F Daniels Butterfield

F Daniels “Dan” Butterfield, age 89, beloved husband, brother, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend, passed away peacefully on January 11, 2023 at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, surrounded by family members. Dan, a native of La Jolla, California was born on October 9, 1933 to the late Ralph Elmer Butterfield and Lula Mae “Marilu” Iseley. He married the late Carolyn Keyes in 1957 and later divorced. Together they had 4 beautiful children, Marilu, Charles, Danny, and Alisanne. He married Rita Janiak Brown in 1995 and combined they have 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.

Dan was a graduate of La Jolla High School, Class of 1951 and the United States Naval Academy, Class of 1955.

Retired Lieutenant Commander of the United States Navy, Dan led an exciting and full 20 year career. After Dan retired from the Navy and after a few military contract jobs, he began the career that he was born for… teaching! He started with teaching International adult students, college students, mentoring programs and then finally became a math/science teacher at Granger Junior High school in National City, California. He taught there for 7 years making a big difference in those young students’ lives before retiring altogether.

Together, Dan and Rita really enjoyed traveling to Europe, taking cruises, and visiting family to help out wherever they were living around the world. Dan absolutely ADORED his grandchildren and great grandchildren and enjoyed finding ways to always instill a love of education and exploration in each of them. In fact, there wasn't a person from young to old on earth that met Dan and didn’t feel positively touched and bonded by his enthusiasm and affection. He always tried to help anyone who came across his path.

Dan is survived by his wife Rita; his children: Marilu Stearns(Gary), Charles Butterfield, Danny Butterfield(Nobuko), Alisanne Corbett(Tim), Bill Brown(Olga) Cyndy Wilt(Greg), and Michael Brown(Alexandrea) and all of their lovely grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Dan is also survived by his siblings: Ralph Butterfield(Donna) of Erhard, Minnesota, David Sr Butterfield(Barbara) of Issaquah, Washington, Linda Sebastian of Costa Mesa, California , and Chase Allen(Marlene) of Surprise, Arizona.

The family has chosen not to have a memorial service at this time and will be planning a Celebration of Life later on in October in recognition of what would have been Dan’s 90th birthday.

Dan will be interned and laid to rest at Glenn Abbey Mortuary in Bonita, California.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.glenabbeysandiego.net for the Butterfield family.