James Ernest Schofield

   Cause of his death was cancer.

   Another name for James was Jay.

Boston Globe
Boston, Mass.
May 28, 1991

James E. Schofield, 71 Founded surveying company

James E. Schofield, cofounder of Schofield Brothers Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers in Framingham, died Sunday of cancer at his home in East Orleans. He was 71.

Mr. Schofield was born in Gaspereau, Nova Scotia, and moved to Weston in 1924. He graduated from Weston High School in 1937. In World War II, during which Mr. Schofield became a US citizen, he served with the Army Corps of Engineers in Europe.

In 1946, he helped form the Cape Cod Society of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors and served as director. Later, Mr. Schofield was a director of the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers. With three of his brothers, he formed the Schofield Brothers land surveying firm.

He was a member of the Eastham Volunteer Fire Department for 28 years and served as its Santa Claus for 19 Christmases. He was also a member of the Eastham School Committee for nine years and a past commander of American Legion Post 308 in Orleans.

Mr. Schofield loved music. He was the drum sergeant and a charter member of the Highland Light Scottish Bagpipe Band, serving as both a piper and a drummer, and was on the board of directors of the Highlanders Inc., another group devoted to Scottish music. He also played string bass in Boston and Cape Cod orchestras and was a well-known square-dance caller in the 1950s and '60s.

He leaves his wife, Marilyn (Chace); five children, Jay E. of Vineyard Haven, Bruce A. and Jeffrey L. Peters of Eastham, and Pamela J. and Bion Peters of Orleans; a brother, Brenton V. of Milford; a sister, Ruth Smith of Framingham and nine grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Thursday at 3 p.m. in the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Brewster.

  Events

• He worked as an assistant caretaker at a private college.

• He appeared on the census in 1930 at 229 Ash Street in Weston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He lived in the household of his parents.

• He appeared on the census in 1940 at 19 Saunders Street in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He lived with his wife in the household of his in-laws.

James married Geneva Alice Sawin, daughter of Frank Eliot Sawin and Geneva Maud Freese, 21 August 1939 in Maine ¹⁰⁵⁹⁸.^,10599 The marriage ended in divorce in 1969. (Geneva Alice Sawin was born 19 December 1918 in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts ¹⁰⁶⁰⁰ and died 17 November 1993 in Falmouth, Barnstable County, Massachusetts ¹⁰⁶⁰¹.)