um--working you know, to do the banquets and things that TVA would have. I helped a woman write her budget and her request to the Small Business Administration to get her business plan approved, and she received 00:23:00funding to create a business down at the former World's Fair there site in Knoxville, Tennessee. And she developed a restaurant there. It--it was a convention center really, but one of the things they did was to hold luncheons and dinners. It was a place called the Foundry. And I worked with the woman, Mary Ann Green was her name. And she--I had met her when I was arranging programs for TVA at one of our hotel sites, and she said: "I really think we need a separate convention site where we could have these." And so Mary Ann and I worked with the Small Business Administration and wrote her grant for funding that helped her to start the Foundry, which has become such a wonderful project, a wonderful resource for Knoxville people who want to have 00:24:00programs. Like for example, this month here at TVA we're are going to be having our retirees' Christmas party at The Foundry. And Mary Ann is very fond of coming up and saying to me, at these events: "This is the woman who is responsible for me getting the money to start the Foundry when I became a woman business owner." So it's all these things coming together that made my career at TVA so exciting.

MUMMERT: So, The Foundry is still there, and also the--she is?

SCOTT: Yeah, Mary Ann still is operating it. Yeah, I've worked with her recently on it. Yeah she--she's you know, she's provided jobs to plenty of people over the years. And I think it's considered really our best conference center in Knoxville still. And--um--I also when I was with the small business 00:25:00ad--program, I went to Washington for enterprise development training, and they were just ta--talking about a new concept called the Small Business Incubator Project. And that basically was just where they would get an old facility that had probably had been something that had gone out of business, and put in some central services and house small businesses in the facility. And they would have the central services and they would move in at a very low rate per square foot, but as they developed their business, the rate would move--get more expensive so that they would be ready to graduate out of the incubator into their own small business. And it was a very exciting concept that I got to introduce to TVA, and then we developed a lot of small business incubator projects across the valley. And I think--I'm--I'm sure that some of them are still operating. Our best one probably was in Chattanooga because Chattanooga, the community 00:26:00got behind their small business incubator. And at one time I--there was an organization called the--um--well the founding organization for small business incubators. And I was on the--I was one of the national officers of that and got to be involved with seeing that technology develop. And that was just a real exciting thing for small business development.

MUMMERT: And I would think that--uh--at that time--uh--TVA maybe did--uh--were able--they were able to help get incubators started faster than other agencies or places in the country.

SCOTT: Absolutely they were we had--.

MUMMERT: Was TVA viewed as kind of a model in that--at that time period?

SCOTT: We actually were. We were a model for small business incubation development. And--uh--we had participated very heavily in the one in 00:27:00Chattanooga. I can't remember what the old company was that had been in it, but they housed a number of small businesses that went out from there and became part of Chattanooga's vibrant downtown redevelopment process where a lot of innovative small businesses came into place.

MUMMERT: Were all these incubators in primarily urban areas or were there some r--mo--in what you would call rural?

SCOTT: Well, we developed one in Haywood County North Carolina. And--um--that was a--that was a--a rural area, of course. And I remember the exciting thing of going down for when the incubator opened up, it was at a time when the tunnel had collapsed on the road on I-40. And I got to fly in with--in a helicopter with the TVA chairman at the time to cut the ribbon for that small business incubator. And coming back, Chili Dean, who was our director at the time, he wanted to take the-- the--um--helicopter through a real low trip 00:28:00through the Cades Cove area, and he was hanging out of the window taking photos. And it was so--it was so exciting getting to do that as well, but the small business incubator there, I think, started a number of small rural businesses. I really couldn't tell you what they were, but I know it was successful for a while. It was a partnership that TVA had. And also, one of the small u--colleges that was in the area helped to develop that small business incubator project.

MUMMERT: Did you keep track of--uh--those businesses that were start ups and successful when you were doing that job?

SCOTT: That would have been such a good idea, and I'm sorry there wasn't that follow-through, Phil.

MUMMERT: Do you remember any?

SCOTT: No, I do not. I don't. That was my crowning jewel. Because I get to keep going there so often, it's easy to remember that one.

MUMMERT: Now, was that project, or that small business program was that--uh--something that was kind of running all by itself with you, or did you have a team of people that you worked with? Or was it fold--folding into the industrial program?

SCOTT: It just--it folded actually just into the communities to keep them going.

MUMMERT: I--I--I meant--uh--within the TVA bureaucracy?

