Willard Scott

Willard Herman Scott Jr. was born March 7, 1934 in Alexandria, Virginia and died September 4, 2021 in Marshall, Virginia at age eighty-seven. He is best-remembered as the long-time weatherman on NBC’s Today show, where he appeared from 1980 through his semi-retirement in 1996 and intermittently thereafter through 2015.

Alexandria roots

Scott was born in Alexandria and graduated from Hammond High School (the precursor to today’s T.C. Williams High School, later renamed Alexandria City High School) in 1951. He attended American University, earning a B.A. in 1955.

His broadcasting career began at WRC-AM in Washington, D.C. in 1950 while he was still in high school, where he served as a page and announcer. He worked for WRC and its sister television station WRC-TV through the 1950s and 1960s.

Ronald McDonald

In 1963, Scott was performing the children’s-television character “Bozo the Clown” for WRC-TV when McDonald’s franchise owners in the Washington area asked him to develop a hamburger-themed clown character to advertise a local restaurant opening. Scott designed the costume and performed the character — originally called “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown” — in three Washington-area television commercials in 1963, becoming the first on-air performer of the character.

McDonald’s corporate adopted the character nationally in 1965 but recast the role with a thinner performer; Scott was paid a one-time creative fee but not retained as the franchise grew.

Today show

Scott joined the NBC Today show as weatherman in March 1980 and remained the program’s principal weather presenter through 1996. He became known for his on-air birthday greetings to viewers turning one hundred — a segment he created early in his Today tenure that he continued, in semi-retirement, until 2015.

He retired to Marshall, Virginia in his later years and died in September 2021.