Obituary: John Ellsworth Kenfield

John Ellsworth Kenfield of Prescott, Arizona, formerly of Bemidji, Minnesota, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at age 83.

John was born in March 1939 in Bemidji, Minnesota, to Kenneth and Valerie (Doran) Kenfield. He spent his youth in Bemidji, before attending college at UCLA and graduating from the University of Minnesota. John spent three years in the U.S. Army, stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco, learning computer programming. He worked for over 33 years in various roles within Manufacturing Information Systems for Varian Systems, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the Hewlett Packard Company in Silicon Valley, Santa Rosa, California and Portland, Maine. John retired in 1998 and moved to Prescott, Arizona. He spent seven years there as a volunteer small business counselor with SCORE. During work and in retirement John greatly enjoyed travels to Great Britain, Scotland, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and China. John’s interests included woodworking, photography, gardening, hunting, cooking, train rides, and sports cars, especially Ferraris. He is survived by his daughters, Kirsten Kenfield of Prescott Valley, Arizona, and Nichole (Gordon) Horiye of Spring, Texas; an extended family of three step-children, Julie (Kurt) Karns, Greg Sandman, and Kristen Sandman; six step-grandchildren and one step-great-grandchild. John was preceded in death by his loving wife Jan. The family has chosen to mourn privately at this time. For those who wish to offer condolences, in lieu of flowers the family would ask that a donation be made in his honor to the American Cancer Society or the Shriners Hospitals for Children. Arrangements entrusted to Ruffner-Wakelin Funeral Homes and Crematory.

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Information provided by the funeral home.