Scott Douglas Mertens

Scott Douglas Mertens was born on May 31st, 1955, to Don and June Mertens of St Paul, Minnesota. After a brief and unexpected illness, Scott passed away on Tuesday, November 28th at the young age of 68 years. Scott was the second eldest of 5 boys and is survived by his wife Jude, his daughter Becky and his brothers Dennis, Tad, Mike, and Tim along with many uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews and his extended family in New Zealand, who loved him unconditionally as the “brother from another mother”.

At the age of 18, Scott was married briefly to his high school sweetheart and became a father to Becky at the age of 21. He and Becky reconnected for the first time in the late 90’s and in recent years enjoyed many hours catching up on lost time.

Scott became a professional driver in his 20’s and worked for Airport Services and Fun Bus that ran tours from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. In his mid-20’s he became a tour driver for Contiki Tours. It was there in 1983 that he met Jude, when she boarded his tour bus for a six-week camping tour of the southern states. Their attraction was immediate and at the conclusion of the tour, Jude remained in the U.S. trading her onward Concorde ticket to London with a fellow passenger in exchange for a ticket that would allow her to continue with Scott’s tour for the return trip to Los Angeles. Their relationship deepened and in 1984 they were married in Las Vegas, with Jude’s parents as their witnesses.

Scott and Jude spent 41 years together and during their married life, one or other of their careers took them to various cities throughout the west coast and as far afield as the Rockies. They also spent extended time in the mid-80’s in Jude’s homeland of New Zealand, where Scott worked as a heavy earthmoving equipment operator.

In his mid-40s Scott went back to school and gained a bachelor’s degree in information technology, specializing in Network Engineering and Telecom, gaining an MCSE from Microsoft and CCNA from Cisco.

In 2012 he was involved in a critical motorcycle accident, as he was forced to take evasive action to avoid hitting a young child who ran out onto the road in front of his 1000lb motorcycle. He saved the life of that child at the risk of his own. As a result, Scott suffered substantial injuries and throughout his long recovery, he was surrounded and supported by Jude and his Harley Davidson family.

Scott retired early from Aetna in 2017, with Jude retiring two years later. In the 5 years prior to full retirement, they traveled together throughout the country, initially in their 45’ toy-hauler with their two motorcycles on board, and later in their 40’ motorhome. After retirement, they purchased a travel trailer and together he and Jude continued their travels.

Scott excelled at most sports and always wanted to be the best at whatever he tried. However, when it came to golf, his NZ family would tease him about the trouble he had counting his strokes! In 2018 he joined the International Defensive Pistol Association, training as a competitive shooter focused on defensive tactics with carry gear.

Scott’s ultimate passion was for anything on wheels, in particular for his motorcycles, where he loved the freedom of the wind on his face. He had nine bikes in his lifetime and introduced Jude to riding. Together they joined the HOG-76 chapter out of Chandler, Arizona where he served as Senior Road Captain.

Scott’s motorcycle skills were exceptional, and he became a member of the Arizona Precision Motorcycle Drill team and performed around the State and at Wing Ding in Casper Wyoming and at Westworld in Scottsdale Arizona. Scott was the first Harley Davidson rider to be accepted on an all-Gold Wing Precision Riding team. He became ‘bi-cycle’ and purchased a Goldwing, performing on both bikes, and later was accepted to an all-Harley Davidson Precision Motorcycle team. He also became a licensed motorcycle instructor and taught at a variety of motorcycle training schools and trained new recruits on motorcycles at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

Scott introduced Jude to his love of margaritas in 1983 and together they developed a lifelong pursuit to find the “perfect margarita”. Scott enjoyed his love of wine which was established during the time he lived in Roseville, California near the Napa Valley.

Scott always found time to support his local community. He was a member of the Boxer Rescue Foundation in both Denver and Phoenix for 20 years, rescuing medical dogs with acute needs. He also developed professional photography skills and provided services for weddings, portfolios for models, operated his own photo booth business and traveled internationally to photograph his love of the New Zealand landscape.

Following his retirement, Scott volunteered as a member of the Sun City Posse in Arizona for three years where he opened the organization up to the digital era, automating many processes, including their training curriculum. Scott joined the Surprise Fire and Medical Crisis Response team in 2023, just before his passing, and was thrilled to be able to assist those in need.

Scott was a true romantic, loved Jude with a fierce passion and always enjoyed sharing their love story of how they had met. His family both here and in New Zealand loved him dearly. He was a much-cherished friend of his extended Harley Davidson family and his new friends in Sun City, and both of those families remained by his side in his final days and hours.

Scott lived his life with passion and was always keen to try new experiences. His passing will be felt deeply by all who knew and loved him.

A celebration of Scott’s life will be held in the coming months and notification of this will be shared on this website.