Scott Harris

Scott Harris was born Vincent Edward McGough  Jr. on Dec. 14, 1946, in Providence, Rhode Island.  He spent his early years in and around New York City where he attended Regis Jesuit Prep School on scholarship.
When the family moved to Orlando in 1962, Harris attended Edgewater High School, where he earned a physics scholarship from the Martin-Marietta Corp. to attend Duke University. He graduated in 1974 from Florida Technological University, now the University of Central Florida, with a bachelor’s degree in communications.
After graduation, Scott served in the U. S. Air Force as technical sergeant, working on nuclear cruise missile guidance systems. Harris began his TV news career as anchor and assistant news director at WESH-TV in 1977. Harris also worked at WCPX-TV (now WKMG) as a reporter and at Orlando-area radio stations, WNDB-AM, WNFI/WFKS-FM, and WDBO-AM. In 1997, Harris helped launch the local cable news outlet now known as News 13.

Over his 40-plus year career in Orlando broadcasting, Scott Harris became a revered, well-liked and respected community fixture. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer proclaimed March 4, 2011, as “Scott Harris Day” in “The City Beautiful.” The Orange County History Center renamed a college scholarship in his honor. And, in 2016, Edgewater High School inducted Scott Harris into their alumni Hall of Fame. 

It is for his highly regarded, live coverage of space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center that Harris is probably most often remembered by Central Florida viewers and listeners. Scott worked both the launch of STS-1, the first shuttle mission, on April 12, 1981, and the liftoff of STS-135, the final shuttle mission, on July 8, 2011, one month before his passing at age 64.

Scott’s brother, Tom McGough, said of him, “Mom and Dad taught us you do things because it’s right. You teach, you help, you don’t expect credit… and that’s how he lived.”