Leo Joseph Scolforo Jr.

Leo Joseph Scolforo Jr.

February 7, 1934 - July 28, 2025

Leo J. Scolforo Jr., 91, of The Plains, Virginia, a man who embraced life and embodied the happy warrior, passed away July 28, 2025. He leaves behind a grieving family and countless friends in Northern Virginia and beyond. He had been in failing health before he contracted the coronavirus and spent his last two days in a Haymarket hospital.

Survivors include his wife, Janice; children Mark Scolforo, Angela Scolforo, Matthew Scolforo, Jeremy Scolforo, Meghan Mills and AnnMarie Scolforo; stepchildren Kenneth Jemielity, Kathleen Jemielity, Geoffrey Moody, Kevin Moody, Angela Marie (Towne) Kosko and Jennifer Aulebach; and a sister, Ellen Whittaker. He was predeceased by his first wife, Susan; a son, Leo III; and brothers Michael and J. Peter Scolforo. He is mourned by his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Born and raised in Lee, Massachusetts, his parents were Leo and Kathleen (Dawson) Scolforo. He was precocious and driven as a boy, skipping 7th grade and serving as high school class president and valedictorian before earning a Navy ROTC scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, where he majored in math.

He devoted 20 years of his life to the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring as a lieutenant colonel and deputy staff judge advocate at Quantico in 1975. His duty stations included Camp Lejeune, Fort Sill, the Philippines, Okinawa and Henderson Hall.

While assigned to recruiting duty in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963, he notified the staff duty officer at Headquarters Marine Corps that records showed Lee Harvey Oswald had been a Marine.

He served as an artillery major along the demilitarized zone during the Vietnam War, making his quarters in an underground bunker lined with live ammunition. He earned the Bronze Star and was proud to have been part of a team that successfully recovered bodies of killed Marines from "outside the wire" near the end of the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968 so they could pull out of the base.

His great love for and loyalty to the Marine Corps never wavered - he got a cake and held a celebration every year on the Marine Corps' Nov. 10 birthday.

His characteristic hard work and determination turned a rocky patch of the Bull Run Mountains at Hopewell Gap into his home, first as a weekend cabin getaway but eventually as a showplace. The beams were hewn from nearby pine trees and the floors, walls and chimneys fashioned from native stone collected from around the property. His own wood carvings served as architectural details. Across the 1970s and '80s, many Saturdays began with a trip for building supplies from Gossom's Hardware and 84 Lumber in Haymarket, most commonly while wearing a white V-neck T-shirt, tattered denim overalls and cheap sneakers. He lived in the home he built for 49 years, until his death.

After retirement from the Marine Corps, he spent four decades practicing law, with offices at various times in Culpeper, Dumfries, Haymarket and Manassas. He was a generalist who helped people get divorced, buy and sell property and run small businesses. He provided pro bono criminal defense in a highly publicized Prince William County murder case and successfully argued a question of civil law before the Virginia Supreme Court. He served on a panel that reviewed misconduct complaints against Virginia lawyers. His leniency toward clients about their unpaid bills frustrated his office staff.

A wood carving hobby that began with a piece of driftwood on an Okinawa beach turned into a lifelong pursuit, as he expanded into stone carving and gave away many of the pieces he produced. His material was often the rock and timber that surrounded him in the Bull Run Mountains. He was proud to have won two blue ribbons at the Piedmont Regional Art Show in The Plains.

He volunteered on the parish council, for youth soccer and as a Boy Scout adult leader. He donated legal services to a church group building housing for people in Prince William County and to fire companies in The Plains and Dumfries. He served as town attorney for The Plains for 20 years, refusing a paycheck.

He loved nothing more than socializing with friends and getting together with family, usually as the host. He mixed a wicked martini and held court behind his handmade bar while wearing a Marine Corps "campaign cover" drill instructor's hat, one of his favorite possessions.

He never met a stranger. He flirted with women, didn't mind causing a bit of trouble, had boundless curiosity and won just about every game of Scrabble he ever played. He helped pay the college bills of at least nine people. All his children were well acquainted with the museums on the National Mall in Washington and they knew how to split and stack oak firewood.

A funeral service is 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 13 (10 a.m. for family) at Pierce Funeral Home, 9609 Center St., Manassas. Those who wish to view the service remotely can find a livestream on Mr. Scolforo's obituary through Pierce Funeral Home website. The funeral will be followed by a 1 p.m. interment at the National Memorial Cemetery at Quantico in Triangle. A celebration of life will then be held, 3 p.m.-7 p.m., at Giuseppe's Ristorante Italiano, 15120 Washington St., Haymarket. In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor can be made to Boys Town, https://www.boystown.org/.