George Willis Stannard

West Point, 1951

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Jose Andres "Andy" Chacon on November 14, 2004:

George Willis Stannard Born January 29, 1927 - Died October 10, 2000 George was born in Rawson, ND, on January 29,1927. He spent his childhood in Williston with his family on their large wheat farm. He attended Williston High School where his many activities included the varsity football team. Soon after graduating, he enlisted in the Army and served as a Medical Corpsman in Boca Raton, Florida. His goal was to follow his older brother's footsteps to West Point('46). He applied and was accepted at the Army Prep School. Successful completion of the school led him to become a proud member of the Class of '51. He led an active life as a cadet playing "B" squad football for the first two years, then joined the Howitzer staff during his last two years to prepare the class yearbook and the camera club to learn the basics of film processing. Half way through his four years at West Point, he met and fell in love with Faith Conmy, a beautiful fellow North Dakota native from Fargo who was attending fashion design school in New York City. Immediately upon graduation, they were married at the quaint "Little Church Around the Corner" in New York City. Marriage after graduation then onto the basic field artillery course and jump school. That is the way George and Faith began their loving family life and career prior to the first assignment with the 11th Abn Div. at Ft Campbell. Mary Faith was born there prior to assignment in Korea and then inter theatre transfer to Japan. Command of a 120mm AAA battery was a great experience prior to ROTC duty in North Dakota where George, on his own spare time, earned a masters in Economics. The Artillery advance course followed, then assignment to the national AAA defense system at Old Ft Niagara. El Paso beckoned and George attended the Guided Missile staff officers course and was later assigned to the Nike Zeus test program with station at White Sands Missile Range then it was time for Command and General Staff (C&GSC) at Ft Leavenworth. During the course of these assignments 4 sons were born to George and Faith. They suffered great tragedy at Ft Leavenworth when Todd, the youngest son, suffered a tragic death shortly after birth. From C&GSC it was onto Vietnam where he was an intelligence briefer for the commanding general. The inevitable Pentagon duty was part of the career pattern and then a command assignment (6th Bn, 8th Artillery) at Fort Carson CO. That was followed by a two year assignment to the Seventh Army headquarters staff in Frankfurt Germany. The last station prior to military retirement was in Denver as senior military advisor to the Colorado National Guard. He retired from that position as a full Colonel in 1975. During that tour another family tragedy occurred with the heart failure of their 15 year old son Brett while out jogging as part of his wrestling conditioning. George and Faith were both avid skiers and owned a rather large - "sleeps 10" - townhouse in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which they generously shared with their many friends and classmates for many years. Love of Colorado, many friends, skiing and the great outdoors was great but the loss of a son in the Denver area was too much and after retirement they moved back to Virginia where George became a very successful and hard working administrative assistant to Congressman (later Senator) Mark Andrews, of North Dakota. George always had the entrepreneurial bug and later established Stannard Associates with full support of his loving wife Faith. That was primarily an upscale photo processing store which included framing, art and related services. Ultimately he had three separate business operations in the vicinity of Fredericksburg VA. A wonderful family with the highest of moral and ethical values was yet to suffer another tragedy. Faith died of Leukemia in July, 1996 soon after their 45th anniversary. Carrying on after that tragedy has been tough for George but many loving family members are providing support in every possible way. The military and civilian experiences through their 45 years together have been a rewarding and fulfilling experience. During retirement as well as prior to-they have enjoyed life to the fullest, and cared deeply for one another. George had recently relocated to Columbiana AL to live with his son Jim (an Orthopedic Surgeon) and daughter-in-law Caroline who home schools their six of George's 14 grandchildren. He died on October 10, 2000 of a massive heart attack. jac; 18447, wc 467

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