SCOTT: Within the TVA bureaucracy? Well-um--there were some other programs that instituted small business incubators. Um--and they were never part of the industrial development though. But, that Special Opportunities City and County Project that Tom Rogers and Tom Hunter did, I think they did some business incubators in some of those rural counties, so.--

MUMMERT: Yeah, Tom Hunter has been interviewed as part of this project.

SCOTT: Well good, maybe he said about it. I hope he did.

MUMMERT: --He--he talked about the Special Opportunities County.

SCOTT: Well, small business incubator was one of the things that they 00:30:00did in some of those counties.

MUMMERT: And everyone worked together. And I--I re--.

SCOTT: Yeah, it was--was a very good time to work at TVA.

MUMMERT: Well--uh--that's very interesting and--uh--that went on for a while. And--uh--how long did you work--uh--in the small business arena?

SCOTT: Well, until about 19--the early 1990s when--um--I moved into personnel work, which was kind of following my father's footsteps. I was recruited by the director of personnel to dev--to help develop a new pay system at TVA because there was a lot of changes going on. And they wanted to develop something or to initiate something that would be more-- well, that everybody in TVA 00:31:00would be using the same system. Um--there had been a little variability in the past, but we implemented the Hay System of Job Evaluation, which I got trained in down in the Atlanta area. And this program was used at many large companies. And there was some resistance, of course, people were really afraid that people were going to mess with their pay system. But actually a pay system is just a technology, and it's how it's implemented that would affect all of that. And I think it was implemented in a fair-minded manner, but I learned how to take jobs and develop them into factors and then assess certain points to each factor. And that was--um--something that, for me, was a little bit technical. But, I think it was good for me. And--I-- my father was still living, and he was 00:32:00really proud of me that I was working in the Hay System, he knew something about the Hay System of Job. And so, I went around the valley, and as I said, people were a little bit nervous. But, I went around to various places in the valley, out at construction sites and all to talk about the Hay System, to kind of put peoples' minds at ease that it wasn't something that was going to result in loss of funding. It was just something that would give us a more unified approach toward evaluating jobs, so that it would really be fairer for everyone. --That just lasted a few years. That would just--that did not last for--I was happy.--

MUMMERT: I think I probably as being one of those employees that were affected by it. I'm--I'm--I didn't realize, but I'm glad you were the person--.

SCOTT: I did all I could to make it fair. But--um--it's just the technology and how it was implemented I think was fair, too, but there was always 00:33:00margin for some manipulation of any system. But I think that TVA really had in mind just to make it systematic so we would all be evaluated in the same way. Um--then after that I moved into another part of TVA's personnel area. It was--TVA University was just getting started, which was--this was something that was going on across the area. It was kind of, other companies were starting their own universities. We'd always had some development for employees, but they centralized it to where it was kind of like a university. We had a staff and they went out and did training in all of TVA's--uh--various locations in all sorts of things like--um--you know how to--how to manage people, there were management courses. And there were--um--all sorts of different kinds 00:34:00of career development courses that were taught through TVA University. And one of my interesting projects during that time was when the manager, the vice president of TVA University came to me and said: "Nan, we need to develop some prevention of sexual harassment training." And so I just started researching it, and I developed the program. And then I field tested it and it was approved. And it--then it was used throughout TVA. And I think it was extremely forward-thinking.

MUMMERT: This would have been mid--mid 90s.

SCOTT: It was very much ahead of its time. And only recently you know, it's been back in the--in the news, more or less, and I've noticed that they're still--it hasn't really, the technology hasn't cha--changed any. And you know, there-- that was an exciting thing to do. And I remember giving that 00:35:00to people in nuclear plant sites and in c--all kinds of construction sites. And--um--I tried to make it non-threatening--um--but also to get the basics out there so that people would realize what was inappropriate and what they needed to be careful of so that they could know when advances were unwelcome. It's amazing how people can try to pass those things over. And--um--s--I think it--I think it was probably helpful and as a result of it, one of the interesting things was, Jim Clayton, at the Clayton Corporation, heard about our training and asked me to come and do it for his company. And so TVA allowed me to go and do it--um--in that private industry. And probably it was very welcome 00:36:00there as well, although I remember the people in private industry were just shocked by the fact that TVA would have developed that--um--because it was very forward thinking at the time.

MUMMERT: Yeah, and I remember now that--uh--it--I guess probably shortly after you developed that, it was mandatory training because I and everybody I think--.

SCOTT: Did you all have to take it?

Well every year, when things--when computer technology developed, and we could do things online, every year we had to do--uh--take that as one of our mandatory you know, survey refresher courses.-- And I thought everybody was doing it, but I don't think they were. And it's 2018 and we are just hearing in the news that the US Congress is going to have a--.

