Duncan Wentworth Schofield
November 3, 1944 - July 12, 2023
Obituary
With great sadness the Schofield family announces the death of our patriarch, Duncan Wentworth Schofield. Duncan was born November 3, 1944 in Bangor, Maine to Dorcas Grace (née Jewel) and Wentworth Henry Schofield. He lived with his mother and grandmother until his father returned in 1946 from the Philippines where he served in the Pacific Theater during World War Two as an army captain. In 1955, the family moved to the Woodside Avenue neighborhood outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after his father began a new job there. He attended George Washington Junior High, then Ridgefield High School. He was an active Boy Scout and participated in summer jamborees for four years. In 1961 and 1962 he made summer money working as a kitchen boy for youth camps in New Hampshire, and during the summers of 1963 and 1964 he was a camp counselor at Camp Agawam.
In 1963, Duncan entered Pennsylvania State University and joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity where he eventually became fraternity president. He was a lifelong member of SAE, and in his later years reconnected with many of his fraternity brothers. In 1967 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Before he left Penn State, he was hired by Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Duncan would be working in aerospace acoustics within a few short months.
Following college graduation, Duncan and a close friend undertook a cross country trip in his new Ford Mustang. They stopped in Cleveland, OH, Rockford, IL, Little Falls, MN, Miles City, MT, Spokane, WA, and finally on to Seattle. The next day they stopped by a burger joint named Biff’s in Renton, and with the stars aligned over fries and twenty-five cent burgers, he met the love of his life, Nancy Bristol.
Nancy and a coworker were manning the counter when Duncan and his friend walked in for a quick dinner. Business was slow, and the pretty young women had little to do but wipe the counters and refill ketchup and mustard bottles. The ladies were bored, so they decided to throw ice chips at the young men as they entered the establishment. Nancy caught Duncan’s interest, and soon thereafter he asked her out. Three months later they were engaged to be married. They purchased their first house in Renton in 1969 where their children, Geoffrey Wentworth and Megan Elizabeth, were born. In 1976 they relocated to a house in what would soon become the town of Bellevue. Duncan and Nancy were married for fifty-five years.
Duncan worked for Boeing from 1967 until 1983. He then took a position in the Sundstrand Data Control Company where he designed flight recorders. In 1992 the company was purchased by Allied Signal, and then Honeywell in 1994. He retired in 2010. He spent his retirement traveling and visiting with his grandchildren.
Duncan Wentworth Schofield passed away surrounded by his family following a brief illness on July 12, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, his children, Geoffrey and Megan, his son-in-law and daughter-in- law, Brady and Katy, and his five grandchildren: Jack, Abigail, Jameson, Lucy, and Morghan.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to the ASPCA in Duncan’s name.
