‘He breathed and lived Gateway’: Scott Williams remembered for community service

Friends recall a favorite saying of the late Scott Williams of Monroeville.

“There’s a right way, there’s a wrong way, and then there’s the Gate.”

A paraplegic since age 18, Williams, 59, died July 26, 2024, at UPMC Montefiore Hospital in Oakland after a long battle with cancer.

In addition to serving on the Gateway School Board for more than two decades, Williams served on the Forbes Road Career and Technology Center School Board for nine years, served as president of the Pitcairn Baseball Association for many years and also spent time training.

In May 1983, Williams was paralyzed in a baseball accident. He dove headfirst into home plate, hitting his head on the catcher’s leg. Williams suffered a cervical fracture that left him paralyzed, said Jack Bova, Gateway’s friend and classmate.

But Williams maintained a positive outlook.

“Scotty was incredible. He never let his disability stop him,” school board member Valerie Warning said.

“I never saw the chair,” said longtime friend Kevin Dick, who grew up with Williams in Pitcairn.

“He had a refreshing perspective and a wry sense of humor about his situation. And that’s how he referred to it, his ‘situation,’ never his ‘disability,'” Bova said.

“He made people feel comfortable around him,” Scotty’s younger brother said. Doug Williams. “He really was a people person.”

When the school board voted to add a ramp to the north entrance of Gateway High School, it was christened “Scotty Williams Way.”

“It was eventually installed so that all the people who were in wheelchairs would have access to the building,” Warning said. “Scotty was in a wheelchair for 40 years.”

In December 2022, Williams was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. According to Dick, Williams’ first surgery took 17 hours. He had several subsequent surgeries, but the cancer kept coming back.

“Scott would fight it and keep coming back,” Bova said. “He kept fighting.”

Former school board member and Monroeville resident Dave Magill also knew Williams from playing baseball.

“We grew up in the same neighborhood and knew Scotty very well even though I was older than him,” Magill said. “He was a big sports fan.”

Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Edinboro University.

“He really blossomed when he went to college,” said Williams’ sister, Stacey Versaw. She said her brother belonged to a fraternity and was a DJ during his time at Edinboro.

After graduation, Williams was offered a position with the FBI in Fairmont, W.Va. He decided to stay in the area because of his medical needs and medical coverage, his sister said.

“That’s when he really got involved in the community and the kids,” Versaw added.

Williams was able to set goals and achieve them, and she always advocated for students, friends recalled.

“He was truly a pillar of the community,” Magill said. “He had so many hours on board and behind the scenes. … Scotty brought so much light. He breathed and lived Gateway.”

Williams was preceded in death by his parents. Frank and Elaine Williams. He is survived by two brothers, Doug and Robert and two sisters, Stacey Versaw and Stephanie Raucci, and three grandchildren.

“Scotty was the leader and patriarch of our family,” said Doug Williams. “He was unique in that way.”

Funeral arrangements were handled by Soxman Funeral Home of Penn Hills.

“The funeral home was full,” said Dick. “There was a line out the door and down the street. Everyone loved Scotty.”