McLean County pathologist Denton receives award for work

“This is not about me … it’s about all of you, everyone I worked with,” said Denton, who has 28 years of experience in autopsy work and pathology. “Everyone who uses the McLean County facility, thank you for letting me do what I really enjoy doing, morbid as it sounds.”

Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donation Network presented Denton with a Life Saving Partner Award during the network’s Coroner Collaborative event at Rob Dob’s Restaurant & Bar, 801 N. Hershey Road, where other coroners and medical examiners from across Central Illinois were in attendance.

Denton — who first provided a presentation on interesting cases and support for organ, eye and tissue donation — said he was bit speechless upon receiving the award, since he did not expect it and thought he had just been invited to educate people and share his experiences.

“Dr. Denton has been a valuable partner to give Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donation Network his unwavering support for organ and tissue donation, aligned with a special position that a death investigation and donation can coexist simultaneously,” said Debbie DeVito, supervisor of partner relations at Gift of Hope. “His dedication to speak for the decedent and advocating for donation speaks volumes about his commitment to public service.”

Gift of Hope coordinates the organ tissue and donation process and provides education about the importance of organ and tissue donation throughout Illinois and northwest Indiana, said Barb Dolan, manager of partner relations. She added that Denton has had an impact on many people, from law enforcement officials to coroners, and always offers his time to help with a case.

“He teaches people who are new to the situation so that they know how we can all work together, because the goal is to serve the community,” Dolan said. “We’re all serving the community, and we should be doing it together.”

Denton serves on the Southern Illinois Child Death Investigation Task Force, a multidisciplinary team that responds to calls in 38 Illinois counties, and has been actively involved in the Illinois Training Board.

After completing his residency in pathology at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Tucson, Denton said he got his start at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in 1996. In 1998, he also began covering one weekend a month at the McLean County Coroner’s Office, and in 2007 he moved to Bloomington to work at that office full time.

Denton said at first, he expected to be doing autopsies only for McLean County, but he soon realized he would be helping surrounding counties as well, including Peoria, Champaign, Woodford, Tazewell, Livingston, DeWitt, Logan, Macon, Marshall and Ford, to name a few.

Over the years, he said, he’s been able to take a step back, as Peoria County has hired its own forensic pathologist and Champaign County is looking to hire one, but he still takes autopsy cases for areas that do not have the resources to handle them on their own.

“Morgues are very special places, so there are not very many of them, and there are really just regional morgues,” Denton said. “The main regional morgues are in McLean (County), Peoria, Champaign and Springfield, and the closest one after that is in Joliet, so that’s why coroners have to pick up other autopsies.”

Denton said one of the most notable cases that he worked, and still looks back on, is when he helped with the autopsy of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi in 1955, and whose death was one of many that galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

Denton said the autopsy, performed in 2005 at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, had a profound effect on him because he grew up in Arizona, where Emmett Till was not taught in school.

“I learned very quickly the significance of what I was getting involved in and what I was doing,” Denton said. “So when people mention Emmett Till, I know exactly who they are talking about.” 

Scott’s wife, Kristen Denton, said her husband is on call 24/7 all year long. And with a shortage of forensic pathologists in the country, he is always willing to sacrifice his time to help others, she said.

“Scott is very dedicated to his profession, which is all about finding out the truth, and that’s always his focus, is to find out the truth of what happened,” Kristen Denton said. “If he can help along the way, like with organ donation, then he’s always excited to help save a life.”

McLean County Coroner Kathy Yoder said Denton is one of the best people to work with, and through coordinating tissue donations, has been able to save lives in a profession that deals so much with death.

“He’s absolutely one of the best; he gives voice to those that no longer have a voice,” Yoder said. “He does no harm as a forensic pathologist; he is an asset to the community.”

Denton said while forensic pathology is a practice of medicine that involves performing autopsies on those who have died, helping with tissue donation is a way he and others in the profession can help the living public.

“I try to always keep in mind that someone loses someone who is the most of important person of their life every day, and I get to be involved with that and try to help them understand what happened and go through the whole grieving process,” Denton said.