With profound gratitude for the life he shared with us, with deep sorrow at his passing, the family of John Francis Scoles informs of his death on August 14, 2023, at home in Fillmore, California.
John was born to George and Kathleen Donohue Scoles of Fillmore on June 30, 1941, in Oxnard, California. His parents and older sister, Barbara Scoles Agler, predeceased him.
John graduated from Fillmore High School Class of 1959, and from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1963. He played scholarship football at OSU for Coach Tommy Prothro and was on the team that played in the Liberty Bowl in 1963. John served in the US Army at the Presidio in San Francisco, and in Japan from 1966-1968.
John met Kelly Collins at McGeorge Law School in Sacramento, California, and they married in Sacramento on January 2, 1972, after his graduation, despite the fact that she had lost his Liberty Bowl watch somewhere in San Francisco.
He passed the Bar Exam and joined the office of Joseph P.D. Kern, and then Arthur Taylor for nearly 40 years in the practice of law in what eventually became Taylor, Scoles, and Bartels. John was fortunate in his many travels abroad for clients, and in his remarkable secretaries and law partners.
Their daughter, Mary Caitlin Scoles, was born in Ventura, California, in 1978, and was the light of her father’s life.
He is a former past president of the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce and Rotary International and was very pleased to be elected to the Fillmore High School Sports Hall of Fame and the OSU 1963 Team Hall of Fame.
Following a Mass of Christian Burial at Mission Santa Ines on September 13, John was inurned near his parents in the old Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard in his maternal ancestral home, the Santa Ynez Valley, as was his wish.
He is survived by his wife, Kelly Collins Scoles, daughter Caitlin (Marv Stainbrook), granddaughter Marin Eileen, nieces Anne Agler Mercer (Del) and Carolyn Agler Porter (Adam), and the large Collins family of in-laws, nieces, and nephews. May perpetual light shine upon him.