| abstract | - William Scully spent the better part of his life at sea. According to his daughter, Dana, he had a healthy respect for the ocean but never feared it. (TXF: "Død Kalm") His ship was involved in the Cuban Blockade. When his vessel returned to port, the song "Beyond the Sea" was playing. He marched right off up to the woman who would ultimately become his wife and proposed to her. After Margaret Scully recounted this story to Dana in early 1994, Dana later stated that the same song had been playing at the wedding in which William Scully had married Margaret. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea") When Dana was young, William Scully repeatedly read to her from Moby Dick. (TXF: "Quagmire") He called her "Starbuck" and she would refer to him as "Ahab", a routine they kept even up to his death in early 1994. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea", "One Breath", "Quagmire") The same tradition would later influence Scully to name a pet dog she had in 1995 and 1996 as "Queequeg." (TXF: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "Quagmire") Every year, William Scully would insist on putting the angel on top of the family Christmas tree, himself. (TXF: "Christmas Carol") He routinely made Dana and one or more of his other children take the tree down, on the day immediately after Christmas. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea") In her childhood, he would put together World War II model planes with his sons, an activity that was watched by Dana on several occasions. (TXF: "Piper Maru") When she was fourteen or about thirteen, Dana developed a guilty habit in which she would sneak out of her parents' house and smoke her mother's cigarettes because she knew that, if her father found out, he would "kill" her. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea", "Never Again") In "Beyond the Sea", this is said to have been a single event when Dana was fourteen but, in "Never Again", she claims it was a habit she developed when she was "thirteen or so". Dana's father was stationed in San Diego when she was thirteen. (TXF: "Orison") By the time she was fourteen, William Scully and his family were living in a house that had at least two floors and a porch. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea") While the Scully family were living at Miramar Naval Air Station, William was a friend of Commander Christopher Johansen who, together with his son, also lived on the base, three doors away from the Scullys' residence. (TXF: "Piper Maru") One autumn when Dana's brothers were showing her how to use a B.B. gun they had given her for her birthday, William Scully told the children only to shoot tin cans, at least one of which he himself placed down on a log, but the youngsters instead began shooting at a garter snake, causing it to bleed and eventually die. (TXF: "One Breath") William Scully always told Dana to respect nature, because it had no respect for her. (TXF: "Quagmire") He also told her that, during World War II, Navajo was the only code the Japanese had failed to break. (TXF: "Anasazi") Along with his wife, he wanted Dana to choose medicine as a career. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea") When she was instead recruited out of medical school by the FBI, her parents thought it was an act of rebellion, an opinion they would hold until at least March 1992. (TXF: "Pilot") One night at Christmas, shortly prior to attending Quantico, Dana had a conversation with her sister, Melissa, in which she noted she could tell that their father certainly thought she was making a big mistake. Her sister, however, assured Dana that her life was her own and not her father's. (TXF: "Christmas Carol") William Scully ultimately didn't approve of Dana becoming an FBI agent and both he as well as his wife were disappointed in Dana's career choices. The scene in which Dana and Melissa discuss Quantico and mention their father is apparently shown in the form of a dream. The setting of the discussion and the actual conversation itself may therefore differ from historical events, if the discussion did even take place in the reality of the characters. In early 1994, William Scully visited Dana at her apartment with his wife, Margaret. At one point, he inspected an angel atop a Christmas tree that Dana still had up and asked if she was intending on leaving the tree standing all year. After Dana replied positively and added that she was "making up for lost time" following his routine of making his children take their Christmas tree down on the day after Christmas, William Scully commented that, if her concept of a good time was to pick up dried pine needles, she should "treat yourself" but Margaret Scully teasingly implied that she didn't believe he was an authority on having a good time, a comment he took in good humor. William Scully then made it clear to his wife that it was time for them leave, by stating, "Let's shove off," and Margaret consequently prepared to leave. William and Dana then said their goodbyes and, as he hugged his daughter, his wife gave him a prompting look, inspiring him to ask Dana, after their hug ended, how her work was and whether it was going well. After his daughter agreed that it was good, William Scully walked away with a smile on his face, to put on a coat and hat by the door as Dana told him and his wife to drive home carefully. He then followed his wife out of the apartment, with Scully lovingly wishing him "goodnight" as he left. At around 12:47 a.m. the next morning, William Scully died of a massive coronary. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea")
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