Scott's Eulogy

Scott David Costa was born April 26, 1957 at 11:07 a.m., the 4th youngest of five siblings, at Muhlenburg Hospital in N.Plainfield, New Jersey. He grew up nearby in the idyllic hills of Warren Twp., where he first grew into his love for vegetable gardening and probably observed his first plant/soil/insect interactions. He also loved being at the ocean and boats.

When Scott went to Kindergarten, he thought you had to be invited to play with the toys. He watched while the other children played. His feelings about the injustice of elitism, however misguided, would be with him his whole life. Scott felt a little “passed over” in the school system. However, when describing his young school years, he would say “I knew I had a brain.”

To me and to many who have known Scott, that is an understatement.

Scott grew into young adulthood during the turbulent late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He learned that it is alright to buck the “big boys” and say one’s peace, peaceably. That activist era of his growing up would stay with him. Some years later, after the election of a certain individual to the presidency of our country, he was so grieved for his country that he donned a sheet and carried a sign down the sidewalks of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

These feelings developed into someone who would speak out against injustice and act on it, even if it meant consequence for himself and sometimes, in later years, his family. 

Scott left high school to join the United States Navy in 1974 at the age of sixteen. He got his Mom to sign the papers. He rose quickly through rank and received an Honorable Discharge in 1977. Scott served on the ship United States Yarnell and traveled in Europe while in the Navy. His children and I have enjoyed many of his stories from these days.

Scott enrolled in college after leaving the military. Soon after graduating with a two year Liberal Arts Degree in 1981, his daughter Rebecca was born to him. He always said having Becky in his life pushed him to stay on track and keep going. Scott enrolled in more college.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture and then got his Master’s in Entomology, both from Rutgers University of New Jersey. He took a position in animal-drug discovery at Merck & Company in New Jersey where he worked for a few years. It is during this time that we met on a sidewalk when I was out petitioning one day for a safer rental community where we both lived.

Scott and I were inseparable from the day we met. We were married a year to the day after our first date, on July 13, 1991. Our son Saul was born ten months later in 1992. Scott held him first and had him named before handing him to me.

When I met Scott, he wanted to go back to school for his Ph.D. He was also unhappy working in animal-drug discovery. We made plans for him to go to North Carolina State University. During this time, we found out we were expecting again.

Caleb was born to us in North Carolina in 1993 just as Scott entered Graduate school . Caleb brought immediate joy into your household. Scott was able to spend a lot of time with us since he was a student living five minutes from the school. We lived in a nice old community just outside of Raleigh. Levi was born to us in 1996 on an icy morning and then the action in the house really picked up.

Scott helped with his Mom during some of these years since she lived in North Carolina and was ill. Seth was born to us at Thanksgiving-time 1997. Seth brought to our family warmth and the official status, by some standards, as a big family. Scott was now becoming famous as the producer of boys.

During all this, Scott found time to write his thesis and graduate with his Ph. D. in Entomology in 1999. He received a post-doctorate position at the University of Vermont. We arrived in Vermont in February of that year. Scott’s position moved to that of Research Assistant Professor.

During the summer of 1999 we purchased our first home, where we are now standing. We wanted to give our children the place to live that we always wanted. It is. We were just expecting our fifth child together as we closed on the house and property. Noah was born to us in 2000 and joined all the other babies on the farm: a foal, chickens, a cow, goats, and kittens…although he was the favorite by far.

The orchard was planted.

Scott got his tractor and cut his first land for his vegetable garden. 

Scott started attending church locally at the Waterville Church of the Nazarene in 2001, bringing all of us with him. He enjoyed being part of the church community and family. Aislinn was born to us in 2002. Whenever Scott looked at Aislinn, he glowed, and ten years disappeared from his already young face.

Scott’s commute was forty miles one way, five times a week. He hardly ever complained. Sometimes in winter, when the boys were small, he would arrive home to a driveway deep with snow. He finally let me hire a plow service when he’d be out there after midnight plowing.

Scott was a true visionary. Nothing was out of reach for him. Nothing was impossible. Over the years, he added to that courage and strength from the Lord.

Scott moved his office and lab to a different building at UVM in 2005. During this time he was just beginning the professional work that would be his main focus. Yet his real focus never wavered from being a father to his children and an attentive husband. He spent every spare moment with us and became known for bringing his children on research and work trips whenever possible.

Scott patented a technology with the University of Vermont in response to developing a common sense way to use fungi that is available as a pathogen to insects. This work was targeted at controlling an insect that is killing our national hemlocks. Scott was highly supported by the United States Forestry Service and had their confidence.

Scott and I started a company in 2007 to be able to market his invention. His work has been followed by the news, regularly, in every form of media. He has appeared in print, digital, been taped for television, been on news commentary in which we could all joking call him a re-run, and been on radio. He was asked regularly to guest speak or attend meetings in his field across the country.

He was still always willing to bring insects to any school or gathering and share their wonder with children. His message to children via the insects was that small things are incredible, unique, individual, and quite powerful. 

Scott heroically supported his family through the sudden loss of his sister-in-law in 2006. His children were a little older and he was freed up a bit to have a more pristine vegetable garden than had occurred in the past. He relaxed by grabbing a garden tool and having some time in the garden in the evening and on weekends. We ate from the vegetable garden all summer.

Scott always supported me in anything I needed or wanted to help make my life easier while caring for and educating our children. It is because of him there are two horses are in our backyard. His sailboat was our next goal.

Scott’s effect on his circle of acquaintances grew as his faith grew. He enjoyed going to the many get-togethers available to the Christian men in this community. Often his boys would be with him. He and Caleb were the most regular church attenders in recent years. They visited church every Sunday.

Sometimes our small churches needed a speaker to fill in, and Scott was happy to do it. He was used to speaking professionally in front of crowds, and he had a chance to share his faith. He also appreciated how speaking from the pulpit meant several hours of research with the Bible and Concordance on his own.

Scott developed what we and doctors thought was a back ache late in 2010. He suffered for all of 2011 and it was spring of 2012 before his illness was diagnosed. Scott’s ministry was most powerful and effective during the duration of his illness, for people inside and outside his family, including us.

Since Scott’s illness we have heard time and time again of Scott’s effect on people’s lives. Scott mattered to a lot of people, and he made a lot of people feel like they matter.

Some would say Scott was “jipped” out of some of his years or decades. Scott packed a lot of life into his time here. He lived enough in one day and in one moment for several people.

If you think about where Scott is right now, he has not been shortchanged at all.


Delivered by Allison at Scott's Celebration of Life, June 13, 2012 on our property.