Mayfair man who died in 2014 was Trump bodyguard for three years
J. Scott Cummings, who played football at Father Judge, also once guarded Henry Kissinger and Michael Jackson, his ex-wife said.
IT WAS the early 1990s, and a regular guy from Mayfair who had played football for Father Judge High School was now rubbing shoulders daily with Donald Trump.
J. Scott Cummings had been working security for a chain of discount department stores when a friend told him that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was looking for someone for his security detail, his ex-wife said.
Cummings was guarding Kissinger at a speaking engagement at the Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City when Trump's people were recruiting, and thus began a three-year position as one of Trump's bodyguards.
Cummings worked alongside the real estate mogul from 1990 to 1993, his ex-wife said.
"Scott always said [Trump] would make a great president," said Vicki Cummings, 48, of Lake Mary, Fla., to whom Scott was married for 21 years.
After his stint with Trump, Cummings was president of the Mayfair Civic Association for six years and served on the 15th District Police Advisory Council, his ex-wife said.
Cummings died in October 2014 at age 53 from health complications.
In 1992, Trump and Marla Maples were in Stone Harbor, N.J., for the wedding of Vicki and Scott Cummings, and Vicki and Scott were guests at the Trump-Maples wedding in December 1993 at the Plaza Hotel in New York, Vicki said.
Vicki Cummings was pregnant with their second child, son Cody, when Maples was carrying Trump's daughter Tiffany. They talked about being moms, she said, and Maples even gave Vicki baby blankets and other gifts.
Scott, who was also a bodyguard for Michael Jackson, had been working on a book about guarding celebrities, his ex-wife said.
In it, she said, he wrote that Trump "always made it a point to speak to the highest executives as well as the entry-level employees for their views. This is why he has proven to be so successful."
Joe DeFelice, president of the Mayfair Civic Association and a Cummings friend, said Scott had a "larger-than-life" personality and clearly had taken advice from Trump.
"Scott a lot of times would make you feel like you were the most important person in the room," DeFelice said.
When they met recently in New York, DeFelice said, Trump recalled Cummings as " 'a great guy, a real great guy.' "
Cummings left the bodyguard racket after the travel became too hectic, his ex-wife said, and became director of security for Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, now the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel.
Vicki Cummings said her ex-husband likely would be "glued" to the presidential race.
"It is heartbreaking knowing that he's not here to see it," she said.
Trump's press secretary, Hope Hicks, declined to comment about Cummings.
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