Spouse(s) Diana Lynn Watt Scott Name Ronald Scott | Role Author | |
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Occupation Staff Journalist, biographer, novelist, pundit Religion The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Children Spencer, Stuart, Kirsten, Bailey, Dylan (deceased) Books Closing Circles: Trapped in the Evelasting Mormon Moment, Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics | ||
Ronald Bruce Scott (born 4 October 1945) is an American author, journalist, pundit and former staff writer for Time Magazine. He is best known for his 2011 unauthorized biography of Mitt Romney, which is written from the point of view of a highly critical but fellow member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and his 2012 book Closing Circles: Caught in the Everlasting Mormon Moment.
Contents
Life
Scott was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His parents, Robert Ronald Scott and Lillian Haws Scott, were members of the LDS Church; Scott served as a missionary (1965-67) in New England. He studied journalism at the University of Utah while a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News. He worked briefly for UPI in 1970 before taking a position with Time, Inc. in New York City. He wrote for Time, and later, Sports Illustrated and Life Magazine. Scott was a key member of the editorial team that founded People Magazine in 1974. He has written on subjects ranging from Billy Carter, to Muhammad Ali, to physician/inventor Willem "Pim" Kolff.
Scott is married to Diana Lynn Watt Scott. He lives in the greater Boston region and San Francisco; previously he lived in Westport, Connecticut.
Career
In a 2005 Sunstone article, Scott highlighted Romney’s move to the populist right on abortion, stem cell research, gun control and gay rights. Reviewing his 2011 biography of Romney, the online political magazine On The Issues said Scott "provides numerous new insights into the evolution of Romney's stances, often focusing on how the LDS Church viewed the issue and how Romney reconciled his views with the church's views . . . It's not explicitly about Mormonism at all -- but the author is a Mormon who knew Romney well through church ties, and who evidently did not like Romney very much. Hence it is an unauthorized biography, which to readers means it is more honest than one which must pass muster with the Romney campaign."