We are saddened to mark the death of Esther Scott, 78, a beloved pillar of the Kennedy School Case Program, on July 22, 2023. Esther arrived at the Kennedy School in 1977 and retired in 2009. A founding member of the Case Program, she was always one of its most deeply respected writers, developing and editing hundreds of teaching cases over the years. Many of these became fan favorites of faculty case teachers. A nuts-and-bolts case about improving the customer experience at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles was a staple offering for years. She also tackled knotty and complex questions of the day, including cases about the child welfare system, Hurricane Katrina, entitlement programs, dilemmas in healthcare, the ethics and legality of torture, and the emergence of Aung San Suu Kyi as a political figure.
“Esther was a writer’s writer and a researcher’s researcher—and wrote clearly and carefully about an astounding range of subject matter that helped stock the syllabi of faculty at the Kennedy School and policy and management schools around the world," said Howard Husock, Case Program Director from 1987 to 2006. Years and decades after their publication, her cases continued to draw appreciation and accolades.
Within the Case Program, Esther was ever known to her colleagues as self-effacing and generous, a font of warmth, wit, and wisdom. "As my next-door office neighbor, Esther was an amazing mentor,” says Patricia Garcia-Rios, the Case Program’s video producer. “Her intelligence, depth, and penetrating sense of humor were such a help during my first few years at HKS, and her support made all the difference.”
“Esther really was the beating heart of the program for all her years here,” says longtime case writer Pam Varley. “She helped me on so many levels and I’m not alone. She touched the lives of generations of Case Program staff.”