[F]ormer Vermont ACLU executive director Scott Skinner has died of complications of lung disease.
According to an obituary in the Times Argus, Skinner died on Dec. 15. He was 76. Skinner and his wife, Mary Just, both attorneys, lived in Middlesex for 40 years. They were soon to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Skinner was the first executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which started in 1972. In 1980, Skinner took over as head of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. He held that post when the state conducted a raid on a religious community in Island Pond in 1984 on suspicions of child abuse.
Some of his ACLU accomplishments included: investigating and filing suit in the Island Pond raid; winning a Superior Court ruling that it was unconstitutional for the state to refuse Medicaid funding for medically necessary abortions; initiating and supporting passage of a bill limiting workplace drug testing and supporting efforts to revitalize the Vermont Human Rights Commission.
“Scott was a lifelong champion for social justice, fiercely committed to the principle that all people deserve equal protection under the law,” ACLU of Vermont Executive Director James Duff Lyall said. “He was a dear friend to many, including his colleagues as well as a long list of clients and community members for whom he advocated. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate all the passion, wisdom, warmth, and humor that Scott brought to this world and to this work.”
Skinner ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in 1976 and for attorney general in 1980. He was an opponent of nuclear power.
Skinner attended and graduated from Columbia Law School. He completed his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College in three years.
His sons both live in San Francisco. Justin is an immigration lawyer at a nonprofit organization and Wilson is a middle school teacher.
Skinner and his wife were avid hikers. With Mary, he climbed the 68 New England peaks over 4,000 feet and many of the high peaks of the Adirondacks. He also climbed in Nepal on numerous occasions, including to the Everest Advance Base Camp in Tibet at 21,150 feet.
A celebration of life has not been scheduled. According to the obituary, friends looking for “for exaggerated and flat-out misleading stories” about Skinner are invited to attend the 42nd Hunger Mountain Climb on Feb. 16.
