Evening Tribune (San Diego, CA) - December 15, 1987
Retired San Diego police Lt. Walter R. Scott, a nationally known criminologist who organized the department's crime and photographic laboratory, died Friday in a hospital.
Private burial in Greenwood Memorial Park was conducted Saturday by Greenwood Mortuary.
Lt. Scott, 85, of North Park, was an expert in fingerprinting, document identification and handwriting analysis during his 22 years with the San Diego Police Department.
During his 14 years as head of the crime laboratory, Lt. Scott also developed several methods for obtaining fingerprints and wrote a 442-page book titled "Fingerprint Mechanics." It became a reference used by police departments throughout the United States and the British Commonwealth.
Lt. Scott, a native of Trinidad, Colo., lived in the county 58 years. Joining the Police Department in 1935, he received criminology training at the FBI school in Quantico, Va., and at an Eastman-Kodak photography school in Rochester, N.Y.
Before joining the department, Lt. Scott worked six years for the city Playgrounds Department. He was a high school principal in Trumbull, Neb., in 1928 and 1929.
It was there that he met his wife, Hazel, who was a teacher. They married in 1933 in San Diego.
Lt. Scott was a graduate of Hastings College in Hastings, Neb. He was a member of the International Association of Identification and the FBI National Academy Associates.
Survivors include his wife; his brother, James, of Alameda; two sisters, Florence Johnson and Rose Bowen, a niece, Bolle Walker, and a nephew, Bill Winkler, all of San Diego.
LIEUTENANT WALTER R. SCOTT
BADGE 150
SDPD 01/04/1935 - 06/10/1957
07/19/1902 - 12/12/1987
THE THIN BLUE LINE
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