Mildred Schieber Standish, 98, a longtime Chicago public school teacher and rose breed aficionado, died Sunday, May 4, after complaining of shortness of breath in the Northwest Side home where she had lived since 1938.
At other times in a very active life, Mrs. Standish was known for marathon stints as a Girl Scouts trainer and a bridge player, and for helping the elderly do their taxes beginning in her 80s.
Mrs. Standish was married for 48 years to Dr. Myles Standish, named for the Pilgrim settler, and she came from a family with historical roots in Chicago that predated the 1871 Chicago Fire.
Her great-grandfather once had a bakery where the Marshall Field’s State Street store now stands; Mrs. Standish kept in her living room a framed certificate from the Chicago Historical Society to commemorate it.
She grew up on the Near West Side, where her parents kept chickens in the back yard. She met her husband in a chemistry class at Austin High School, where they were seated alphabetically and became lab partners.
Their daughter, Barbara, said Mrs. Standish never dated another man.
Mrs. Schieber attended Crane Junior College, then graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1927. The next year, she attended Normal College Downstate and later became a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.
Her first teaching assignment was in the 2nd grade in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood. In addition to the many immigrant children in her classes were their parents, who also wanted to learn English.
Mrs. Standish moved with her husband to Oklahoma and Alabama as he trained to serve in the medical corps during World War II. When he was deployed to Africa and Italy, she came back to Chicago, pregnant with their daughter, and began teaching again.
She stopped teaching when their son was born in 1947 and soon became heavily involved in Girl Scouts. Once her daughter left the program, she continued as the neighborhood chairwoman and trainer for decades, interacting with thousands of girls and their parents.
She later served on the rose board for Jackson & Perkins flower company, which sent her rose samples to evaluate before selling them commercially. For years her back yard was filled with the roses she fussed over, as well as perennials and vegetables, her daughter said.
Beginning in 1980, Mrs. Standish spent 15 years volunteering with the American Association of Retired Persons to do income taxes for senior citizens–something she had done for her husband’s medical practice for years. An “arch-Republican,” she accepted a presidential citation for her work in 1995, even though it came from a Democratic president, her daughter said.
“She was very outgoing and upbeat. I would get on a bus when we were traveling, and she would talk to everybody on the bus,” her daughter said.
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Standish is survived by a son, Myles “Jerry”; a brother, Harvey Schieber; and three grandsons.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Sheldon-Goglin Funeral Home, 5935 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in the funeral home.
