Donald Gage Scammell Jr.

Born on April 27, 1938, in Ogdensburg, he was the first son of Catherine Brunette Scammell and Donald Gage Scammell and the first grandson of his beloved grandparents, Ella Mae and Hector Brunette, who raised him after the death of his father in 1950.

After attending Manlius Military Academy, he graduated from Ogdensburg Free Academy in 1955 and then served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a radar technician. After his military duty, he worked for Grumman Aircraft as an avionics specialist on the track radar system of the AGA Intruder aircraft.

In 1965, he started working for the Schaefer Brewing Company as a salesman for Eastern Long Island. At that time, Schaefer was a very large and successful brewer in the Northeast and had the best training program in the industry. In his first year in sales, he won many sales contests and awards. Within two years, he was promoted to specialty sales representative calling on chain food stores in Long Island and Manhattan. A year-and-a-half in 1969, he was again promoted as a territory manager in upstate New York, responsible for franchised distributors of Schaefer Beer products. It was here that he found the Adirondacks so delicious that he moved his family to Saranac Lake.

Yet again, he was promoted to Schaefer branch manager in Syracuse and had to move again in 1971. In 1974, he was asked to move back to Metro New York to take one of three positions available as another promotion. He made the decision to resign and move back to the Adirondacks, where he bought a small beer distribution business in Saranac Lake.

By dint of perseverance, persistence, hard work, long hours and very good fortune, he was successful with that distributing business by increasing the size of its territory as well as the number of brands and products carried.

He loved the Saranac Lake and Lake Placid communities and actively served them. He was a founding officer of the Saranac Lake Boys Club. He serves as vice president of the Saranac Lake Ski Club. He was a member of the Elks Club, American Legion and Rotary Club of Saranac Lake. He was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Saranac Lake Federal Savings Bank. In 1988, he was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce for offering free taxi rides home on New Year’s Eve in five Adirondack villages.

In Lake Placid, he was a member of the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, North Elba Historical Society and was a board member and vice president of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta. In 1980, he became a founding member of the MM club, whose purpose was to bring back the Winter Olympics to Lake Placid. He was later designated a member of the Lake Placid 1994 Winter Olympic Bid Committee, which made a bid in Indianapolis, Indiana for those games but lost to Alaska. He was elected to the Board of the Essex County-Lake Placid Visitors Bureau (now ROOST) and then served as chairman of that board. He served on the board of directors of Adirondack Bank for 19 years. He spent countless cold hours volunteering as a measurer of World Cup ski jumping competitions and as a starter for the World Cup freestyle aerialist competitions.

Don is survived by his wife, the love of his life and best friend of 46 years since 1978, Judy Rand Scammell; daughters Elizabeth Murray (Ray), Kelly Humphreys and stepdaughter Nicole Todd (James Bridget Todd aka Jeb); son Donald Gage Scammell III (Heather); and grandsons Daniel R. Scammell and Gage B. Scammell. He is also survived by three brothers, Terry, David and Michael, plus two great-grandchildren and 11 wonderful nieces and nephews.

Don loved traveling, baseball, boating, camping, sailing and racing his J24. For over 25 years, a poker game was held in his “barn” every Tuesday year around with pretty much the same eight friends. He will miss all his great friends, dinner parties, movie nights and dock nights. He will especially miss his reading, as he was an inveterate reader of books that touched his myriad of interests.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 19 at St. Agnes Church, Hillcrest Ave., Lake Placid. The Rev. John Yonkovig will officiate.

The family suggests in lieu of flowers, donations be directed to Tri-Lakes Humane Society in his memory. The M. B. Clark, Inc., Funeral Home in Lake Placid is in charge of arrangements.

Visit www.mbclarkfuneralhome.com to share a memory, upload a photograph, sign the online guest book or leave condolences for his family to cherish.