OBITUARY

Stewart Scofield

Stewart Scofield, for nearly two decades a leading figure in an ambitious Sonoma County mission to provide groceries and succor to residents living with the AIDS virus, died April 19 at his Bodega Bay home.

Scofield was a bright star whose talents included his UC Berkeley-taught organizational skills, wit, writing ability and a very good ear for listening. He was 60.

The senior staffer at the Forestville-based Food for Thought/Sonoma County Aids Food Bank, Scofield was at home when he collapsed and died. Family members and friends suspect a heart attack but await the findings of an autopsy.

Scofield lived for many years with AIDS and held the disease in check through medication. Thousands of people who didn't know his name might remember him as the most animated bearer of the giant rainbow flag that he and legions of his helpers carried from 1991 to 2006 in the Sonoma County and San Francisco gay pride parades.

The Food for Thought food bank was two years old and struggling to meet the needs of low-income AIDS patients when Scofield walked in the door in the summer of 1991, looked around and announced he would like to help.

He began as a volunteer and soon moved up to food-drive director. He was still the agency's volunteer director at the time of his death.

"I would say we have one of the finest volunteer programs in Sonoma County," said Ron Karp, executive director of Food for Thought. "Stewart built it up from a handful of people to a program with more than 500 volunteers who put in more than 20,000 hours a year."

Scofield, a native of Gary, Ind., earned a psychology degree from Iowa's Grinnell College in 1970. It was while at Grinnell that he first became active in the gay and lesbian community.

He moved to California in the mid-70s and in 1979 received a master's degree in library science from UC Berkeley. From 1980 until 1992, he and his first partner, Don Maharg, operated City Terrace Landscapes and Gardens, which longtime friend Joe Arcangelini of Sebastopol described as "a small landscaping business specializing in delightful small back yards in San Francisco."

For a time in the mid-80s, Scofield also managed San Francisco's Grubstake II, what he called "a small but crazy 24-hour gay restaurant."

Scofield and Maharg lived in Bodega Bay when Maharg died. Not long after Maharg's death, Scofield paid a visit to Food for Thought and asked if he could help get food to people struggling with AIDS.

In 1991, co-founder Betsy Van Dyke was the director of what was then an all-volunteer, overwhelmed food bank.

"We were responding to an incredible crisis," she said. She regarded Scofield as a godsend.

Van Dyke, a resident of Guerneville, said Scofield's amazing organizational skills were one of the first traits he revealed.

"He was a master's in library science, what can I tell you?" she said.

Scofield exercised his wit and compassion as editor of the food bank's newsletter, the Dish. Scofield also wrote and read his uninhibited poetry, and for many years penned a provocative column, "Off the Wall," for the former Sonoma County newspaper, We the People.

Friend Arcangelini said Scofield was proud to have had a major role in the 1994 project to bring the The Names quilt project to Santa Rosa.

In recent years, Stewart was an active volunteer with the Sonoma County CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocate, program and helped shepherd troubled young people through the legal system.

Stewart is survived by his partner, Patrick Ennis of Bodega Bay, and his brother, Peter Scofield of Vero Beach, Fla.

A celebration of his life will be at 1:30 p.m. May 25 at Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati. Hawaiian shirts are encouraged.

Stewart's family suggests donations to Food For Thought/Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, P.O. Box 1608, Forestville, 95436.

-- Chris Smith