H. William Scott (1916-1998) was a Professor and Surgeon. He succeeded Barney Brooks as Chair of Vanderbilt's Department of Surgery, and authored more than 300 publications. The H. William Scott Jr. Chair in Surgery was established at Vanderbilt in 1983 in honor of his longtime service to the Universtiy and Medical Center.

He received his B.A. from North Carolina in 1937 and his M.D. from Harvard 1941. He received an honorary D.Sc. from Aberdeen in 1976. He was a Resident at both the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1941-43) and the Boston Children's Hospital (1941-45). He was the Harvey Cushing Fellow in Neurosurgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital from 1945-46. Dr. Scott was then Chief Resident under Dr. Alfred Blalock at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital from 1946-47. He was an Assistant in Surgery at the Harvard Medical School (1943-46) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1946). Then he went from Instructor to Associate Professor and Surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital from 1946 - 1952. He then became Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine from 1952 - 1982. He was also Surgeon in Chief at the Vanderbilt University Hospital from 1952-82 and Director of Surgical Sciences, at VUH from 1975-1982. In 1982 he became Professor of Surgery Emeritus at VUSM. He also served as a Clinical Professor of Surgery at Meharry Medical College starting in 1970 until the 1990s. He also was the Interim Chief of Surgery at the Metropolitan Nashville General Hospital from January - May 1991. Dr. Scott died in Nashville on August 4, 1998.