Dian Chandler Schock

Schock, Dian Chandler

Born into an established St. Louis family and having lived a long and private life, has died peacefully at her home on Litzsinger Road. Dian loved her family, art, nature, and the outdoors. She was as comfortable sleeping in a tent on the Current River as in a well-appointed beach house in Florida. Her vanity plate read "Joyeux."

In her younger and more vulnerable years she spent summers with her grandparents on Dublin Lake in New Hampshire. Later in life she attributed her gentle and innocent nature to those tranquil times.

She began her education at Mary Institute, (now known as MICDS) and graduated Miss Porter's in Connecticut. She studied painting at Washington University and continued those studies, briefly, in the studio of Louie Bouché in New York City.

But at a 1952 debutante party newly minted lawyer William Crawford Schock, known to his friends and family by his WASP nickname "Humpy", (Country Day, Phillips Andover Academy, Princeton, (interrupted by a stint as a Naval Officer in connection with a certain unpleasantness), University of Virginia Law School - not a bad resume), cut in three times. This was when dancing involved formal and precise steps and not just wriggling to the beat. He danced a move called "The Grapevine", which her less rhythmic friends called "The Poison Ivy", but which Dian followed effortlessly. The poor boy never had a chance. Humpy and Dian were engaged two weeks later and married five months after that. She had grown up singing "Someday My Prince Will Come", and that night he did. They were devoted husband and wife for fifty years until his demise in 2003.

Humpy was a great athlete. When he was in his early 20's he and friend Kingman Lambert played doubles tennis on the European amateur circuit. (Good times on and off the court). Years later Dian asked Humpy what he had thought of the Louvre. He said, "I liked it". Hinting at the Venus de Milo, which she assumed would have been his favorite, she asked which masterpiece in the museum he liked best. He looked puzzled and said, "We didn't go in".

An outgrowth of Humpy's racquet prowess was Dian's needlepointing prowess. As a young bride she watched Humpy's tennis and squash matches with great intensity, hanging on every serve, forehand, backhand, volley, and overhead. Her wise mother-in-law, Lida Crawford Schock, (with whom Dian always claimed to have had an excellent relationship), took her aside, told her that was a waste of time and ridiculous, and encouraged her to needlepoint during Humpy's matches. That led to a lifetime of needlepointing. Over the years Dian made numerous full sized needlepoint rugs for her own home and her children's homes, plus countless chair seats and other items. She designed every piece herself, taking inspiration from the flowers in her gardens, the birds of Missouri, and the patterns on the family porcelain. She cared not when Humpy spilled coffee all over the living room rug because she knew that was the nature of things. She would just settle in to another four years of needlepointing to create a replacement. Because Humpy was somewhat obtuse, he may never have known that during his tennis matches Dian was not adoringly focusing her attention on his shots but was instead looking down at her needlepointing.

And the children came. And so, Dian settled into wifehood and motherhood. She used the opposite of helicopter parenting, which worked out fine. Early on she drove Humpy to what was then a suburban commuter train station in Webster Groves for his trip downtown. They called that "Playing Connecticut". Soon they had two cars, and every morning as Humpy left for work Dian would walk him to the door and stand there waving as he started up and headed down the driveway. When he returned home at the end of the day, she would go to the door to kiss him and greet him. She continued "love at the door" hellos and good-byes all her life, even at the end when she could barely get out of her chair. Such love at the door is old fashioned, but it is not wrong.

Her life aspirations were to be a wife, mother, and artist, and she achieved those aspirations. To have such aspirations and to operate in a small orbit - her art was for her family and friends only - is once more to be old fashioned, but for her that way of life was not just right, it was liberating. She cared not a whit what others thought of her, and in fact, (and this is an approach to life to which we all might do well to aspire), she never even thought about what others thought of her.

She was the support team for Humpy's work, (although the tycoon part never came to fruition, which she accepted), particularly including his work as an environmental activist: STOP THE MERAMEC DAM! OPERATION CLEAN STREAM!

Humpy and Dian went on countless Ozark canoe trips with their extended "float group" and therein developed long-standing intergenerational friendships. In later years Dian and Humpy spent winters in Hobe Sound, Florida, where they again renewed old school ties and made new friends, but also, of course, played tennis (him), and needlepointed (her).

Dian was stalwart during Humpy's final years as his health deteriorated. After his death she accepted her widowhood and rejected advances from opportunists who thought Dian Schock was still quite a catch. She decided that she had dutifully given all she had to Humpy, and - putting it in her words - she was not going to "start over and get stuck with a drooler".

Her life was not 100% private, for early on she worked as a volunteer gardener at Shaw's Garden, (now our City's Missouri Botanical Garden), and in later years she devoted efforts to Kenmore, a historic home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Throughout her life she was a participant in and supporter of St. Louis' Garden, Museum, and Symphony, but she never sought public accolade for her involvement in those institutions.

As noted above, Humpy was a great athlete. It also turns out Dian was a great beauty. And it is a truth universally acknowledged that great athletes and great beauties are welcome everywhere. And that is the story of Humpy and Dian.

The family expresses deepest thanks to Andrew Jackson, Barbara Wenger, David Schwartz, Robert Kreutz, Claire Ferguson, Milet Bailey, Herman Smith, Daniel Wong, Max Haefeli, Dawn Federhofer, Dan Gunn, Ann Branscum, D.V.M., and Shari Cohen, M.D.

Humpy and Dian are survived by two children: Irene Loring Schock Holmes (John Arthur Holmes II, 2010) and William Bevis Schock (Patience Elizabeth Phillips Schock), four grandchildren: John Arthur Holmes III (Hugh Athelstan Eastwood), Warren Chandler Crawford Holmes (Emily Marie McPherson Holmes), Corthay Moreau Schock Zakrzewski (Jack Zakrzewski), and Lunsford Daniel Schock, and, bringing forth the new: three great-grandchildren, Isabel Catlin Holmes, Charles Donald McPherson Holmes and Perrin Elizabeth Zakrzewski.

She would be honored by memorial contributions to the above charities.

A SERVICE OF

THE LUPTON CHAPEL