Nancy Drake Standard

Nancy Drake Standard, 90, lived a life full of gratitude for simple pleasures, a respect for people from every walk of life, a wonderful sense of humor, and a passion to make the world a better place. Her legacy to her husband Chuck of 67 years, was a deep, abiding love; to her daughters Debbie and Patti, their husbands Tom and Henry, and adoptive son John, she was an inspirational role model for how to live a rich, productive life; and to her grandchildren, Trevor and Whitney Cook, Greg, Jeff and Kate Morneault, and Todd and Lauren Standard, she taught them how to laugh and make memories. Her grandson Trevor has many wonderful life lessons from his Grammy to pass on to his daughters Madilyn and Mackenzie.

Recognized by Greenwich Time as Community Leader of the Year in 2001, her accomplishments were legion. Her daughters remember her early commitment to making Greenwich a beautiful place by wearing a sandwich board at the Thruway shopping center, collecting money to plant trees in the parking lot. Since then she has been a member of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, the Old Greenwich Garden Club, and many other environmental organizations. She led the effort to clean up Rosa Hartman Park in Stamford and an abandoned pre-civil war cemetery in Old Greenwich.

She was fiercely patriotic. She never wanted any soldier who had fought for this country to be forgotten. She discovered several monuments to fallen soldiers at Riverside School that had become overgrown and she quietly kept them cleaned and flags placed near Veteran’s Day. She and her husband Chuck organized Veteran’s Day ceremonies at each of Greenwich’s elementary schools, arranging for color guards to present the flag and keep the meaning of Veteran’s Day alive for the children.

She also had a great love of the theater. She was a founding member of the Turkey of the Month Club, a play reading group that is still going after fifty years. She was a wonderful puppeteer, creating a birthday party puppet show that was the highlight of hundreds of childrens’ birthday parties. However, her greatest love was putting on fashion shows using her vast collection of vintage clothes. Begun as an effort to entertain seniors at GREATS (Greenwich Retirees Eating and Tarrying Society), her fashion shows became renowned, raising thousands of dollars for charity. She was asked to put on a fashion show at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, MA and for Prince Andrew at the Greenwich Country Club.

She was a life-time member of Rocky Point Club. She was also a member of the Riverside Yacht Club, where she received the prestigious ‘Lady of the Year’ award in 2010.

Daughter of Charles Drake and Katherine Besarick Drake, she was born in Brooklyn, graduated from the Roycemore School in Illinois and attended Denison University. She met her husband Chuck, a Navy pilot, at one of the famed Curtis dances. After the war they lived in Evanston, Illinois and then moved to Greenwich in 1954.

She leaves her many friends and her family with many memories and funny stories. She loved making people laugh. Her son-in-law Henry recounts once going down the escalator at Union station in Washington D.C. on his way to meet Nancy at Halloween. Sitting on a bench at the bottom of a several story escalator was a woman wearing a witch’s wide brimmed pointed hat and a plastic nose and black glasses. He thought he would have to tell Nancy about it, but then he realized it was Nancy.

Plans for a memorial service will be forthcoming. Please visit www.leopgallagherstamford.com to send the family remembrances of Nancy and for more information about the memorial service. Donations in Nancy’s name may be sent to the Greenwich Land Trust or the Nature Conservancy.