Myron E. Scott (September 16, 1907 – October 4, 1998) was the creator of the All-American

Soap Box Derby The Soap Box Derby is a youth soapbox car racing program which has been run in the United States since 1933. World Championship finals are held each July at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio. Cars competing in this and related events are unpowered, ...

. He is also credited with naming Chevrolet's sports car, the

Corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

.Corvette Hall of Fame : Myron E. "Scottie" Scott
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National Corvette Museum The National Corvette Museum showcases the Chevrolet Corvette, an American sports car that has been in production since 1953. It is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, off Interstate 65's Exit 28. It was constructed in 1994, and opened to the pu ...

Scott was born in

Camden, Ohio Camden is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Preble County, Ohio, Preble County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,046 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton, Ohio, Dayton Greater Dayton, Metropolita ...

. After school hours, he worked for the ''

Dayton Daily News The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately ...

'' and learned

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

, and had pictures published in ''

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

'' and other publications. In 1933, as chief

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

for the ''

,'' he came across a few boys racing one another down a hill in vehicles made of orange crates and soap boxes. With the intention of getting a good photo story and local race with prizes, he persuaded the boys to return with more racers and

soapbox car A gravity racer or soapbox is a motorless vehicle which is raced on a downhill road either against the clock or against another competitor. Although most are built for the purpose of recreation, some gravity racing teams take the sport more s ...

s. Scott was so enthusiastic with the whole concept that he acquired its copyright; the national-scale Soap Box Derby grew out of this idea. In 1934, Scott managed to persuade 50 cities across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to hold soap box car races and send a champion each to Dayton for a major race, a proposal that

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

subsequently sponsored in 1935. The race was later held at Talmadge Hill in

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Scott later went on to work for

, where he named the Corvette. Chevrolet wanted a non-animal name starting with "C" for the

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

in 1953, and Scott chose the name of a fast ship, the

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

References

1907 births 1998 deaths American entertainment industry businesspeople People from Camden, Ohio Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio Dayton Daily News 20th-century American businesspeople Chevrolet Corvette 20th-century American inventors {{Ohio-bio-stub