Schuyler Standish, 1927-2010

Schuyler Standish, an art teacher at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy for more than 30 years and a true Renaissance man in the visual and performing arts world, passed away on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

Schuyler’s health had suffered in recent years, and last year the FSHA Alumnae Association sponsored an art sale of his donated works to raise funds for him. The art sale was successful thanks to the support of the entire FSHA community, including many of his former students. Schuyler’s former colleague and good friend Suzy Duff visited him as recently as Wednesday and described his passing as a blessing, as his condition had worsened. No memorial service is planned.

A child prodigy, he began studying violin at the age of 3. He entered UCLA at the age of 13 as a music major, and a year later, was named concert master of the university’s symphony orchestra. He began working in motion pictures at the age of 6, first as a dancer and then as an actor. He recalled studying tap-dancing at the Ethel Meglin School for Kiddies, the same school attended by Shirley Temple. His first film was Shipmates Forever, produced in 1933 by Warner Bros., starring Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell. Schuyler’s other films include 1941’s Blood and Sand, starring Tyrone Power, Rita Hayworth and Anthony Quinn, and the 1941 release Melody for Three, starring Fay Wray and Jean Herscholt. In that film, Standish played the violin with extraordinary virtuosity.

He enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1944, and spent the remaining months of World War II entertaining the troops with orchestra leader Bobby Byrne’s band. He continued working as a musician and composer after the war ended, but he eventually developed a greater interest in art and began to paint. His first one-man show was in Los Angeles in 1954 at the renowned Falk-Raboff Gallery. He started teaching art in 1972 at FSHA, from which he retired in 2002. Collectors of his work include Kay Ballard, Dave Brubeck and William Shatner.