William Drake

William Baker Drake, Jr., 89, passed away as the sun was setting on February 5, 2026, after suffering a cardiac arrest a week earlier. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Lois (Rosencrans) Drake and William Baker Drake, Sr., graduating from Glenwood (Iowa) High School in 1955. He entered the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1959 as an Ensign in the United States Navy. After a brief time on surface ships, he transferred into Admiral Hyman G. Rickover's nascent nuclear submarine service.

He married his high school classmate, Margaret J. Pippitt, and they raised four remarkable sons. Throughout his Navy career, Bill and his family were stationed at points ranging from Maine to Hawaii. His final posting was at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Honolulu, Hawaii, capping a successful career. He retired after 30 years of service, in 1985, at the rank of Captain.

Along the way, he received a Master's Degree in Systems Analysis from the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California in 1968 and later earned an M.B.A. from the University of New Hampshire in 1989.

His post-Navy career brought him back to Maine, initially working with an engineering firm, Life Cycle Engineering, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and then working with Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company as the company liaison with the National Regulatory Commission.

Bill and Margaret ended their 30 year marriage in 1990, and Bill relocated to the Augusta area.

He met Florence Ireland in November of 1991, and they married in September of 1993 on the grounds of their old farmhouse. They have lived in Readfield ever since, and enjoyed frequent travels together the world over.

Bill leaves behind Florence, his 4 sons: Dr. William Baker Drake III (Rachel) in Kansas City, Missouri; Charles B. Drake, Monterey, California; Robert B. Drake (Tatiana), Carmel Valley, California; and John E. Drake, York, Maine; stepson Adam E. Ireland (Holly). He will also be greatly missed by their 11 grandchildren: Will (Alexandria), Alex, Emma, Daniel, Lucy, Cary, Charlie, Elise, Harmony, Andrew, and Aurelia. He leaves his sister, June Merolla (Paul) in Florida, and his brother, Hank (Judy) in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as cousins scattered across the US.

A celebration of life service is being planned at the Readfield Union Meeting House sometime in May, and his ashes subsequently will be buried in the Drake Family plot in Glenwood, Iowa.

The family wishes to thank Ryan Chamberland, owner of United Fitness in Winthrop for initiating CPR within the first 2 minutes, the paramedic crew of Winthrop Ambulance, emergency medical staff at Maine General Hospital in Augusta, the medical transport crew of Delta Ambulance for the ride to Portland, the upwards of 20 doctors, nurses, and others on Bill's medical team in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Alyssa (Woodard) Brugger at Roberts Funeral Home in Winthrop, and the many neighbors and townspeople in Readfield for their help to Florence and for being good friends.