SCARBOROUGH – Standish Meacham, Sheffield Centennial Professor of History, Emeritus, at the University of Texas at Austin, died on June 13, 2024, surrounded by his family.

He was born March 12, 1932, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Standish and Eleanor Rapp Meacham. He attended local schools, then the Taft School in Watertown, Conn. He graduated from Yale University in 1954. After a year’s study at King’s College, Cambridge, he served two years as a lieutenant in the United States Army.

Standish received his Ph.D. in British history from Harvard University in 1961. Following five years there as lecturer and the Senior Tutor of Winthrop House, he joined the History Department at the University of Texas, Austin, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.

He published five books and numerous articles, all of which explored aspects of the social and cultural history of Victorian and Edwardian England. For 20 years, he co-authored the W.W. Norton textbook, Western Civilizations. He served as history department chair and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He was on the boards of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas and Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and was board member and president of Texas Housers, the leading affordable housing authority in the state.

In 1957, Standish married Sarah Shartle of Troy, Ohio. Together they raised three children, Edith, Louisa, and Sam, who in time increased the family with eight grandchildren. Sarah and Standish were divorced in 1993. Standish’s subsequent marriage to Steven Salzman ended in divorce in 2013.

In later years, Sarah and Standish came increasingly to enjoy each other’s company. As a result, in 2020 Standish joined Sarah as a resident of Piper Shores in Scarborough – a reunion that brought them both great happiness.

Throughout the years, the Meacham family enjoyed spending summers together at their house on Cushings Island in Casco Bay. It was there, with Sarah and in the midst of their children, grandchildren, and good friends, that Standish spent some of the most enjoyable times of his full, productive, fortunate and happy life. He was known for his spirited piano playing, travel, love of reading and writing, beautiful flower arrangements, and occasional forays into acting, most notably with Karen Kuykendall in A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters.

He was preceded in death by his granddaughter Margot Meacham, and is survived by Sarah, Edith, Louisa (John Faraguna), Sam (Orane Douxami), and his grandchildren, Andrew and Megan Harris, Eliza and John Fiorelli, Joe Faraguna, Eleanor Faraguna, Sam Faraguna, Benjamin Meacham and Matteo Meacham.

Plans for a memorial service at Piper Shores in Scarborough, and an informal gathering of friends in Austin, Texas, this fall are in the works.

Online condolences may be expressed at http://www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Texas Housers c/o Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, 1800 West 6th St., Austin, TX 78703 or through their website at http://www.texashousers.org.

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