Scott was born in Idaho in 1928 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended George Washington University as an undergraduate, graduating in 1950 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. He then served a full-time LDS mission in Uruguay from 1950 to 1953, achieving fluency in Spanish. Upon his return in 1953, Scott married Jeanene Watkins, his college girlfriend and the daughter of U.S. Senator Arthur Watkins, and began working as a nuclear engineer for Naval Reactors under the leadership of Admiral Hyman Rickover. Scott worked for the U.S. government until 1965, when the LDS Church selected him to serve as a mission president in Argentina. He completed his service in 1968 and returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked for a private nuclear engineering consulting firm. Scott's scientific career ended in 1977 when the LDS Church called him to serve as a general authority. Following the death of Marion G. Romney in 1988, Scott was chosen to fill the subsequent vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and served in that position until his death in 2015.