Shelby Scott, broadcaster and former president of AFTRA, dies at 86

Shelby Scott, broadcaster and former president of the American Association of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA), has died. He was 86 years old.

SAG-AFTRA announced Scott’s death on Sunday. The cause of death was not named.

“Shelby Scott’s career in front of the camera spanned decades and broke barriers,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the organization’s executive director. “But for her work as a dedicated union leader, we at SAG-AFTRA will always be grateful. As AFTRA’s national president for eight years and a member of many other boards, as administrator of AFTRA’s health and pension fund, and his vision of working to merge the SAG and AFTRA, Shelby’s legacy runs deep and he is sorely missed. . ”

Born in Washington, DC in 1936, Scott began his career at KIRO-TV and Radio Seattle, where he worked as a traffic manager, then became a reporter, writer, film editor, and documentarian. Scott joined WBZ, a subsidiary of Boston CBS, in 1965 as a general reporter and news anchor. Among Scott’s roles, he starred in Station Rooms. Channel 4 Evening News fourteen years old and she 17:30 News Program for 5 years.

Awards received during Scott’s television career included a citation by Tom Press Phillips of United Press International for broadcast brilliance, and the William F. Horner Jr. Award. of Excellence in Journalism from the University of Suffolk. In 2008, he was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

He was elected to the AFTRA board in 1981 and in 1993 became the union’s national president. During his tenure, then-President Bill Clinton appointed Scott to the Digital Broadcasters Advisory Committee on Public Interest Commitments. Scott also received the George Heller Gold Card from AFTRA for his service.

After resigning in 2001, Scott remained on the board and held various positions, including co-chair of the AFTRA Board of Health Trustees and Pension Funds and president of the AFTRA Foundation. Scott was a member of the SAG and AFTRA leadership group that led the merger attempt in 2012.