Lewis “Scotty” Greenwald, born in Inverness, Scotland, passed away at 80 years of age on Sunday, August 15, 2021 in Yulee, Florida.
He married Sylvette Lucienne Bourlier in Cotonou, Benin 48 years ago with whom he had 3 children: David (preceded him in death 1993 at the age of 18), Scott and his wife Kristen, and Nathalie and her husband Michael. He also lovingly leaves behind his younger sister Rosalind in Glasgow and her family, his cousins Ethel and Jack from Pennsylvania and their families, his cousin Roy and his family in Lerwick, and his sister-in-law Marie-Claude in France and her family.
Scotty left Inverness, Scotland when he was 16 starting a very long and very different number of jobs and careers including merchant mariner, boxer, parachuter in the 101st, bus boy, juvenile probation officer, actor, eventually settling into a long and successful career in the oil and gas business which spanned over 5 decades. After his retirement, Scotty settled in as a grandfather, song writer and poet.
Scotty led a unique and eventful life. His parents were business owners, who owned candy store, a fish n’ chips shop amongst other businesses, the latter setting the tone for a lifelong passion for any menu item that had the works fried basket included. An avid reader at a young age, some of his favorite authors including Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne, he always had a heart for adventure and discovery and so he left home at the ripe age of 16 and set sail as a merchant mariner. Three years later, with $50 in his pocket, he set his sights on moving to America in search of the American dream. After a three-year stint in the 101st Airborne, including a serious shoulder injury from a jump, he worked several jobs while receiving his degree at Peabody College in Nashville, and his Doctorate of Jurisprudence at Vanderbilt Law School.
After law school, Scotty always in search of adventure, used his contractual expertise to start his career in the Oil and Gas industry sending him off to Western Africa, where he would live on and off for over 30 years in countries including Benin, Nigeria, Congo, Tunisia, Morocco, Gabon while visiting dozens of other countries across African and Asia. He met the love of his life in Cotonou, Benin. Along the way he killed dozens of snakes, some very large, owned a monkey, opened schools and hospitals, wrote contractual language still being leveraged in the industry to this day, survived numerous local unrest, crossing hippo and crocodile infested rivers in wooden canoes, and the occasional big hairy spider.
He loved traveling, scotch, oat cakes and shortbread, storytelling, his family, but mostly his wife who he adored, albeit never missed a chance to drive her a little nuts. We will miss his joie de vivre and his laughter.
He is survived by his wife Sylvette; his son Scott, his daughter Nathalie, and his grandchildren Thomas, Nicolas, Madeline and Angelique.
Scotty’s funeral will be held at the Jacksonville National Cemetery on Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 11:30am.