In Memoriam of Jean Scott, OWA Founding Member

Jean Scott, Optical Women’s Association Founding Board Member who served as Co-President from 2000-2002, passed away on December 21, 2024. 

When Jean was interviewed in 2013, she recalled back to when she helped create the OWA in 1997, "We needed a vehicle for networking in a more structured manner, as well as mentoring, so women could continue to excel in leadership positions within our industry," said Scott.

At that time, everything was a challenge — getting a board together physically was not possible and they took a fair amount of heckling from the men in the industry. With Founder Linda Little’s vision, Jean, alongside Co-President Marge Axelrad and the founding board members made the time to make it happen. "We shocked many when our first two Pleiades Award recipients were men," Scott recalled. “I think that really helped define our mission and the fact that we were here to stay. Plus organizations that understood the value of women — and were open about it — really benefitted!"

While things have certainly changed since the start of the OWA, some things have stayed the same, like women helping other women. "No one succeeds today on their own," said Scott. "You can gain so many benefits from the OWA — from learning, to friendship, to networking. In short, the OWA can be a benefit to a woman throughout her entire optical career."

More About Jean, from Vision Monday’s Press Release:

She spent most of her early years in Wichita and Abilene, Kan., where she fell in love with the optical industry by working part-time for a close family friend in order to purchase her first pair of designer eyewear. Her passion for the optical industry never waned thereafter.

Scott took on managerial roles with Cole National in the Northeast, worked with well-known NYC optician EB Meyerowitz and also at Boscov’s Optical in Pennsylvania. By the time she was 30, she was tapped to be one of the founding executive employees of the original National Vision Associates which was created in 1990 to build and open optical departments within Walmart in the U.S. and internationally as well as other optical retail acquisitions in the ‘90s. 

Scott subsequently began a long-term role as vice president of U.S. merchandising for The Luxottica Group known at the time as Avant Garde Optics. It was also during this time that Scott was among the founding members of the Optical Women’s Association, serving as co-president from 2000-2002. She remained very dedicated to the expansion of the organization. 

In 2006, Scott left the corporate world and began her own luxury retail business, relocating and operating optical stores in Macau, China and Singapore. Initially these were part of a company called New Lunettes Group Ltd., and then the business there was further developed under the jeanscott retail name. In her free time there, she gave much work to the International Ladies Association of Macau, and co-produced their large annual fundraising gala for several years. Her stores enjoyed tremendous success between 2008-2016, but she eventually returned to the U.S. to begin her next great adventure. 

This was in Texas where she met and wed her beloved Lewis Snyder, and together they forged a new future under the Noble Fleece Alpacas banner. Together, they raised show-quality alpacas—winning countless awards and breeding their precious animals with other alpaca owners around the country. Scott had an amazing ability to “speak” to her alpacas and took great joy in educating everyone who wanted to know more about her precious animals.

Ever the global traveler, Scott visited countries extensively across most every continent. She also found much happiness in her dogs Bijou, Jewel, and Thor who is nationally ranked—all Belgian Tervurens.

A memorial service is pending and will be held in early spring in Texas. The family has posted its own obituary for Scott here, where visitors can post to a tribute wall.