Winfield, John

WINFIELD, III, John Buckner “Bucky”

John Buckner Winfield III “Bucky” died on October 10, 2020 after a lengthy battle with alcohol and due to the physical complications of chronic alcoholism. It is our hope, as a family, that honesty about Bucky’s passing may inspire others who struggle similarly to get help while there is still time. You are worth it, and your families will thank you. We mourn the boy we grew up with and the man he was becoming when his illness took its irreversible hold. Bucky was born in Bethesda, Maryland on February 15, 1970 and quickly became the apple of his parents’ eyes and later the hero to his little sister. Named after his father and blessed with the athletic abilities and interests of his dad, theirs was an extremely close relationship. Bucky got his first motorcycle at the age of five and thus began a lifelong devotion to dirt bike riding with his dad and friends. He pursued football from a very young age and later added wrestling in junior high school, a sport in which his father had excelled. Bucky attended the Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Virginia (Class of 1989) where he made many of the deepest friendships of his life. He was co-captain of the Tiger Football Team and as number 36 would often perform to cheers of “the Buck, the Buck, we love the Buck.” Bucky was also a very successful Woodberry Forest wrestler; a sport pursued in earnest by his father at rival Episcopal High School and Williams College decades earlier. Bucky’s discipline in his pursuit of athletic excellence was legend and on display over holidays when he would often have to lose dozens of pounds quickly to go from football to wrestling season. Our family’s fondest memories were made on the sidelines of Woodberry Forest football games watching him play or in the wrestling gym nervously watching his matches. He went on to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Class of 1994) where his sister was soon to follow. Having grown up in Chapel Hill, going to Carolina was a homecoming and he reconnected with many old friends. Bucky was a proud member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and the Gorgon’s Head Lodge and the merriment of both made for fond college memories. Following graduation, he moved to Atlanta where he embarked on a successful career in commercial real estate. He earned the coveted designation of SIOR in his field and was very effective in his role when well. Bucky married and had two beautiful children who were the light of his life even as his health declined. Bucky remained—as best he could—a good and caring friend to his many friends. He could love others more than himself and therein lay the great tragedy. The promise of Bucky’s early life began to be squandered as he neared the age of 40. There is a saying that goes “a man takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, the drink takes the man.” This was our long and painful experience as we watched Bucky abandon, bit by bit, the things that once brought him joy. Cooking and grilling, fly fishing, motorcycle riding, old and cherished friends, family bonds, and care for himself went away. Bucky had been gone in numerous and meaningful ways long before he succumbed to his illness. We deeply grieve this loss of time and what might have been and our sense of failure and confusion in the wake of his passing. Bucky was preceded in death by his devoted mother, Teresa Lee Winfield, and rests at her feet in Austin, Texas. He is survived by his father, Dr. John B. Winfield of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, his sister, Virginia Winfield Greenway, of Austin, Texas, his children John Buckner Winfield IV “Jack,” and Margaret Jane Winfield of Atlanta, Georgia, his half-sister Ann Gibson Winfield, Ph.D. of Bristol, Rhode Island, his niece and nephews Lucian Winfield McCoy, Grace Marygay Greenway, and Fletcher Winfield Greenway, many cousins, and friends far too numerous to count. We love you Bucky and are consoled by the knowledge that you are at last at peace and not in pain. Happy heavenly birthday brother. Root on those Tar Heels from heaven with mom and make sure the other angels know “it’s salmon, not pink.”