Maybe the driving public of western Montana should thank long-time driver’s education teacher Scott Brown. After all, for over 25 years now Brown has been teaching the youth of Sanders County how to safely drive our highways, city streets and backroads, a definite benefit to all of us.

If you have been aware of it or not as you drive around western Montana, Mr. Brown has made driving in this area safer for everyone involved, drivers, passengers and other motorists, for many years now. Scott has actually trained generations of drivers by now, sisters and brothers who then became mothers and fathers, all taught by Mr. Brown.

It’s clearly time that he was recognized and honored for his service.

Taking care of that thank-you chore for us, the Montana Traffic Education Association has in a very public way thanked Brown, awarding the long-time Hot Springs and Plains teacher and driving instructor the Outstanding Traffic Educator of the Year honor for 2026 in Montana.

Brown was honored at the MTEA annual conference banquet at the Heritage Inn in Great Falls April 26, and was gifted a beautifully framed, large Glacier Park wildflower and mountain photo by the association’s executive director Jim Carroll during the ceremony.

In his acceptance speech, Brown thanked his dedicated driver’s education associate Gena Farlan, whom he has worked with for many years, and his wife Lisa. Scott and Gena have served as presenters at the conference banquet for several years taking on that duty for the organization as well.

During his remarks, Scott joked that members may want to look for some new blood in the driver’s ed field, encouraging the younger driver's ed teachers to keep recruiting because most right now have a lot of gray hair.

None of which was caused by the job of teaching teenagers to drive, by the way.

Although now fixtures in the Plains/Hot Springs area, Mr. and Mrs. Brown both actually grew up in Thompson Falls and are proud graduates of TFHS. Scott retired from classroom teaching in Hot Springs several years ago and Lisa remains on staff at Plains, having taught there for many years.

Scott, who has built a Montana teaching career spanning over four and a half decades, starting out in Richey for a few years and then finding his way back into this area, was nominated for his award by Steffani Grogan, who is on the state MTEA board, and teaches driver's ed at MSU Northern College in Havre.