FEATURE | TOM SCOTT
I’ve always been curious, and I’ve found that going from not knowing to knowing is not that difficult. You do not need a degree or a path. There are no rules. That’s all made up. – Tom Scott ’85
a conference held each September on the Massachusetts island of
no cussing, coat and tie on the bus to a game, no celebrations in the
through accomplished speakers, original short films and moving musical
said. “He took that stuff to heart, and he was tough. Bordley was just
Nantucket to promote the exchange of potentially groundbreaking ideas performances. The notable speakers now number in the hundreds and
include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, TED founder Richard Saul
end zone kind of thing. As corny as it is, the ‘no I in team’ thing,” Scott tenacious.”
Davis thinks equally fondly of Scott, and the two have kept in touch
Wurman, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Landon
over the years. “Tommy was a very, very good football player for me, but
runs the Visible Men Academy for underprivileged black males.
to think he’s stayed very down to earth about things.”
Upper School head and Scott’s best friend Neil Phillips ’85, who now “One of the things that’s always drawn me to Tommy and caused
the thing I remember most is how grounded he was,” Davis said. “I’d like Tom’s mother Jane is grateful for her family’s Landon experience.
me to admire him is that he’s a very unique thinker. He just has this
“Both Tommy and Billy thrived there,” she said. “I loved the whole
going to create an agency that was going to celebrate that through the
school, somebody I could call and say, ‘What do you do now?’”
incredible intellectual curiosity,” Phillips said. “The idea that he was work of others just felt like such a great match for his personality.”
While The Nantucket Project is a fairly new enterprise, its inception
system that you have an advisor that you stay with all through high
LIVING THE DREAM
can be traced to Tom’s childhood. “From the time I was a little kid... I
When Scott graduated from Brown University in 1989, he immediately
sense,” Scott said. “I’ve always been curious, and I’ve found that going
enjoy every day. As the first step, he and his college roommate Tom First
never felt any sense of, ‘Here’s what you have to do in life,’ in the career from not knowing to knowing is not that difficult. You do not need a degree or a path. There are no rules. That’s all made up.”
Tom’s father Bill Scott, a retired lawyer who now teaches history at
set out to answer that question and, of course, to do something he would moved to Nantucket, which Scott had grown to love while visiting with his parents during summers spent in Cape Cod.
The two Toms got a small Boston Whaler boat and launched a
Landon, remembers well his son’s adventurous nature: Tom built forts in
floating-store business called “Allserve” that provided laundry service,
of a bicycle and driving it around without a license. During the gas crisis
that I liked working for myself and that I loved boats. So we built a boat
trees and was arrested at the age of 10 for putting a motor on the back
of 1973, he sold coffee to people waiting in line for fuel. “Tommy never
wanted to wear a tie,” Bill said. “He didn’t want a normal job. His whole
drinks and snacks to yachts in the harbor. Scott’s logic was: “I just knew business that became one thing and another thing and another thing.” One of the drinks they peddled was a nectar First had learned to
thing is: I want to do something I enjoy going to every day.”
make in Spain. It became so popular the duo decided to pitch it to small
‘YES, SIR’ TO CHARACTER
Rent-a-Car, bought half the company, now called Nantucket Nectars,
Tom had to follow some rules at Landon. He arrived at the school in the Sixth Grade, two years after his older brother Billy ’83. A three-sport
varsity athlete and co-captain of the football team, Tom counts lacrosse
coach Rob Bordley ’66 and football and basketball coach Lowell Davis as defining influences.
“Lowell was like the ultimate, ‘Yes sir, no sir,’ ‘Yes ma’am, no ma’am,’
30
investors. They got one big investor. Mike Egan, then-owner of Alamo
and helped “Tom and Tom” market their juices. Before long, Nantucket
Nectars was sold in almost every state and several foreign countries, and
made Inc. magazine’s list of fastest-growing companies five years in a row. The Toms used unique marketing tactics, such as running for office
so they could hang Nantucket Nectars banners over freeways, and
they made most of their own ads. “We won the Mercury Award for
LANDON SCHOOL | FALL 2016