Earning 10 cents for breaking up ice cream boxes seemed like a great payday for 10-year-old H. Scott Phelps, particularly when he spent his earnings on an ice cream of his choice.
Phelps, now president of the Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau, fondly recalls a six-day-stint working for the Good Humor ice cream man in South Lyme, Conn.
“I felt a sense of responsibility” said a reminiscent Phelps about his treat-seeking job. “I learned about consistency and how to enjoy what I did.”
His second paycheck led down another common childhood path of delivering newspapers and mowing lawns with a neighborhood friend, which kept him busy through his early teens.
Fast forward to his college years, and Phelps worked for Little Aetna during the early 1970s, organizing and distributing work orders throughout Hartford. It was a gig that would one day open doors to an unexpected career in tourism.
Phelps initially pursued a career in counseling, having graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in applied social relations. Later, he attended the University of Connecticut’s School of Graduate Social Work.
While taking classes at UConn, he worked as a part-time counselor at the Project to De-institutionalize the Status Offender.
“I would receive calls at all hours of the day to go to a juvenile center and work with kids to get them in a program outside of civil disobedience,” he said.
In addition, he reached out to local colleges and businesses to promote and develop a Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Windham County. It was during this time that Phelps discovered that he was knowledgeable about the region and well connected with the Hartford community. As a result, he was asked to be a city guide to the wives of the professional golfers participating in the Greater Hartford Open in 1977.
It was a turning point in his career: Phelps was now introducing visitors to Hartford as a tourist destination. “I wanted to help Hartford mature and grow as a convention destination,” recalled Phelps, who headed the convention bureau’s membership efforts.
“While at the GHCVB, I fell back on the skills I learned in counseling and got the opportunity to develop sales skills” he said.
In 1992, Phelps was named president of the GHCVB.
Going forward, he continues to strive to make Hartford a place where meeting planners can put their trust in and cement Connecticut’s Capital City as a successful business destination.
