Zarrow son carried on family's commitment to charity
BY TIM STANLEY World Staff Writer
Monday, December 31, 2012
12/31/12 at 5:55 AM
Scott Foreman Zarrow, a Tulsa attorney who as a member of one of the city's most prominent oil-industry families not only served as legal counsel for many of its enterprises, but also carried on its famous commitment to charity, died Sunday in Tulsa.
He was 54.
A service has been set for noon Tuesday at Congregation B'nai Emunah with burial to follow at Rose Hill Cemetery. No visitation is planned. Fitzgerald Ivy Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Zarrow died from an aggressive form of colon cancer, family members said. He returned to Tulsa in late December after seeking treatment in Rochester, Minn., and Palo Alto, Calif.
An attorney and president of Foreman Investment Capital LLC in Tulsa, Zarrow was the son of late Tulsa oil executive and philanthropist Jack Zarrow.
After its founding by his older brother Henry Zarrow, Jack Zarrow joined him in building Tulsa-based Sooner Pipe and Supply into one of the world's best-known oil-and-gas supply firms, with a number of non-pipeline oil enterprises spinning off from it.
Scott Zarrow would later join them, serving for many years as general counsel for Sooner Pipe and Supply, in which role he worked with his father and uncle, helping guide sales, acquisitions and other efforts.
During a three-year sojourn in Scotland, Zarrow served as the managing director of TK Valve, a Sooner-allied company that manufactured parts for use in petroleum refineries.
Scott Zarrow was born in Tulsa in 1958, the youngest child and only son of Jack and Maxine Zarrow.
He attended Tulsa Public Schools and in 1976 graduated from Edison High School.
After obtaining a degree from Stanford University, Zarrow was accepted into the University of Texas law school.
There, on the first day of class, he met fellow student Hilary Wiener, who was to become his wife.
Named to the Order of the Coif, a legal honors society, Zarrow would go on to graduate with honors, returning to Tulsa soon after to join the family business as an attorney.
Zarrow's record for achievement is now inspiring his own daughters: Alison Zarrow, who is co-founder of a beverage business in Palo Alto, Calif., and her sister Rachel Zarrow, a senior at Stanford University.
In fact, it is largely because of their father's influence and encouragement that they are going the directions they are.
"Our dad supported us no matter how far-fetched or improbable the idea might seem," Alison said.
From him they learned that "with a lot of planning, a willingness to roll up your sleeves, and a self-deprecating sense of humor, any venture is possible," she added.
A trustee of the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation and the Zarrow Families Foundation, Scott Zarrow had also served on the boards of the Tulsa Housing Authority, Hillcrest HealthCare System and the Morningside Foundation.
Ruth Nelson, with whom Zarrow shared many of the same causes, served with him on the Housing Authority board for more than six years after first teaming with him on a Tulsa Transit sub-committee.
"That early interaction (on Tulsa Transit) convinced me that because of his dedication, intelligence, judgment and sense of humor, Scott was a treasure to be sought for any board or cause I cared about," Nelson said.
With THA, he lived up to all of that, she added.
Whether as a frontline warrior or as an attorney plowing through HUD regulations, Zarrow gave his full attention and thorough vetting to every problem or issue before him, she said.
Nelson added: And "even in the darkest hours, he always found the humor in things."
To Tulsa's Jewish community, Zarrow was a patron almost without peer.
He was former president of Congregation B'nai Emunah and the Tulsa Jewish Retirement Center and was a founding board member of the center-affiliated Miller Hospice.
In 2000, he led efforts to restore the synagogue at Peoria Avenue and 17th Street and more recently chaired a similar project for the retirement center.
Scott Zarrow was preceded in death by his father, Jack Zarrow.
Survivors include his wife, Hilary Zarrow; two daughters, Alison Zarrow and Rachel Zarrow; his mother, Maxine Zarrow; and two sisters, Gail Richards and her husband, Kip, and Kathy Zarrow.
Memorial contributions may go to Congregation B'nai Emunah in Tulsa or to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for colon cancer DNA marker research.
Original Print Headline: Zarrow son carried on family's philanthropy
Tim Stanley 918-581-8385
tim.stanley@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Scott Foreman Zarrow: The son of late Tulsa oil executive and philanthropist Jack Zarrow, Scott Zarrow was not only a trustee of the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation and the Zarrow Families Foundations, but also served on the boards of the Tulsa Housing Authority, Hillcrest HealthCare System and the Morningside Foundation.
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