Scott W. Anderson, 72

Scott W. Anderson, devoted husband and father, musician, educator, healthcare executive, craftsman and steadfast friend died on July 10 after a long illness. He was 72.

Scott leaves behind a wide circle of family and friends who found life a little easier, warmer and more joyful in his company.

Quick to smile and ready with a kind word, Scott possessed that increasingly rare gift of drawing people toward him without ever seeming to try. Friends describe him as a “prince among men,” a phrase that seems less hyperbole than simple description. He loved generously — his family and friends most of all — and brought to nearly everything he did an abiding curiosity, competence and good humor.

Born Sept. 3, 1953, in Attleboro, Scott grew up in Norton, the son of Roland Anderson and Patricia Tannock Anderson, whose family roots were in Scotland.

Music captured him early and remained one of the great threads running through his life. He attended the Boston Conservatory of Music, earning a bachelor’s degree in music education, and began his career teaching music at Mansfield Middle School.

It was during his college years that another, even more enduring thread  entered Scott’s life. He and Dianne Audette met while working during the summer — Scott, a student at the conservatory and Dianne at Boston University. Their first date was at Top of the Hub, high above Boston. They immediately hit it off and were married two years later.

For their honeymoon, they went to Martha’s Vineyard. It was the beginning of a love affair with the Island that would last a lifetime.

Scott believed there was a place in a young person’s musical education for nearly everything worth hearing. Classical music, pop, rock, jazz and show tunes all found their way into his classroom. For many years he was also a church organist and choir director, first at St. John the Evangelist in Attleboro and later in South Glens Falls, N.Y.

He was a talented pianist and vocalist, but music for Scott was seldom a solitary affair. Give him a gathering of friends and the right occasion, and before long he could turn even the most hesitant amateurs into an enthusiastic chorus of holiday carols and familiar songs.

Scott later attended Lesley College, earning a master’s degree in business management, which started the second, seemingly unlikely act of his professional life. After working in business management at Motorola, he moved into healthcare, where the musician and teacher proved equally adept with budgets, organizations and the complicated business of keeping hospitals running.

Dianne, meanwhile, pursued her own career in healthcare, first as a registered nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital and eventually as CEO of Lawrence General Hospital. Their parallel careers opened doors to experiences far beyond New England and gave them opportunities to explore the world together.

One of the great adventures of their life came when they joined a Boston-based team charged with building a new hospital in Scotland. They lived there for three years, allowing Scott to explore the country of his family’s origins. The couple traveled widely and formed friendships that would endure long after they returned home.

Their next chapter took them to upstate New York and further work in healthcare. and, characteristically, another collection of lifelong friends. Eventually they returned to the Boston area, where Scott became associate vice president of finance at New England Baptist Hospital, serving for many years and earning the respect and trust of colleagues who relied upon both his professional judgment and his steady presence.

But the greatest adventure of Scott’s life began in 2003, when he became a father to Nikolai.

Scott and Dianne settled in Holliston with their new son, and family life became the center around which everything else revolved. There were homes to design and improve, kitchens for Scott to renovate, and gardens that inevitably became beautiful under his care. A talented craftsman, he took pleasure in making the places his family inhabited more useful and lovelier.

Ever the chef, he was an accomplished cook who fed family and friends throughout the Andersons’ travels and wherever they made a home. Among those fortunate enough to sit at his table, his chestnut stuffing achieved something approaching legendary status. Those inclined to regard the perfect stuffing as a modest accomplishment simply never tasted Scott’s.

The Andersons traveled widely throughout the world, but two places repeatedly called them back: Tanglewood and Martha’s Vineyard.

At Tanglewood, Scott taught Nikolai to play chess on the lawn while the music of the Boston Symphony drifted through the summer air — a perfect moment that framed a father-son memory.

And Martha’s Vineyard, where Scott and Dianne had begun their married life together, remained a constant through the decades. Scott, Dianne and Nikolai loved heading to Chappaquiddick for long days at the beach swimming, kayaking, picnics, BBQ grilling and settling in together with no particular ambition beyond staying until the day was done.

Their Vineyard home became one of the recurring landmarks of family life, a place to which they returned again and again.

This past June, Scott and Dianne marked their 50th wedding anniversary — half a century after two college students who met during a summer job at a nursing home decided to make a life together. Scott died only a short time later.

For all Scott accomplished professionally, his friends remember something harder to list on a résumé: how it felt to be around him. He was kind. He was capable. He made people laugh. He made people welcome. He could build a kitchen, cultivate a garden, balance a hospital budget, prepare an unforgettable meal, and coax people into song.

“Scott will be missed not only by his family, but by friends far and wide, whose memories, so fond and vivid as they are, stand as a legacy rooted in his fine character and too many special qualities to count,” recounted one friend.

His life remains a high standard against which a life well-lived and well loved might be measured. His absence leaves the world diminished for Dianne and Nikolai and for friends scattered far and wide, but the memories he created with them are vivid, abundant and lasting.

And somewhere, one hopes, heaven has indeed gained a new choirmaster.

Scott is survived by his loving wife, Dianne J. Anderson, and his son, Nikolai Anderson, of Holliston and Vineyard Haven.

A memorial funeral Mass will be celebrated Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Holliston. A luncheon will immediately follow at Fireside Tavern, 33 North Main Street, Sherborn.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Scott’s memory may be made to Caring Hospice of Cape Cod, 11 Vanderbilt Avenue, Suite 250, Norwood, MA 02062