Richard Meredith Stannard

Richard “Dick” Stannard died peacefully on June 27, 2016 in Seattle, Washington at the age of 90. He leaves one sister, Emily Levine; four children, Michael, Meredith (Elyse Zandonella), Jessica and Kate (Janice Harvey); four grandchildren, Drew Zandonella-Stannard (Jacob Conklin), Patrick Dirks (Klaar de Groot), Victor Dirks and Reed Stannard; and two great-grandchildren, Linde de Groot-Dirks and Moos de Groot-Dirks. In addition, he leaves four step-daughters, Elizabeth Davenport-Sanchez, Ginger Van Boven (Alan), Susan Davenport and Birdie Davenport (Steve Hannaford); ten step-grandchildren, Eric Benjamin (Julie), Thalia Ryer (Chris Laliberte) and Leslie Benjamin; Paula Wilson (Matt Herring) and Amber Davenport; Leaf Van Boven (Sharon) and Lana Van Boven-Hughes (Rob); Drew Moore, Brinn Campaz (Mario) and Rita Moore; six step-great-grandchildren, Phoenix and Griffin; Elena; Caleb and Anna; Elliot; and Leticia; nieces Alix Sullivan (Terry), Nelda Danz and Lisa Levine; Skye Emanuel, Patti Davis and Sara Davis; and nephew Jim Druley (Debbie). He is preceded in death by his wife Lenore, who died in 1971, his wife Elaine, who died in 2011, his father Edward, who died in 1928, his mother Nellie, who died in 1979, and his sister Ruth, who died in 1997.

Richard Meredith Stannard was born to Edward Mahlon Stannard and the former Nellie Myrtle Beaver on December 7, 1925 in Van Nuys, California. Dick’s father Edward died at age 32 in 1928. Dick’s mother Nellie supported the family as a school teacher in Los Angeles and in the Cuyama Valley, California.

After graduating from Ventura High School in 1943, Dick was drafted and saw action as a U.S. Army infantryman in France, Germany, and Austria. He was wounded in January 1945 and received the Purple Heart. In 1993, Dick published a memoir of his World War II experience, Infantry: An Oral History of a World War II American Infantry Battalion.

After the war, Dick attended college for two years at what would later become the University of California, Santa Barbara. There he met Esther Lenore “Norie” Patterson. They married in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1948. Their four children were born between 1949 and 1956.

Dick transferred to Stanford University and graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He then began a fifteen-year career in the news business, most of it as a reporter at the Palo Alto Times.

Dick was a lifelong Democrat and supporter of liberal causes. In 1954 he and Norie moved their family to Lawrence Lane in Palo Alto. Lawrence Lane was an intentionally integrated community established by the Quakers in 1948 to help Japanese-Americans return to California society after their internment during World War II. One-third of the families on Lawrence Lane were Asian, one-third African-American, and one-third white.

In 1964 Dick gave up his career in journalism to serve as Pierre Salinger’s press secretary in Salinger’s race for the U.S. Senate. After Salinger lost the general election that November the Stannard family moved to Washington, D.C., where Dick had found a job as press secretary and speechwriter for U.S. Senator Joseph Montoya of New Mexico. In 1967 Dick began working as an inspector in the federal poverty program, which brought the Stannards to Seattle in 1970.

Dick retired from the federal civil service in 1982. In the same year he married Elaine Davenport. Their twenty-eight-year marriage ended only with her death in 2011. Dick helped Elaine raise three of her grandchildren in their West Seattle home overlooking Alki Beach. Dick often said that from the time he was very young he had always wanted to have lots of children. Family was everything to him and he will be lovingly remembered as a father, grandfather, stepfather and step-grandfather.

Arrangements under the direction of Bleitz Funeral Home, Seattle, WA.