Scotti Fullbright

Scotti Fullbright

1951-2024

Scotti Dean Fullbright, beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend, was promoted to his 'Long Home' on May 28, in Wichita, Kansas, after battling an infection in his body for several months.

He was born June 3, 1951, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to parents Paul and Myrna (Wilcox) Fullbright. He was a rambunctious child by all accounts and his early life was punctuated by tragedy when his father passed away suddenly when he was just 13. In his high school years, his family, including siblings Bernie, Paula and Peggy, moved to Clearwater, where Scott made his mark in this small Nebraska town. It was there that he first laid eyes on Lois (Melcher) and a flame was kindled.

Scott ended up in Lincoln, after graduating from Clearwater High School and attended the University of Nebraska where his rambunctiousness graduated to more advanced forms of rabble-rousing. By his own admission, it was a time when he was searching for truth and satisfaction in all the wrong places. He graduated with a degree in history and developed a lifelong love of Husker football and hot Valentino's pizza along the way.

On Aug. 6, 1972, the flame that had started in Clearwater resulted in the wedding to his high school sweetheart, Lois Ann Melcher. As they began their life together, they also went through numerous trials that included several early careers with Chrysler and Hallmark that never were the right fit for him. It was also during this period that there was much searching of the soul and this took many forms but was still leaving him feeling empty.

In 1978, they welcomed their first child (Paul) into the world and ended up in Sioux City in the process. It was somewhere around this time that he also had a life-defining conversion to Christianity after searching in nearly every other place. This conversion caused him to ravenously read the Bible, completing his first reading in just months, and would lay the foundation of his desire to learn and teach about the heavenly kingdom Jesus described in the Scripture.

In 1980, he was led by God to quit his job at Chrysler and dedicate time to prayer, fasting and study for a time that lasted several months. After this, he felt guided to apply at a particular company in North Sioux City, South Dakota, named Interbake Foods, a cookie, biscuit and cracker manufacturer. This ended up being a prescient decision as this history major graduate took on roles in manufacturing, human resources, demand management, general management and eventually the senior vice president of a division.

His career at Interbake Foods lasted nearly 30 years and in that period Lois and Scott welcomed three children: Rachael, Noah and Jayne. Scott also began to hone his gift of teaching the Bible at a Friday night Bible study started in his Sioux City home. These studies would open with poignant music of Keith Green and Andrae Crouch, require seating to spill into adjoining rooms and regularly last past midnight. Hundreds of people deepened their faith through Scott's particular style of asking the hardest questions of the text which led to many deep conversations that had once beleaguered his mind.

In the early 1990s, he was asked for the third time to move to the corporate headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, and felt the peace of God to accept, even though it meant leaving many friends behind. Fortunately, God had a plan in Richmond to enlarge his community and his career continued to flourish. They began to homeschool their children and eventually were in regular attendance at a downtown Richmond church called Rapture-Time Assembly of God where the maturing family was able to grow in faith and stature. It was also while in Richmond, that Scott began to know Yesupadam Paidipamula, a young pastor from Eastern India. Paidipamula visited his home several times and eventually, everyone in the family visited India to serve in the ministry there.

In the early 2000s, the children were beginning to sprout their roots with all eventually marrying and welcoming their first (now they are up to 11) grandchild into the world in June 2002. He also was given the opportunity to integrate two new acquisitions which required him to move to Columbus, Ohio, and serve as the senior vice president over the Norse Dairy Systems division. In addition to the SVP role, he served on the board of the Biscuit and Cracker Manufacturers Association until he retired from Interbake in 2009.

They decided to move to Wichita in 2011 to be near family and settle into life post-retirement. He kept a vibrant and full life while in retirement, regularly rising before 5 am to get to a coffee with a friend in need of advice or playing a late-night game of Catan at one of the houses of his children. Eventually, all his children and grandchildren moved to Wichita where there were regular family gatherings that Scott would preside over with great joy. It was also in Wichita where he was able to rekindle that great gift of teaching where he will leave a legacy of hundreds of pages of written text where he particularly loved to teach from the Sermon on the Mount.

Scotti had a life that took him from the smallest of towns in northern Nebraska where his legacy touches many throughout the world in business, family and faith. His gregarious personality allowed him to be able to make friends on the streets in China, with the nurses that mercifully served him in his final days and all of those in between.

Scott has left an enduring mark on this world and will be missed by many. Certainly, the impact most important to him would be that of a life that is pointed toward Christ, even though he was as imperfect as anyone else, he knew that Christ's promise would perfect him in the end.

Scott is survived by his wife, Lois; children, Paul (Myla) Fullbright, Rachael (Nate) Roberts, Noah (Amber) Fullbright, and Jayne (Jess) Kota; and 11 grandchildren: Mahala, Kalia, Eliana, Asher, Elijah, Quinn, Ethan, Elise, Eliza, Eliott, and Elias.

A memorial celebrating Scott's life was held at the Cozine Life Events Center in Wichita on Monday, June 3.