Food for Thought

Beloved professor emeritus in COB finds his sense of place at the Farmers Market and KMSU

There are a few certainties in life. Sure, we know the first two – death and taxes – but the third? Timothy Scott, Ph.D, has it covered.

For the past four decades, the former Minnesota State Mankato professor spends every Saturday morning (and some Wednesdays) from early May through October visiting with dozens of vendors while searching for the freshest, locally sourced produce at the Mankato Farmers Market.

“It’s the best food in town, and you get to see your neighbors,” says Dr. Scott, professor emeritus in the College of Business (COB). “I know all the vendors.”

You can practically set a clock to it. Rain or shine, come Saturday morning, Dr. Scott will be walking the aisles at the Best Buy parking lot, the local Farmers Market’s longtime home. Since the Mankato Farmers Market first opened on Riverfront Drive in the mid-1970s – not long after Scott moved to Mankato – he estimates his absences rank in the teens.

“If I’m in town, I go there,” Scott says. “We’re not the Twin Cities, but we’re really good for what we have.”

Dr. Scott, a St. Paul native, remembers his mom taking him on street cars to the local Farmers Market. He’s continued the tradition in Mankato with his family. Along the way, Scott has learned a few tricks. For one, the early bird gets the worm.

“I’m there at 8 a.m. to get the best stuff,” he says.

COB Dean Brenda Flannery, says Dr. Scott’s affinity for the Mankato Farmers Market and local cuisine reflects his deep affection for the area.

“Tim shows his love for this place through community events like the Farmers Market,” she says. “This region is his home.”

Right size, right place

During a storied 42-year long career, Dr. Scott taught across the country, from Virginia to California. But no higher educational institution topped his 37 years teaching strategic management in the COB at Minnesota State Mankato.

“The school is the right size, and our classes are smaller compared to others. We have good faculty,” says Dr. Scott, who retired in 2011. “All that helps, and I was extremely well-treated my whole career.”

He first visited the University in spring 1974 while attending a national conference in Minneapolis. Intrigued by the city’s proximity to the Twin Cities, Dr. Scott came to the University in the fall of 1974 and taught on the lower campus. After a stint teaching at the University of Iowa, Scott returned to Mankato for good in the early 1980s.

“I came back because I discovered this is a really good place and we picked up lots and lots of quality faculty,” he says. “We’re as good as anybody, especially in teaching.”

Over the next 30 years, Dr. Scott instructed and molded thousands of students. His legacy includes overseeing (with others) the COB’s trailblazing laptop program in the late 1990s that led to the University activating one of the nation’s first wireless networks on a college campus. Minnesota State Mankato’s COB was the sixth campus in the nation to set up a campus wireless network.

“It was fun. I miss the students a lot,” Dr. Scott says. “They kept me young and knew a lot about technology.”

Dr. Scott is also proud to have chaired the search committee that recommended hiring future COB Dean Flannery.

“Dean Flannery is awesome. If she isn’t the best hire I ever made, I don’t know who is,” Dr. Scott says. “She is literally as good as they come. The students, faculty, and staff love her.”

The professional and personal admiration is mutual, Dean Flannery says.

“Tim is like family to me,” she says. “I adore him.”

Community connections

Dr. Scott remains tied to both the University and the Mankato community. He supports Maverick athletics, still uses resources at the campus library, and sponsors the Timothy W. Scott Scholarship that awards funding to COB students with a military background. For more than 35 years, the self-described “jazz freak” has volunteered at KMSU Radio as the longtime producer (and sometimes host or co-host) of “Ms. Lona and Jazz Tonight,” his wife’s Monday evening program.

“I’m a big supporter of the station and