Scott Probasco: A Chattanoogan for all seasons

Scott L. "Scotty" Probasco Jr. smiles with Helen Pregulman at the History Makers Luncheon at the Chattanooga Convention Center in this 2012 file photo.
Scott L. "Scotty" Probasco Jr. smiles with Helen Pregulman at the History Makers Luncheon at the Chattanooga Convention Center in this 2012 file photo.

Scott L. Probasco Jr. evidently learned early that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

The Chattanooga businessman and philanthropist, who died Saturday at the age of 86, made deals, led campaigns and contributed money at levels well over the heads of most of us, but he was not stuffy, standoffish and self-important. Instead, he was courtly, friendly and magnanimous.

The third-generation Scenic City native, whose trademarks included a bow tie and a wide smile, graduated from Dartmouth College and the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. So he might have made his career anywhere, but he returned to Chattanooga and the American National Bank his grandfather founded.

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* Scott L. "Scotty" Probasco Jr., businessman and philanthropist, died Friday night * Friends remember Probasco as a cheerleader for Chattanooga, a gentleman

Many institutions here will be forever grateful.

The bank was later sold to the Third National Bank of Nashville, which, in turn, merged with SunTrust Bank of Atlanta, but Probasco remained as chairman of the executive committee of SunTrust in Chattanooga until his retirement.

In the meantime, he served on the corporate boards of Chattem Inc., Provident Life and Accident Insurance Co. and Coca-Cola Enterprises but also found time to assist community groups such as the United Way of Greater Chattanooga, the former Allied Arts, the Greater Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, the University of Chattanooga Foundation and the University of Tennessee Development Council.

Probasco also loved his Lord and was a lifetime member of First Presbyterian Church, where he served as an elder, chairman of deacons and a founding supporter of the Changed Lives ministry.

The loss of one so peripatetically involved and so generous is devastating, but Probasco himself would be the first to enthusiastically and modestly say individuals even more involved and more generous are coming behind him.

So an appropriate denouement for the life of such a fine public servant is his own favorite expression: "Great work!"

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