Jean Paul Schwarzkopf

Jean Paul Schwarzkopf passed away at home in his sleep on Sunday, September 14, 2025 after a brief illness. Born on January 23, 1946, in Auburn, NY, he was the eldest son of Donald F. Schwarzkopf and Dorothy Marie Schwarzkopf and had six brothers and two sisters. On November 5, 2005, he married "the love of his life" Roxanna Celia Garcia..

Jean graduated from Wilson High School, Wilson, New York, in 1964. He then attended Texas Western College (now UTEP) in El Paso where he studied Electrical Engineering. Following in his parents' military footsteps, Jean joined the US Navy as a reservist in February 1964 and served aboard the USS Arlington during the Vietnam Conflict. After active duty, he returned as a reservist until he was honorably discharged in February 1970. (His mother served as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army after receiving her nursing degree. His father retired a Major in the US Army.)

Before reporting to active duty for the US Navy and while attending Texas Western, Jean was employed with the IBM Office Products Division in El Paso as a Customer Engineer, a position that utilized his electrical, electronics and communications skills.. This benefitted him greatly when he reported to a ship with 1,000 other radiomen. He hung around a door labeled "computer room" until one day it opened and low and behold he found himself in front of a machine he's been trained on by IBM. From that day forward, the captain of the ship had Jean in charge of the ship's computer. After leaving active duty, Jean briefly worked at the Simpson Ranch in New Mexico as a cattle hand until he returned to El Paso and IBM a few months later. Jean left IBM in 1979.

There was never a hobby that Jean did not like. He was a motorcycling enthusiast and began his yearly attendance at the Golden Aspen Motorcycle Rally in Ruidoso, New Mexico in the mid 80s. He owned two Harley Davidsons and a 1963 split-window Corvette in pristine condition. He was a licensed amateur radio operator holding an Extra license, an avid photographer, a steam train aficionado and a small plane operator.

While still at IBM, Jean became interested in flying after accompanying one of his closest friends on several flights in his plane and was persuaded to pursue his piloting license. He used his GI bill to obtain all necessary licenses. He wanted to become a commercial airline pilot but did not have enough hours to apply to a major airline company so he worked tirelessly as an instructor, freight and corporate pilot logging hours of flight time. In 1985 Jean became a copilot with Continental Airlines flying 727s, MD80s and rising to the rank of Captain on the 737. He retired from Continental in 2005 only because of FAA pilot age regulations. He subsequently did a couple years of corporate flying but stopped that when being "on-call 24/7" didn't coincide with his retirement ideas.

Jean was preceded in death by both of his parents in 2011. He is survived by his beloved wife Roxanna of 20 years and his siblings: Donald (Virginia), Robert, Joseph, Carol Tordoff, Paul, Thomas (Robbye), James, and Marie Olivas (John Daniel) as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews..

His funeral services will be Wednesday, October 15th with a memorial service at Perches Funeral Home - West beginning at 9am followed interment at Ft. Bliss National Cemetery at 1:30 pm