Daniel William Scott III, 82, former professor and first chair of the Department of Computer Science, died May 17, 2013, in Wayne, Okla. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory before earning his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During the 1960s, he worked for General Electric in the U.S. and France and later for University Computing Co. in Dallas. In 1971, he was hired to establish UNT’s new Department of Computer Science. He served as chair for eight years and taught for 10, defining the policies for computer science education and the department’s courses and scope. He also developed microprocessor-based equipment for the chemistry and music departments and was an outside consultant in software development.
He went on to teach at Portland State University and worked for Teneron in Ponca City, Okla., before retiring in 2005. Throughout his life, he had a passion for science.