Lewis Grover Bagnall, Jr.

Lewis Grover Bagnall, Jr., 93 years old of Hockessin, DE, formerly of California and Connecticut passed away peacefully on Friday, December 25, Christmas Day, 2020.

Born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to his parents, Ida Horemans and Lewis Grover Bagnall, Sr., Lew grew up in New York City and Prince Edward Island, among other places. He finished high school in the San Francisco Bay Area and went to San Mateo Junior College. In 1950, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in Civil Engineering. He paid his way through high school and college by caddying at golf courses.

He worked for Bechtel for 23 years and then several other companies as an engineer, constructing power plants, hotels, and restaurants all over the world, including Arizona, France, Belgium, Korea, India, and the Congo.

In 2001 he met Bettie Cook through some mutual friends. Lew married Bettie on September 14, 2002. For the first three years of their marriage, they lived in Westminster, in Hockessin, Delaware. They celebrated their wedding anniversary every month with champagne. Bettie and Lew played golf every day mostly at the Hercules Golf club where they were members. In 2005, Lew and Bettie moved into Cokesbury Village in Hockessin. First, they lived in a cottage and then they transferred to the fourth floor of the “big house” with a great view of the lawn, pond, and trees.

He loved any activity that took him outdoors including snow skiing, fly-fishing, bicycling, hiking, camping, photography, golf, and driving his red triumph sports car. He made beautiful Queen Anne style wood furniture. He loved listening to music on his Bose stereo with over 3000 CDs including operas, symphonies, instrumentals, Kiri Te Kanawa, Pavarotti, James Galway and John Denver. One of his favorite songs was Maria from West Side Story. A devout Catholic, he was dedicated to his family, particularly his stepmother, Laura Blanche Bagnall. “She was one of the best people in my life: nice, smart, a great mom, an ideal parent.”

He is survived by his wife, Bettie Bagnall of Hockessin, DE; 4 step children and their families: (Helen Delp and husband Gary Delp of Minnesota; Jim Roxlo and wife Rita Heckrotte of Tennessee; Katherine Roxlo and husband Ron LaMee of Arizona; Charles Roxlo and wife Xina Quan of California), a niece and goddaughter (Joy Shure and husband Steve Shure of California), three nephews (Richard Bagnall and William Bagnall, both of California; John Lewis Bagnall of Arizona).