Dear Editor,
As we mature we begin to be more understanding of the fact of our mortality. In the last year my wife, Zip, and I have witnessed the loss of several of our closest traveling mates in our annual trips around the sun. Now, without enough time to share, we have lost another voyager well before his time.
Scott Giguere was son of one of the people who put the magic in Killington when the road was dirt and muddy and the future uncertain. In the 1960s Scott’s Father, Jack, and his mother Phoebe founded The Wobbly Barn, later Charity’s, then The Pickle Barrel and several other Killington Road properties. The Giguere Family made Killington “the place to be.”
Scott was born in this environment and was himself a pioneer. Scott grew up in the shadow of a giant, but he did not wither. He learned the meaning of hospitality, community, enjoyment of life, loyalty and love of friends and he did so freely and generously. Scott was human, sometimes daring, not always perfect, but always honest… you had to love him.
During our youth and during our stewardship of this wonderful newspaper that you’re reading Scott became a fixture in our daily lives. Zip rounded him up every week like a mother and helped put his marketing plans together by phone and in person at the office.
It was at the office that we would most often discuss business and life and we would prop each other up with tales of bygone glory and face the battle of uncertainty that produces very seasonal and unpredictable obstacles. Resort business ventures are not for the weak of heart. I say this for Scott and to honor those other pioneers who didn’t give up.
You never know who changed your life until you lose them. You never know exactly how they made a difference. You never know if you understood them fully. You never know if you gave as much as you received. You hope you were fair enough, honest to a fault and loyal to the end. Zip and I loved him. Scott was a good man.
Royal Barnard, editor emeritus, the Mountain Times.
