Born in
Newton, Kansas, Scrivner attended grade schools and was graduated from Manual Training High School,
Kansas City, Missouri. In July 1917, during
World War I, he enlisted in Battery B of the
One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Field Artillery; he served overseas in 1918 and 1919. He was awarded the
Silver Star and
Purple Heart Medals. After promotion from the rank of private first class, he left military service as a
first lieutenant. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1958 to the
Eighty-sixth Congress, largely due to his request for a vote for appropriations to continue construction on the controversial and wildly unpopular Tuttle Creek Dam along the Big Blue River. President Eisenhower had specifically chosen to leave out funding for the continuation of the dam, but Scrivner's insistence led to the displacement of thousands of families and the flooding of some of America's best crop land. He served as special assistant to the comptroller,
Department of Defense,
Washington, D.C., from January 1959 to March 1960. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Public Affairs, from March 7, 1960, to January 20, 1961. He was City commissioner in 1970 in
Cocoa Beach, Florida, where he resided until his death on May 5, 1978. He was cremated and entombed in Florida. In 1984, his remains were reinterred in the niches at
Arlington National Cemetery. ==Personal==