Bobbie Beatrix Scott was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in April 1900. From the start, she belonged to a family and community that prized schooling and church life. As a young girl, she appeared on local programs as a capable speaker, her steady voice already carrying the promise of a public life. Those Sunday-school platforms in Vicksburg proved to be the first stage in a journey that would reach national leadership tables in Washington, D.C.

Formation and higher education
Her early education was shaped by the discipline of St. Mary’s Episcopal School and the intellectual rigor of Tougaloo High School, a feeder for Black colleges in the South. In 1916, she left Mississippi for Oberlin College in Ohio—a place that, by both policy and tradition, opened its doors to women and African Americans well before most institutions. She majored in chemistry, graduated with honors in 1920, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

She carried her scientific training further, earning a Master of Science degree from Howard University in 1934 and pursuing additional graduate study at Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and Union College in Schenectady, New York. Her fellowship year at Union, supported by General Electric, underscored her dual vocation: strengthening classroom science while advancing her own scholarship.

Early teaching and Washington, D.C. posts
Bobbie began her career teaching chemistry, first at Howard University and then in the Washington, D.C., public schools. By 1925 she was on staff at Armstrong High School, and later she taught at Coolidge High School. Students remembered her precision in the laboratory and her steady counsel for those considering college science.

She soon stepped into broader responsibility. For four years she served on the D.C. Board of Examiners, the body that screened candidates for teaching positions and promotions. From 1955 to 1957, she was president of the High School Teachers Association of the District of Columbia, guiding her colleagues through years of curricular change and the challenges of desegregation. She retired from the city’s school system in 1958.

Alpha Kappa Alpha leadership
Bobbie’s devotion to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated began soon after Oberlin. She was initiated in Epsilon Omega Chapter (Baltimore) in 1922 and became a charter member of Xi Omega Chapter in Washington, D.C., in 1923.

By the mid-1920s she was chairing national committees, including the Constitution Committee, and in 1927 she was elected the Fifth Supreme Basileus. She served 1928–1929, a period remembered for her attention to systems and vision. She streamlined finances, improved The Ivy Leaf’s circulation, strengthened undergraduate participation, and oversaw the sorority’s first Foreign Fellowship—sending a woman abroad for graduate study in Berlin. Her own words in that season were brisk and steady: a pledge to “keep ever alive the torch” passed down from the founders.

After her presidency, she served as National Financial Director, where she advanced the idea of an Endowment Fund for long-term stability. She was also a charter member of Xi Zeta Omega Chapter, founded to serve Washington’s growing membership.

Founding officer of the National Pan-Hellenic Council
On May 10, 1930, when historically Black fraternities and sororities formed the National Pan-Hellenic Council at Howard University, Bobbie was elected vice-chairman. She was the only woman among the founding officers, standing beside fraternity leaders as a bridge-builder and strategist. Her insistence on regular reporting and undergraduate voice aligned perfectly with the NPHC’s mission of cooperation and shared strength.

Civic and community leadership
Her sense of service extended well beyond classrooms and sorority life. She held leadership roles in the D.C. Urban League, the Health and Welfare Council of the National Capital Area, and the United Givers Fund—chairing a city-wide campaign in 1963. She was also a director of the Ionia R. Whipper Home for Unwed Mothers.

She belonged to The Links, Incorporated, and was active in the Women’s Guild, further expressions of her commitment to women’s advancement and civic betterment. In 1971, her integrity was honored with a national appointment: the U.S. Department of State named her a public member of its Foreign Service Selection Panel, reviewing candidates for diplomatic posts.

Family life
Bobbie married James Edward Scott, a Washington real-estate executive who became the 10th Grand Polemarch of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Together they raised a daughter, Barbara Alma Scott (later Barbara Scott Preiskel), who pursued law in New York and was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Epsilon Chapter in 1944.

Later years, recognition, and death
Though retired, Bobbie never truly stepped away. She returned to Boules and conferences, mentored younger leaders, and remained a trusted voice in financial and constitutional matters. Her portrait still hangs among the Supreme Basilei at the sorority’s headquarters, and Mississippi heritage projects have since honored her as one of Vicksburg’s most distinguished daughters.

Bobbie Beatrix Scott passed away on April 2, 1983, in New York City. She was laid to rest at Lincoln Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, near the city where she and her husband had lived and worked.

Character and legacy
Across her life, one theme shines: Bobbie Scott turned ideals into durable systems. She trained students in science, strengthened the standards of teaching in D.C., and left Alpha Kappa Alpha and the NPHC with financial, constitutional, and cooperative structures that endure. She was not flashy, but she was steady—and because of that, the organizations she touched are stronger even today.

Barbara Alma Scott Preiskel