Farewell to scobey

Posted on by Sarah Pace (RSPace)

By Mike Malvick (GreatlandReviewer/ladybugkids)

scobey, archived

John Leon Scoblic (aka scobey), age 76, of Anchorage, Alaska, passed away on Dec. 25, 2025, at home after a long and valiant battlewith   cancer.  His full obituary was published in the Anchorage Daily News on January 4, 2026.  His funeral was held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church on January 10, 2026, and he was interred at Fort Richardson National Cemetery in April, 2026.

Scobey was a fixture of geocaching in southcentral Alaska for six years beginning in 2004, before his health and other factors limited his ability to get outside and enjoy one of his favorite pastimes.  Despite being active for a relatively short stint, his geocaching legacy lives on through his caches and GeocacheAlaska!

Scobey’s family engaged in geocaching and his wife Linda, and his daughter, Alicia (aka Geminigirl) often accompanied him on his caching outings.  His adult son, John, also tagged along when scobey visited his family in Ketchikan, Alaska, and scobey commemorated the birth of his second grandson, Jonathan, with Johnathan’s Cache.  His beloved bichon frise dog, “Beamer,” was rarely far from scobey.

Scobey has numerous notable caching firsts in Alaska:

  • First Challenge Cache: Alaska Borough and Census Challenge (GCYPMN)
  • First GeocacheAlaska! website
  • Launched the GeocacheAlaska! Forums
  • Founding Member of GeocacheAlaska!
  • First Alaskan cacher pathtag (scobey)
  • First Alaskan dog pathtag (Beamer)
  • First Alaskan to break a bone while caching, which led to the production of the “Geocacher Needs Maintenance” geocoin and pin as a show of community support for his quick recovery. Be sure to click the link for the full story in the geocaching.com forums. 
  • First or second nano cache placed (I was unable to confirm whether the community gets to blame scobey or oleruns for this)

In addition to geocaching, scobey also enjoyed hunting for benchmarks, and frequently placed caches near them to highlight their presence and encourage other cachers to log them both at geocaching.com and the United States Geological Society (USGS) sites.  He was regularly found scouring an area with a metal detector and a shovel, searching for “marks” that urban sprawl had covered.  

Scobey enjoyed combining traveling with caching and attended the third annual Geocoinfest (2007) in Temecula, California, and cached his way through palm tree oases, slot canyons, and nearly got arrested by tribal police at the edge of a casino parking lot while hunting for a cache that was placed without tribal permission.  His southernmost find is in Ecuador and his easternmost find is in the Philippines.  He also cached in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

Scobey was always loyal to technology and enjoyed razzing anyone who used a Magellan rather than a Garmin GPSr.  He also applied technology to his caches, including the still active Radio Days (GC1JWBZ) multicache.  Scobey enjoyed creating series of caches to reveal his love of:

 

Scobey was a complex, talented, and generous person who brought his varied interests to the local caching community and we are better for it.  He is missed.

Note:  A geo-memorial celebration of caching, “Scobey the Puzzlemeister” (GCBN9ME) is scheduled for 4:00-5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, at Russian Jack Park North Pavilion.