Richard Alan Schofield

Richard Alan Schofield, 60, of Ellicott City, passed away on January 5th, 2021 after a courageous battle with mucosal melanoma. Rick was “one of a kind” and the most amazing son, husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend. His smile lit up a room.   He was “the funny guy”, the positive light, a constant learner, and a patient teacher.  Rick was “out of the box” creative and always thinking up something others would never think to do, making everyone want to be around him.  Rick believed in being curious and just doing things, loved going to new events/experiences such as geocaching, demolition derbies, NASCAR,  visiting the highest point in a state, and monster truck rallies. Rick had a lot of unique talents- motorcyclist, unicycle rider,  juggler & limbo contest winner.

Rick was born on January 27th, 1960 to his amazing parents, Russell and Marion in Westwood NJ. Rick loved tinkering and fixing things from an early age, this led him naturally to a career as an engineer and a resource for anyone trying to fix something or figure out how anything worked. After graduating from Northern Highlands High School in Allendale NJ, he went on to study Electrical Engineering at Rutgers and later completed an MS at Johns Hopkins University. After graduating from Rutgers, he landed his first job as an Electrical Engineer at Westinghouse Electric Corp, kicking off a 37-year career with part-time radar systems and part-time world traveler to places like Greece, Peru, Honduras, UAE, Taiwan, Rwanda, and many more.   Rick enjoyed traveling for the company internationally and had many stories of traveling to different cultures, negotiating internationally, and working with customers.  Rick was always the mentor, storyteller, the problem solver and bought levity to any challenging work project.

In 1982,  Rick met Ann Sullivan Schofield on his first day of work, and they married in 1990.  Rick and Ann, went on to have 3 extraordinary children, Katie, Kelly, and Danny.  You can see the incredible father Rick was in his children and how they learned adventure and positivity from Rick.   His wife and children were by his side in his 2020 battle with cancer and their love and strength brought light to Rick’s world.  Katie, Kelly, and Danny did anything and everything for their dad and mom.   Rick constantly shared with Ann “wow, how did we raise these amazing people.”  Rick was really proud of all 3 children for many reasons, including riding 4,000 miles across the USA for cancer on their bikes and their fearlessness and ability to solve problems on the bike ride across the country and in life.

Rick loved the outdoors and spent his time skiing, sailing, motorcycling, running, and triathlons.  He owned a house at Deep Creek Lake between 2003 and 2018 and he taught his kids to all drive a boat and water ski/tube. Rick loved the outdoor adventure lifestyle at Deep Creek and enjoyed sharing Deep Creek with friends and family.

From 2004 on, Rick was a member of the MidMaryland Triathlon club and completed over 100 running/triathlon events.   Rick completed  11 Savage man triathlons from 2007 - 2019, one of only 2 people to bicycle up the Savageman  >30% grade Westernport wall for 11 years in a row.  His last year of Savage man was the most impressive, as he completed Savage man while battling mucosal melanoma.  Rick had many impressive races, including running up over 1500 steps in the Empire State Building in 14 minutes, qualifying as an elite stair climber; qualifying and competing in the half ironman championships; completing the Lake Placid Ironman; winning the local Turkey Trot prediction run; 1st place in his age group at the Dewey Goes Pink 5K, and running up the Chicago Hancock tower in a Spiderman costume.

Rick is survived by his wife Ann and daughters, Katie, Kelly, and son, Danny; parents Marion and Russell Schofield, his sisters Patricia Abscal and Susan Hains. Rick was predeceased by his brother, Tom Schofield.  He is survived by his sister’s in law, DeAnn Schofield, Kathleen Warnken (William Warnken), Maureen  Jarvis (Todd Jarvis), Kim Sullivan (Joe Sullivan) and Karen Sullivan (John Sullivan)  and by his brother’s in law, John Sullivan (Karen Sullivan), Joseph Sullivan (Kim Sullivan), Brian Eaton (Sue Hains), Bill Warnken (Kathy Warnken) and Todd Jarvis (Maureen Jarvis).  He is survived by his 18 nephews and nieces, Trevor & Colin Hains, Scott, Joe & Eva Schofield, Steve, David, Michele & Kristin Abascal; BJ & Julia Warnken, Elizabeth &Timothy Jarvis; Patrick, Jeff & David Sullivan, Matt & Jack Sullivan.

The family would like to thank Dr. Sharfman, the Hopkins Oncology Team, and the Gilchrist Hospice Center for their genuine care and support.  Donations may be made in Rick’s memory to the Melanoma Research Foundation or Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.

To look back on Rick’s journey and his humor throughout, Rick created a blog https://howsrickdoing.wordpress.com/.   

Memories  & stories are being collected on a Kudoboard. 

Photos are being collected on: Google Photos 

Rick’s funeral service will be held at 10 AM on January 16th  at the Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City, MD.   There will be a livestream of the funeral on the Church of the Resurrection Facebook Page.

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