Scot William Byars

July 9, 1959 – December 10, 2022

Scot William Byars was born at Alta Bates
Hospital in Berkeley, California to Charles
and Laura Byars. Raised in one unit of an
Albany four-plex built by his father, Scot
was a handful from an early age.

He became a square dancer and caller because
his mother needed inexpensive babysitting.
When he was six, Laura discovered she could
leave him every Friday evening at a pre-teen
square dance club for only fifty cents.
Soon, he performed with the Spotlighters
exhibition team, learning to clog and round
dance, then studied to be a square dance caller.

By the time he was 11 he was calling for
one square dance club, then another. In
high school, he used his classically-
trained singing voice in a number of
musical productions. Although Scot dreamed
of singing and dancing on stage, his mother
discouraged it as an unreliable source of
income. This led Scot to study computer
science and math which--along with dance,
his personal rebellion against his mother’s
disdain for show business--was his double
major in college. He also took up martial
arts and earned a brown belt in White Tiger
kung fu.

Scot married his first wife, Linda, in the
late 70s and had two beautiful daughters,
Crystal and Teresa. He left college to work
as lead computer programmer at a records
management company while continuing to call
square dances in the evening. During this
time, he seized the opportunity to create
some of the machine-level coding for the
Apple Lisa, the predecessor to the Macintosh.

Scot and Linda eventually went their
separate ways. At the California State
Singles Square Dance Convention in 1985 in
Roseville, California Scot met Erin
Holloway and they soon became inseparable,
later marrying in Mendocino, California on
July 5, 1986.

After 12 years spent in Southern California,
in 2000 a job offer from Northwestern Technical
College gave Scot and Erin the opportunity
to return to Sacramento, made sweeter by
Scot’s being awarded Teacher of the Year
during his first year. 

Three years later, NTC moved their computer
classes to evenings, which forced a choice
upon Scot: teach or call? His answer was to
begin calling full time. Chauffeured by Erin,
Scot called at state conventions, regional
festivals, premiere weekends, and square/
round dance cruises. At his peak, Scot was
calling for many clubs in and around the
Sacramento Valley Area, including Sun City
Dancers, Lincoln Hills; Diamond Dancers,
Galt; Calaveras Twirlers, San Andreas;
Grand Squares, Rio Vista; Main Street
Strollers, Placerville; Vaca Valley
Ramblers, Vacaville.

As much as he loved calling and teaching
square dancing, Scot loved teaching and
mentoring newer callers. One of Scot’s
proudest achievements in square dancing--which
took many years--was attaining the difficult
certification of CALLERLAB Accredited
Caller Coach. He was an enthusiastic and
patient teacher at many caller schools,
some of them his own, some run by other callers.

Scot was also an early pioneer of “Blast
Classes”, where a given level of square
dancing was taught over one or two weekends.
Scot was one of the first straight callers
to call and teach for IAGSDC clubs
(including Capital City Squares, Sacramento;
Tinseltown Squares, Hollywood; and Boots in
Squares, Palm Springs) and fly-ins, and was
a strong supporter of the Gay Callers
Association, working to integrate the LGBTQ
calling and dancing community into the larger
square dance community to keep the activity
strong and healthy.

Scot gladly accepted any opportunity to call
for young people, whether it was coaching
the exhibition group Goldrush, which he
shared with Erin, or introducing hundreds
of third graders (over the course of five
non-stop hours) to dancing at an AgVenture.

In early 2021, Scot suffered several strokes.
His health declined rapidly after that. He
passed very peacefully on December 10, 2022,
with Erin holding his hand.

He is survived by his wife, Erin and her
large, loving family; his daughter Crystal
(Michael) Reude and their children Joseph,
Caleb, and Mackensie; daughter Teresa
(Mike) Spears and their children Christopher,
Elizabeth and Jacob; brother Charles “Chuck”
(Michelle) Byars, niece Angela Byars; niece
Melissa (Patrick) Maloney, their children
and grandchildren.