Scott Cameron

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Scott loved serving the San Marino Community and connecting with people through stories—telling them, hearing them, and teaching through them.

On the day Scott Cameron died, remnants of Hurricane Marie brought thunderstorms to Los Angeles, knocking out power for hours at the school where he had taught for decades. Scott loved serving the San Marino Community and connecting with people through stories—telling them, hearing them, and teaching through them. These are some stories about Scott.

Just after World War II, Joan Anita Cameron, a beautiful young woman with crooked teeth and a deep Christian faith, gave birth to Scott in Pasadena, California. Her parents, Somerset and Frances Weston, owned a saddle shop called Weston Supply Company on Valley Boulevard, and rode horses in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Scott’s father and Scottish namesake, Dougal Harvey Cameron, was known as a tough Marine captain. Later in life, Dougal Harvey developed a fondness for raising poodles and tending orchids. His career led the family to move several times during Scott’s childhood, including two years in Morocco, where Scott broke his leg in a bicycling accident. 

As a teenager, Scott enjoyed trips to Newport Beach, raising racing pigeons, and playing baseball and basketball with friends at Tustin High School. His love of basketball grew into a career and a lifelong passion for coaching. A follower of John Wooden, Scott applied Wooden’s five core principles for building a successful basketball team not only to teaching and coaching, but to his life.

Just after graduating high school in 1964, Scott headed to Thousand Pines Baptist Church Camp, where he met a beautiful brunette co-counselor Elizabeth “Liz” Rose Thompson. According to Scott, Liz went out with another counselor just before their date for strawberry pie at a local diner. When Liz paid, Scott thought it was a green flag. Before long, Liz decided Scott was a keeper.

They spent their final two years of college together at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where Scott devoted many industrious hours tinkering in the physics lab with his friend Don—and perhaps a few at the beach with Liz. Shortly after graduating, Scott and Liz married on a summery day in June 1968.

Guided by his Christian faith, Scott enrolled at the American Baptist Seminary in Covina. After a year of study that made his parents extremely proud, he realized teaching held his passion. It was a profession where Scott could offer a similar mental and moral leadership he associated with ministry. Scott began teaching first at Alhambra and, a year later, at San Marino High School. During these early teaching years, he also earned a master’s degree in physics from Cal State LA, in 1975.

In spite of—or perhaps because of—the joys and challenges of teaching and coaching teenagers, Scott and Liz expanded their family. Liz was due with their first, Diane, during basketball season, but thankfully for Super C, Diane arrived after the season ended. Their second, Dougal David, continues the family’s Scottish naming and education tradition and teaches chemistry at San Marino High School. Diane and David especially remember their dad grading papers late into the night, fueled by sweets or Coca-Cola, as well as his regular jogs to stay in strong physical condition for teaching, coaching and running in the annual Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10K.

Generations of SMHS students remember Mr. Cameron’s classroom “eureka” moments and the infectious enthusiasm he brought to teaching physics throughout his 36-year career. His annual physics scavenger hunts challenged students to collaborate—whether by working through the clues together, dividing and conquering, or copying answers. Perhaps most memorable was the yearly bridge-building assignment, using only balsa wood and glue, with perhaps a little advice from a parent or older sibling.

Mr. Cameron also organized trips to the San Gabriel mountaintops to observe rare astronomical events, inspiring many to appreciate the cosmos and the vastness of the universe. On winter school trips to Yosemite, he shared a sense of awe and wonder with colleagues and students as they experienced the natural beauty captured in black and white by Ansel Adams, a photographer he greatly admired.

Mr. Cameron held many teaching honors and served as Science Department Chair. The Rotary Club of Pasadena awarded him as a Paul Harris Fellow. Career highlights included inviting Nobel laureate Richard Feynman to speak, attending a 1986 Fermilab conference for 100 leading U.S. physics teachers, and working with colleagues to bring the Internet to the San Marino School District. He also served as faculty sponsor for several student groups, including the Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Club.

Throughout his years at SMHS, Mr. Cameron coached boys’ and girls’ sports including baseball, basketball, and volleyball at multiple levels. Coach Cameron emphasized fundamentals through careful instruction and repetition, and in basketball, the mantra “he who hesitates, is lost” helped guide his successful coaching career. In a memorable show of team spirit, he dyed his hair pink after promising the girls team he would if they made the CIF playoffs. Several of his league championship basketball and volleyball teams reached the CIF semifinals. In the 1990s, his boys’ volleyball program recorded a 57-game league winning streak and won eight consecutive Rio Hondo League titles.

SMHS faculty remember his positivity, caring nature, regular check-ins and the ‘three amigos,” his group that rallied and roasted staff at meetings and retirement celebrations. He was also active in the SMUSD teachers’ union and bond efforts. For a time, Scott joined fellow teachers in an investment group whose returns seemed just enough to fund an upscale dinner out with their wives. At San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ, Scott served for decades as treasurer, Sunday school teacher, and church leader.

After Liz died in 2009, Scott found renewed love, laughter, purpose, and companionship with longtime colleague and SMHS French teacher Kristen Koiles. Kristen’s beloved husband, Jereld, a dear friend of Scott’s, had died in 2003. Their 17-year relationship, embraced by both families, included hours spent suffering together on beautiful golf courses; watching and armchair quarterbacking tennis, golf, football, and basketball; traveling, including a trip to Ireland with the Ryan family, where Scott delighted in driving on the opposite side of the road; and visiting Kristen’s brothers, John and Jim, who enjoyed giving Scott a hard time and nicknamed him “chirp.”

Kristen lovingly cared for Scott through his later years of living with Alzheimer’s disease, refilling a cookie jar on the counter and ensuring he experienced joys in life whether a laugh, a sweet treat or a kiss on the cheek.

Scott celebrated his 80th birthday this past August with a small group of close friends and family. Less than a month later, with his son, David, by his side on the evening of September 8th, 2026 Scott took his final breath.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Dougal and Joan; wife, Liz; son-in-law, General Robert Menist, husband of daughter Diane; and sister-in-law, Ronda Cameron, wife of brother John.

In addition to his beloved, Kristen, Scott leaves behind adult children and extended family including: David (Kim) Cameron, Diane Cameron Menist, Julian (Diana) Koiles and Janet Koiles; granddaughters, Eliza and Lula Cameron and Noah Koiles; brothers, John and Bruce (Judy) Cameron; sister-in-law Fran Thompson; nieces, Lisa and Jill; and nephews, Chris and David.

Scott, along with loved ones and professional caregivers, found moments of joy amid struggle as he lived with Alzheimer’s disease for many years. The Cameron and Koiles family thanks Silverado The Huntington Memory Care Community for looking after him during his final year.

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to the San Marino Schools Foundation in memory of Scott Cameron to support the boys’ and girls’ volleyball and basketball programs at SMHS or to the San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ.

Join us for a celebration of his life on Saturday, November 7 at 10:30 a.m. at San Marino High School, 2701 Huntington Drive followed by a reception at 12 p.m. at Clearman’s Galley (the Boat), 7215 Rosemead Blvd, San Gabriel.

Arrangements are under the care of Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA.