Perry Scott wanted to join the Army so badly in 1940 that he fudged his age on his enlistment forms. When he became interested in finance after his discharge, he took correspondence courses and became the finance manager for the city of Napa without a college degree. And when Scott wanted a pool installed in his Sunnyvale backyard, he laid the concrete himself.

Scott, a former Sunnyvale city manager, rose to this position like all his others—through hard work and dedication. He finally took a break in 1983 when he retired from his career in public service and moved far north to the town of Redding. Scott died there on Aug. 20, at the age of 80.

His stint as the Sunnyvale city manager lasted from 1958 to 1964 and was part of a career in city government that culminated with a term on the Santa Monica City Council from 1977 to 1981. Scott's daughter, Nancy Williams, says that his public service was always marked with honesty. "Truth and integrity were of the uppermost importance to him," she says. "He didn't play political games, and he didn't give favors. He was successful in his political career as far as that got him."

Scott was born on Aug. 26, 1923, and raised in Phoenix, Ariz., with two brothers, one sister, and, later, three half-siblings. His father died when he was young and his mother remarried. "After his dad died, their circumstances changed a lot. They weren't as well off, and that drove him to succeed," Williams says.

When one of his older brothers enlisted in the Army, Scott was tempted to go as well, but he had one small problem—he was 16. "His mother found out about it and threatened to go down to the recruiting office, but she decided not to when she found out he would go to jail," Williams says with a laugh. As a member of the 101st Airborne, Division 45, Scott fought in the European theater and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. For his service, he won the European­African­Middle Eastern Service Medal, a Distinguished Unit Badge and a Bronze Star Medal.

It was during a leave in Wisconsin that Scott met his wife, Evelyn, who had something in common with the Army recruiters. "My mom was eight years older than him, so he lied about his age," Williams says. The couple met when Scott was 19 and Evelyn was a 27-year-old widow with a five-year-old son. "They were in a dance hall, and she was with some friends, and he came in with his buddies. He turned to his friend and said, 'That's the girl I'm going to marry,'" Williams says.

In true lovestruck fashion, Scott sat on Evelyn's doorstep until she agreed to a date, and he proposed right away. She eventually said yes and the two married at his post in South Carolina in 1943. Scott also adopted Evelyn's young son, Ken Scott, who now lives in Palo Alto.

After the war, the three made their home in the state of Wisconsin, where Scott was in charge of a milk delivery route and sold insurance.

Scott and Evelyn continued their family there, with a son, Robert T. Scott, now of Los Angeles, and daughter Williams, now of Anderson. At one point, Scott developed an interest in finance and decided to pursue it in California, moving his family with him. After his time in Napa, he then worked as chief administrative officer in Santa Barbara before coming to Sunnyvale.

Caroline Ryan, who was his secretary in Sunnyvale, said that Scott worked on a number of controversial projects, but that didn't affect his standing with his staff. "He was a very honest person and very well liked," she says. "He really earned the respect of his employees."

One of the projects he worked on during his tenure was the Mathilda Avenue overpass. "There was quite a to-do about that, but he worked it out," Ryan says. He also oversaw the opening of the Sunnyvale library in 1960. At the time, the 20,000-square-foot facility also housed the city council chambers, where Scott undoubtedly spent much of his time.

Williams says work was Scott's life. "He never took vacations because he was always trying to do right for his family," she says. "He came home, took a nap and went back to work." But when he was offered the position of city manager in Santa Monica, he didn't want to leave Sunnyvale. "He demanded an exorbitant amount of money, thinking they wouldn't match it, but they did," Williams says. "He was an honorable man, so he took the job."

Liberal politics forced Scott out of his job in 1973, and at that time he founded his own business for electronic surveillance equipment, even garnering a patent. But he came back and won a city council seat, and Scott oversaw the development of some of the first strip malls in Santa Monica.

He ended his political career after losing a race for county assessor to the incumbent, and he and Evelyn moved to Redding in 1983 to be closer to Williams and her family. Scott spent his time there keeping up his property and, as always, trying to solve problems himself—when his hearing started to go, he tried to invent his own hearing aid. "His hobby was his work," Williams says. "He was a brilliant man. He could figure anything out."

In addition to his three children, Scott is survived by his wife, Evelyn, of Redding; two sisters, Mildred Holesapple and Joanne Willitts of Tucson, Ariz.; three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.