SCOTT: Isn't that just nuts. It's nuts, we were so advanced. And I 00:37:00guess one of the things about being at TVA, there's so much going on in so many different areas; it's kind of like your own little world. And you lose sight of the fact that you're so far ahead of the curve.

MUMMERT: That's right.

SCOTT: And then I guess I'd like to talk about my crowning piece of work at TVA. Um--as you know from the things I said early on, I had a background in education, and so when Director [William] Kennoy, one of the TVA directors, he happened to live in the downtown Knoxville area and he would see on weekends all the facilities of all the employers in the downtown area closed down. And a lot of kids in the area--children who, and young people who didn't have the best opportunities and not the best things to do with their time. And he 00:38:00came up with this idea, why not open TVA facilities to our neighborhood children to inspire them to become interested in developing their potential to perhaps become the workforce of the future for TVA and other businesses. And so that was about as far as his ideas went and they--.

MUMMERT: But, it was a great idea and--.

SCOTT: It was so--it was so great and at the time it was not fully received. I remember our chairman said just don't embarrass us. But as it turned out, it was really beautiful.

MUMMERT: And--uh--now Director [William] Kennoy became director about when?

SCOTT: Oh, I would say about--this was right when he was getting ready to leave.

MUMMERT: I should know myself.

SCOTT: We'll have to check that, but I think it was--um--the early 90s. And back then they had a nine-year term, which would make that about right. Because he was-- he was completing his term and he wanted to leave something of 00:39:00value to TVA. It's interesting--um--

MUMMERT: He was the first--uh-- TVA director too, from the State of Kentucky.

SCOTT: He was and another thing that's kind of interesting right now is, he probably was appointed to the board, well he was appointed to the board by George H. W. Bush. And he had been, the first person, the owner of the--um--Kennoy Electric Company there in--in Kentucky, which was a pretty large company. And he was one of the first people to get in and fully support President Bush to become president. And President Bush, as we are hearing now[4], he did the points of lights, and he also was, he'd done a project, there was a project done under President Bush that showed that the years between the third and fifth grade for children was a 00:40:00time that was critical for them developing an--an identify of themselves as either successful or failures in life. And so that was what we were taught to focus in. This came right from the study doing--done during the Bush Administration that--that third through fifth grade was critical to children beginning to see themselves as successful. And that was the years that we used in the Weekend Academy. Uh--we--we selected children who the teachers knew they had potential, but that without a program like the Weekend Academy, wouldn't have had the opportunity to develop it. And our kids--we had a program in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville. And that was just such an exciting time. And Director [William] Kennoy said: "I wanted them to feel like they're part of a--a good gang, that they belong to something." And we got them all, we had money to buy them jackets you know, that said Weekend 00:41:00Academy. We--we had these beautiful blue bomber-style type jackets, and we had T-shirts. And they felt like they really belonged. And I remember one of the kids saying: "If I--when I come to the academy, can I have any job I want at TVA"? And I said "Well, yes, you could you know, you just start looking around." We had TVA employees would come in to volunteer on weekends to talk about their jobs and to interest the kids in the kinds of things they were doing. I'm telling you that was the perfect. That was like going full circle in my career. And that was the that job I retired from, I had to retire a little bit early to take care of my aging parents. But the--the project did go on for fifteen years. And I remember Director [William] Kennoy telling me--um--:"Nan, this Weekend Academy accomplished far more than I--than my greatest hope for it ever was." So, it was a very gratifying way to end my career. Thank you Phil for 00:42:00letting me talk about the work I've done at TVA. I think I've left out some things, but those are the highpoints that I remember.

MUMMERT: Well, what are some of the things that you did do--examples of some of the activities you had going on for the Weekend Academy? You--I mean are there any things you would like to tell me or can?

SCOTT: Oh, you know, I remember, for example, Roosevelt Allen coming in and talking to the kids, teaching them about the--how important recycling was. And then we had people come in and talk about--um--their various hobbies--TVA employees' hobbies. But mainly, one of the major areas was computer. We had the computer rooms, and people from TVA's Information Technology would come in and teach the children how to use computers. And at one time-- um--I got 00:43:00our TVA director, at the time, the chairman, to designate our TVA Weekend Academy students to receive free computers when TVA--uh--surplus computers, they would go to our Weekend Academy students. So that was a wonderful thing. We were basically trying to let these children know that they could become anything they wanted to and help them get the technology to do that.

