We are saddened to announce the passing of Allan Scott Paris, lovingly known as Scott, on December 19th, 2024.

Scott was born in Philadelphia, PA on April 23, 1946 in the first wave of baby boomers to Caroline Jane Pipes Paris and Delmo Paris. He was the oldest of three children and is survived by his two younger sisters, Patricia Paris Ramsey and Pamela Paris. Delmo was a Navy doctor and the family moved around until they landed in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where Scott walked barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways to school everyday. He was skinny and tall and a total dweeb in the way all people who end up cool in adulthood are. He came into his own in his college years while studying psychology and discovering photography at Albion College. After college he grew his hair out, fashioned a mustache, wore only denim work shirts, always with a pen and soft pack of cigarettes in his breast pocket, and had a camera with him at almost all times. It was the late 1960s.

He moved around but enjoyed most of his misspent youth living in New York City and Cambridge, Mass with a short stint in Phoenix, Az before meeting his future wife, Suzanne Hansen Paris, at a work holiday party hosted at his father's house in Grosse Pointe in December of 1978. She was a nurse working at the hospital where Delmo was Chief of Staff. He was 10 years older than her, and her complete opposite, but they fell in love and were married in 1980. Scott was incredibly proud of his two children, Benjamin Paris and Katherine Paris, and delighted by his four grandchildren, Oliver Paris, Elliott Paris, Wilder "Bode" Tsan, and Maren Tsan.

He had many interests and his work life reflected his myriad passions. His resume includes time spent as a beer delivery boy, an ice factory worker, photojournalist, in academic publishing, as a camera shop clerk, counselor at the Fernald School (a state run psychiatric home), a small business owner (Budget Printing), and a software engineer and consultant.

Scott was a curious soul, gentle, an insatiable learner, and a healthy cynic. He was a skeptic at heart and a lover of art, music, books, and politics. A car and airplane enthusiast, amateur pilot, a military history buff, and an ardent photographer, Scott was truly a renaissance man. He had an eclectic taste in music. He loved classical, pop, folk, rock, bluegrass and various forms of choral music, and could often be caught tearing up when many voices sang together.

Scott was a collector of functional and beautiful things. He was sentimental about objects, taking immense interest in their aesthetics, functionality, and presence. His collections and hobbies were vast and varied, extending from photographic and darkroom equipment to road bicycles, books and art monographs, model airplanes and cars, watches, pocket knives, hand tools, flashlights, reading glasses, and fast but unflashy cars. He enjoyed furniture refinishing, attending air shows, and doing ancestry research. He was always searching for the best version of everything, learning how things are made or how they function.

The lessons he imparted throughout his lifetime continue to guide and inspire those around him. He taught us to pay attention to details, to care deeply, to think profoundly, and to move slowly but efficiently, to be kind but not easy, and to always be learning. He was a feminist, a staunch liberal, and a lover of public radio. These are the values that Scott lived by, and they live on in his memory.

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