Winfield Scott Bassage

Winfield Scott Bassage died at his home in East Calais, December 26, 2025.  Scott was born in New York City on December 12, 1945 to Harold Bassage and Anne Oliver Bassage.  Growing up, he spent summers in East Calais, and as an adult, spent most of his life there. His father was an Episcopal minister, so the family moved frequently, but Scott always considered East Calais to be his home.

While attending Kenyon College during the Vietnam War, he was drafted into the army where he learned Chinese and served in Vietnam intercepting and translating Chinese military communications. He was later sent to Germany where he learned to use an early computer the size of a semi-truck.  He also began his life long love of driving, covering much of Europe on his motorcycle or in his VW van.

After military service, he worked as a programmer for IBM for a few years before returning to Kenyon to finish his degree in comparative religions.

In the early 1970’s Scott became the first Registrar for the newly created Community College of Vermont, back when there were no grades, narrative transcripts, voluntary tuition (imagine!), and lots of resistance from many bureaucracies.  His work, alongside that of many others, helped give the College its eventual credibility and legitimacy. VCC remains a strong and important institution to this day.  It was there that Scott met and fell in love with Charlotte Hanna who was to become his wife.

Scott and Charlotte moved to California for graduate work where Charlotte enrolled at Stanford University.  At first, Scott served as the registrar for Antioch West covering much of the western half of the country at the time.  In 1980, Scott joined Charlotte as a PhD student at Stanford working toward a degree in Administration and Policy Analysis, and took charge of computing at the Stanford policy think tank, the Hoover Institute.  In 1985, Scott and Charlotte moved permanently to East Calais and Scott took a job managing the computer system for all the libraries in the Vermont State Colleges. In addition, within a few years, Scott became a major contributor to Calais community life, a role he continued to play for the next 40 years.

He quickly became well known in Calais as a kind man, a good neighbor and an active volunteer on the Selectboard, Planning Commission, Development Review Board, and others. His initiative and fundraising ability made possible many improvements to Calais such as completely overhauling and updating town planning and zoning, and renovating important historic buildings like the Town Hall. He had a strong love of nature, music, and caring for the land.  Scott retired in 2009 and spent the remaining years of his life following his many passions which included driving (he loved to drive for hours, driving across the country several times a year to visit his son, John, in Seattle), bird watching, managing his 245 acre tract of land, attending concerts, reading voraciously, spending time at the New Skete Monastery priory in Cambridge, NY, walking all over Calais with his dog, Katy, and giving hours of his time to volunteer work in the town of Calais. 

Scott is survived by his wife, Charlotte Hanna; his son, John, of Seattle; his sister, Annie Grace Bassage; and several nieces and nephews, all of whom have special memories of Scott and the old farm on Fifer’s Ride.

A memorial service will be held in the Calais Town Hall on May, 2nd from 4 to 6 pm.  In lieu of flowers, kindly consider a memorial contribution to the Town of Calais (3120 Pekin Brook Rd., E. Calais, VT 05650) for the Town Hall restoration.  

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