 In 1949, Scales married his wife Mary, a teacher who would become the first black faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University, and later the first African-American woman elected to the City School Board and City Council in Murfreesboro.Following his death on October 30, 2000, Robert Winston "Tee-Niny" Scales was honored by a joint resolution of 102nd Session of the houses of the Tennessee legislature.His daughter, Madelyn Scales Harris, was elected to the Murfreesboro City Council in 2010.