Scott Steven Ulmer

Scott Steven Ulmer passed away in hospice care at home in Atlanta in the early hours of December 29th, 2025 one month shy of his 73rd birthday after a year-long battle with cancer. Sadly, his wife, Alberta Dean Ulmer is also in hospice care nearby with Lewy Body Dementia, but they were able to share a Thanksgiving dinner and then a final goodbye at Scott’s bedside a few days before he died. Scott and Alberta both attended New Providence High School in New Jersey where they dated, sang and performed together in numerous musicals, but their lives would then take separate paths until a fortuitous 20th reunion when they would rekindle their love and marry. Scott inherited his stage and musical talents from his parents, Janet Lees Ulmer and Kenneth Marvin Ulmer respectively. He was an accomplished pianist and organist at an early age and was able to play one of he largest organs in the world in the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, New Jersey where his family summered for generations. Scott taught himself to play drums and guitar, but there was no instrument he could not master in short order, and he took every opportunity to perform. While attending Yale University he studied voice, which led to him being a featured soloist in the European premier of Leonard Bernstein's MASS in Vienna in 1973. He also sang in the chorus of the off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs along with then-unknowns Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep. After moving to New York City, Scott worked for a decade playing bass guitar for the Steven Scott Orchestras in some of the most notable venues in town, including The Plaza, The Pierre, and The Rainbow Room. Scott had learned to program computers in high school leading to a 38-year “day job” in IT paying out royalties to musicians at BMI and making sure that the plywood and toilet paper were secure at Georgia Pacific, but in his retirement he re-discovered his passion for jazz and dedicated himself to becoming the best musician he could be, performing regularly in the Atlanta area. And he loved every minute of it to the very end!

Scott’s older brother, Kevin, will continue to look after Alberta and can be reached at: kmulmer@comcast.net

Donations in Scott’s memory may be made to the Jazz Foundation of America, 247 West 37th Street, Suite 201, New York, NY 10018 (https://jazzfoundation.org/donate/).