Deputy includes firefighting in duties

By The Associated Press

Miller Scott has more than 60 years combined experience as a firefighter, sheriff’s deputy and scuba diver, has a bachelor’s degree in plant pathology and is also a small-business owner.

Scott, 52, remains a full-time firefighter at the 188th Fighter Wing, where he’s been since 1982, and a part-time bailiff in Sebastian County Circuit Court where he’s been since 1992. Corey S. Krasko Times Record Miller Scott sits beside a mannequin at his scuba shop Ocean Impact on Friday.

A year or two later, Scott created Lunasea Diving, a commercial scuba diving operation, and in January 2008, he and his fiance purchased Ocean Impact Diving Services, 9422 Rogers Ave.

“I’ve never put on the wrong uniform (for work), but I’ve had to think, ’Where do I go today?”’ Scott said.

Although his firefighting and law enforcement careers predate his scuba

diving career, Scott said,

diving is his passion.

Scott said his fascination with the water began as a child in Dermott, watching Jacques Cousteau and Sea Hunt and spending time at the city-owned Olympic-sized swimming pool.

But there weren’t opportunities for scuba diving around Dermott, so when Scott left for college, he studied plant pathology at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but studying plant pathology seemed reasonable since Scott was raised on a farm. However, his passion for scuba diving still wasn’t far from his mind.

Scott said he only made a good grade on one presentation in his speech class — when he spoke about working toward a scuba diving certification, a process he hadn’t even started.

After he graduated, Scott was passed over for a job at a state-sponsored research farm near Dermott by a candidate with a master’s degree, and a couple years later he moved to Fort Smith for better job opportunities.

As a connection to farming led him to major in plant pathology, his father’s volunteer firefighting led him to the fire department at the 188th.

A few years later, around 1987 Scott got the opportunity to try scuba diving and has done it ever since, doing thousands of dives.

At first, Scott just dove for fun, but in 1993 he became a diving instructor and over the years has assisted the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office with search and recovery operations and inspected wastewater facilities for the city of Fort Smith and Tyson.

Diving also introduced Scott to Lena Robertson, his fiance and business partner.

Scott was working as an instructor at Ocean Impact, for the previous owners, when Robertson began taking classes through the business with another instructor.

“I heard him (Scott) griping at his students and I said ’I’m glad I’m not in his class,”’ Robertson said.

In 2005, Robertson began working at Ocean Impact and in 2008 when she and Scott purchased the business, she became store manager.

“I work for her and she’ll dispute whether I work or not,” Scott said.

In addition to offering instruction and scuba gear, Ocean Impact sponsors trips to scuba-diving destinations like the Bahamas, Honduras, Costa Rica and Fiji. Scott said he and Robertson spent four weeks total in the Bahamas this summer leading diving trips.

Being a couple and business partners means Scott and Robertson spend a lot of time together, but Scott’s responsibilities as a fire fighter and bailiff also pull him in other directions, which is a positive Robertson said.

“Any couple who works together finds out how tight space gets and it’s good to have space,” Robertson said.

But Scott’s schedule will be slowing in the next three years, when he turns 55 and retires from the fire department. As for his bailiff duties, Scott said he’s just not ready to walk away.

“I’m not sure why, but some days I feel like I can still make a difference,” Scott said.

While he contemplates the closure of his career as a firefighter and bailiff, an end to diving is nowhere in sight for Scott.

Despite thousands of dives, Scott said it remains calming and is still like going to another world, and an expedition to a new area is usually his new favorite dive.

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