MUMMERT: Was it competitive as this program developed wer--for students to--try--to get involved or and were they all--uh--accepted or, how?

SCOTT: Well, the--the guidance counselors in the schools did the sel--they did and they rec--. I'm sure it was competitive, the children loved to come. It was just great, and we had the funds to do a really nice program. Um--that was funded well--just though--just through TVA funding, which was very 00:44:00forward-thinking of looking at these children as being the future workforce. So yeah.--

MUMMERT: Did--uh--have--di--have you ev--gotten any much or any feedback from uh--?

SCOTT: I see those children all the time, and they're adults now. And a lot of them have been.--

MUMMERT: So you're really getting the kind of feedback you would have if you were a school teacher.

SCOTT: I was so fortunate, exactly. Yeah, I see them all the time. Uh--just on a routine basis, I guess I see several a month working in various areas. And--um--we had--we also had tutor leaders, we called them, they were--uh--lo--they were from high schools in those same inner city areas. We would recruit tutor leaders to work with the younger children. And that was really good too, because you know kids, they identify with--these--these would be leaders in the high schools. And it was just was wonderful. Two of 00:45:00our tutor leaders married, and they--they have children, and I see them from time to time. And--um--they're working both in professional careers. So--.

MUMMERT: So maybe Weekend Academy had something to do with it.

SCOTT: I think so--I think so. They're always--they're always telling me that--that they're so grateful for the opportunities that they received.

MUMMERT: Well, Nan, you've had a really interesting--uh--in--and varied--uh--career sometimes challenging but full of opportunity as well as you've really contributed a whole lot to TVA and--and people. But--uh--looking back on it all--uh--I was wondering--uh-- what was one of your more--most memorable experiences or favorite--favorite--- uh--uh--experiences 00:46:00amidst a whole lot of interesting experiences?

SCOTT: Well, my favorite ones that I can think of right now, of course, were more associated with Weekend Academy. Since it's the thing that I'm most proud of that I got to do at TVA. And I just remember every time, well when we would open a new Weekend Academy, I remember the Knoxville opening--um--how exciting it was to bring the children in and their parents. We'd try to get the parents involved, and--um--the board would be there. And I remember our tenth anniversary for Weekend Academy, where we brought the kids from all over--all across the valley, they met over in Nashville because it was the most 00:47:00central. And I remember Director [William] Kennoy coming because a lot of the children--we always had a recognition for him on the second Saturday of May, would be our Founder's Day. And on this particular Founder's Day, our tenth, we brought everyone together to Nashville. And Director [William] Kennoy had tears in his eyes, he was so happy. And he was cheered, and we had a--they served us a wonderful lunch at Tennessee State University, all of us together. I guess that that's something that I'll never forget. And it was at that time that he told me: "This has far exceeded my--my hopes and dreams for the Weekend Academy." And that was just so gratifying to me, and see he passed away a few years later.

MUMMERT: That was a wonderful program. I didn't have the opportunity to be at the--uh--the get-together.

SCOTT: Well, Herman Morris, who was at that time was CEO of 00:48:00Memphis--our Memphis power distributor. Um--he said to me: "Weekend Academy is the best thing TVA ever did." And so that made me feel really good, and at some of TVA's major univ--major anniversaries, they would cite tv--uh--the Weekend Academy as one of the things they were most proud of. And that of course, it said a lot about TVA. TVA, I think during those times, was an agency that had the good of the valley and its residents and the hopes and dreams of the residents of the Tennessee Valley area as one of their main goals. And I got to work in programs that furthered that goal.

MUMMERT: That's a wonderful place to--uh--end the interview, but I 00:49:00have one more question for you. Uh--and that is--uh--are there any--uh--questions that--uh--you wish I had asked that I didn't ask?

SCOTT: Well, I really can't think--I think that you asked a lot of good questions. And I think looking over the notes that I prepared, I think I was able to cover the things that I felt were the highlights of my career. I'm sure there are other things, but all in all, I was very happy to have worked at TVA. There were times, of course like any--working anywhere, when I was thinking that I wish I had never come to TVA. But, for the most part and especially getting to conclude it with the Weekend Academy was just--made me feel that I 00:50:00had made a contribution, and that my own potential was not only--I actually got to work above what I thought my potential was in developing these projects. So, I will always be grateful for the opportunities that I had. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about it, Phil.

MUMMERT: Well, you're welcome, and I appreciate your spending the time and sharing those thoughts.

SCOTT: It was my pleasure, I always loved to talk.