John Korfel

John Korfel of Fort Mill, SC passed away peacefully on March 21, 2023 at the age of 74, surrounded by family after battling cancer.

John was born on July 12, 1948 to Tomasz and Tekla in Guebwiller, France and grew up with his family at the Schlumberger Winery in Alsace. When he was 13 his family immigrated to New Britain, CT. There he attended E C Goodwin Technical School and graduated in 1967 with a Machine Drafting Degree. In 1970-1971 he served honorably in the United States Army in active duty during the Vietnam War era.

After his time in the military, he worked at Fafnir Bearing Company in New Britain as the Industrial Engineer Assistant and Company Telephone Coordinator for 10 years. He then started his own business and later became president of Classic Stove Works in Berlin, CT. At that time he also volunteered as Co-Chairman/Treasurer for the New Britain Youth Soccer League and served for several years.

In 1992, he moved to New Hartford CT with his family and worked in sales where he earned many awards. John continued with sales, working in the fence industry where he pioneered a specialized type of fencing to exclude deer. John’s deer fence systems are still in use today and he was widely known as an authority in the field of deer fencing. John later relocated to Fort Mill South Carolina.

John was known for his love of vintage comic books. He was an avid collector of the Charlton Comic Publications and collected the only known complete Charlton collection in the world. He was known as an expert and spoke to different media outlets about the Publications. Besides comics, John loved spending time with his family and his parrot Jose, cooking, being a connoisseur of French wines and watching sports.

John is predeceased by his wife Barbara, who died 6 weeks prior. He is survived by his son Douglas, daughter-in-law Debra, son Richard, grandchildren Jack, Connor, Caroline, and Eleanor, his brother Walter, his sister Christine and her partner George, and his sister Marie and her husband Steve, as well as nieces and nephews.

A military service honoring John will be held at the Palmetto Funeral Home, 2049 Carolina Place Drive, Fort Mill SC on Saturday, April 1 at 11am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to the American Cancer Society in his name.