Josh Scott Tillinghast Obituary (1941 - 2021)

Scott, as he was known, was born Saturday, September 20, 1941 in Galveston, Texas. As is not uncommon with Spina Bifida babies, he had Hydrocephalus. The shunt had not yet been invented. The water either drained from the baby's brain, and the baby lived or not. Scott lived although he suffered from other medical challenges - severe allergies and asthma. Scott attended Condit Elementary in first and second grades. But at the end of second grade Scott's parents were told that he might be retarded. Scott had learned to read when he was three and had no interest in "Dick and Jane". When Scott's mother demonstrated that Scott could read on an adult level from a Reader's Digest, private school was recommended. Kinkaid was able to provide the nurturing Scott needed until he graduated from there in 1959. Scott earned both a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Texas in theoretical math. His Master's Thesis was titled "Energy Eigenvalues of the Deuteron Approximated with the Aid of the Laplace Transform". None of his family had any idea what this meant, but they were very proud of him. He taught at Blinn College in Brenham and North Texas University in Denton before he started work on his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He continued the Ph.D. course work at the University of Houston where he was a teaching assistant. Scott worked during his undergraduate and graduate years at whatever he could find. This included being a teaching assistant, a house painter, a server in the school cafeteria, an employee of Shakey's Pizza, etc. But before finishing his Ph.D., the lure of a regular paycheck called, and he began work in 1976 for Harris County as a computer programmer. In 1980 because of increased economic opportunities, he changed jobs to Getty Oil Company as a programmer analyst. But in 1984 he retired on disability due to multiple medical issues. Scott spent the rest of his life working on various political campaigns, being involved in several support groups, tracing his family linage, working on complex theoretical math problems, and meeting multiple medical challenges. He died on Saturday, April 10, 2021 from pulmonary fibrosis, a relatively rare disease from which his mother and her older sister died. He was preceded in death by his grandfathers, Harry Scott Tillinghast and Ulysses Grant Gillespie, his grandmothers, Jennie Lila Stansell Tillinghast and Josephine Anderson Gillespie, his parents, Josh and Louise Gillespie Tillinghast, his brother Mark Grant Tillinghast, uncles, Harry Scott Tillinghast, Jr. and James Tichborne Tillinghast, aunts, Helen Gillespie Follansbee and Edith Gillespie Adams. He is survived by his sister Jane Louise Tillinghast, first cousins in Arizona, California, Germany, Oregon, second cousins in New Mexico, Oklahoma and other states, special friends Chris and Delia Cowles, and many other friends who helped him over the years. Scott wished that there be a memorial service at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston on 5200 Fannin Houston, TX 77004. Because of the Covid virus the Church is currently closed for services, but they plan to open again after mid-July. Therefore, a definite date will be announced at that time. If someone wishes to give a remembrance, Scott would have appreciated it being made to the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston or the Harris County Democratic Party at 4619 Lyons Avenue Houston, TX 77020.