Ex-Nevada legislator, Regent Jack Schofield dies at 91

Jack Lund Schofield, a former Nevada legislator and member of the state Board of Regents, died Friday, according to local officials.

Schofield, 91, had a list of accomplishments that included becoming the Golden Gloves welterweight boxing champion in 1941 and serving as a decorated pilot during World War II.

He leaves behind his wife, Alene, 94, and six children. He said in 2013 that he had 34 grandchildren and 59 great-grandchildren.

Sam Lieberman, who replaced Schofield as the regent for District 5, announced the news on Facebook on Saturday.

“Jack was a saint of a human being that cared passionately about our community,” Lieberman said. “He’ll be remembered as a great Nevadan and a great American.”

Schofield graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1941, enlisted in the Army in Salt Lake City in October 1942, was called to active duty in April 1943 and “put on the (pilot) wings” on June 27, 1944, in New Mexico.

In February 1945, the 14th Air Force Flying Tigers fighter planes under Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault were being integrated with new B-25H Mitchell bombers, a “wicked machine” with cannon for the pilot and .50-caliber machine guns for the crew.

Schofield’s assignment was to ferry one of the planes from South Carolina to South America, across the Atlantic to Africa and on to India and China. Then in a year’s span, he flew 44 missions, mostly in China.

Speaking to graduates at Henderson’s Veterans Court in 2013, Schofield shared vivid memories of flying “the Hump” in the China-Burma-India campaign. As he was leaving India for Kunming, China, he made a low, high-speed pass over the “crown of palaces” in Agra.

“I think I’m the only one in the world to buzz the Taj Mahal in a B-25,” he said.

After the war, Schofield studied at the University of Utah, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1949. His dedication to education led to his master’s degree at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1967, before earning his doctorate in education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Schofield taught at many local schools and has a Las Vegas middle school named for him. He was also an assemblyman and state senator in the 1970s.

“Jack was passionate about education and definitely a family man,” said Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a neighbor of Schofield’s who ran for public office against him. “He stayed engaged in the community.”

Of all the things Schofield did in life, he said his biggest accomplishment wasn’t his teaching or political career or dodging anti-aircraft fire during World War II.

Instead, it was his family.

“My wife is the most genuine human being I’ve ever met,” Schofield told the Review-Journal in 2013.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.