Schick, Doris V (Boardman)
Doris Boardman Schick passed away peacefully on May 16, 2022, in Louisville, CO, at the age of 91. She leaves behind her three daughters: Elizabeth (married to Keith Miller) of Des Moines IA, Susan (married to Robert Wright) of Milton, MA, and Jennifer (married to Jeffrey Burak) of Boulder, CO. She also leaves four grandchildren (Austin and Julia Wright; Nathan and Noah Burak), and her two sisters (Barbara Weaver and Mary Davis). Her husband, Charles William Schick, as well as her parents, Mary and Arthur Boardman, predeceased her.
Doris was born on April 22, 1931, in Lancaster, PA.
After graduating from McCaskey High School in 1949, she attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, in Philadelphia, earning an R.N. degree in 1952. In 1953 she joined the Army and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army Nurse Corp. After completing basic training, she was stationed at
Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado, and then at 320 General Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
A theme of Doris's early adult life was adventure and travel. Before joining the army, she took a severalmonth-long cross-country road trip with a friend, and was captivated by the American West: Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Yosemite, Reno, and Denver. After joining the army, she carefully planned her leaves. While stationed in Denver, she went skiing at Winter Park, crossed the Continental Divide (during a snowstorm), and tried her hand at gambling in Reno. While stationed in Germany, she visited Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, Assisi, Venice, Florence, Holland, Paris, London, and many places throughout Germany. She enjoyed visiting all the landmark sites, attending the
opera, sampling local cuisine, and going dancing at night clubs with her friends.
Before long Doris decided to leave the army to resume her education, thinking that this would make her more marketable. She was honorably discharged from active service (as a 1st Lieutenant) in 1955, though she remained in the inactive reserve unit of the US Army Nurse Corps until 1964, during which time she rose to Captain. She attended the Bolton School of Nursing at Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, earning a B.S. degree in nursing on the GI Bill in 1958. After graduating, she took a job as a Nursing Arts Instructor at Fairview Park Hospital School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH. She was beloved by her students as a teacher, role model, and friend.
In 1960, while she was still living in Cleveland, Doris's father arranged one of his many tours from Lancaster to NYC, this time to see The Sound of Music. Among all his tours, this one, according to Doris, was his “greatest triumph” – for he had arranged for Bill Schick to attend as well. Bill had been a middle- and high school classmate of Doris's back in Lancaster and was then working at Price Waterhouse in NYC. They married on August 19, 1961, settled on Long Island, NY, and had three girls: Elizabeth, Susan, and Jennifer. In 1970 Bill took a new job in Hartford, CT and the family settled in Glastonbury, CT. Except for an 18-month period (197677) when they lived in Belgium, Glastonbury was Bill and Doris's home base for the next 49 years.
Though brief, the family's time in Belgium was eventful for Doris. In addition to adapting to the challenges of managing the household in a foreign country, Doris studied French, took an haute couture sewing class,
and of course, advocated for the family to travel – Paris, London, the Algarve region of Portugal, Amsterdam, Zurich, Luxembourg, Germany, and throughout Belgium. Perhaps most significant, Doris took up the historic handcraft of bobbin lace. Every week she travelled to the Flemish city of Bruges for a two-hour lesson from a bobbin lace teacher. Lacemaking became her passion for the rest of her life. After her return to Glastonbury, she was a founding member of the New England Lace Group (NELG) in 1982, co-designed the NELG logo, won many awards for her technical mastery, made pieces for her family, and became a bobbin lace teacher herself.
Another interest of Doris's was genealogy. She traveled to rare book libraries and cemeteries across Connecticut and Pennsylvania to piece together her family history. Her research established that she was a descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower and a Daughter of the American Revolution.
Doris never really lost the travel bug, and in her later years enjoyed visiting her daughters in Iowa, Massachusetts, and Colorado. Doris spent the last three years of her life in Louisville, CO, to be closer to her daughter Jennifer and her family. Though she lived there only a short time, she was much loved by her fellow residents at Lavender Farms, lighting up the place with her beautiful smile.
Both Doris and Bill had deep ties to Glastonbury with many close, decades-long friends. They were longtime members of the Congregational Church of South Glastonbury. Doris was a member of the church choir
and both she and Bill enjoyed attending Bible Study. Doris was also a member of the Hill and Dale Garden Club, as well as a 30-year member of the Greater Middletown Chorale, and was in the 9-hole ladies golf group at the Country Club of Farmington.
Doris was always physically active and enjoyed cross country skiing and snow shoeing with her family during
the three decades they had a vacation home in Mt. Snow, VT. They both felt a deep connection to the Chautauqua community of Mount Gretna, PA (near their native Lancaster), where they made lasting memories of special times across many generations of our family.
Over the years Doris became Bill's closest confidante and best friend. With her sense of humor, kindness, and steely perseverance in the pursuit of her varied interests and goals, and Doris was – and remains - her daughters' inspiration and guiding light.
Her funeral was held in Boulder, CO, on May 21. A memorial service will be held at the Congregational Church of South Glastonbury on Saturday, July 2, at 11 AM. Interment will follow the service.