Mrs. Ivy Hurd Willard Draper, wife of the late Institute Professor Emeritus Charles Stark (Doc) Draper, the Laboratory's founder, died on May 13 at her home in Newton. She was 85.
Mrs. Draper was born in 1908 on a farm in Sawyerville, Quebec, Canada and later emigrated to the United states. She attended school at St. Johnsbury, VT, and in the 1920s moved to Boston where she established a career as a legal secretary.
She and Professor Draper married in Ohio in 1939 at what was to become the US Air Force Chapel at Wright Field, then part of the Army Air Corps. While Doc worked at MIT and traveled for the Navy and Army, Ivy raised their four children and served in the Red Cross during the war.
Her support of Doc and his work spanned the decades following the war, during which she vigorously supported Instrumentation Lab functions, including many gala events at her home, while directing Girl Scout and summer camp activities. She took many long trips with Doc to Europe and Japan in the 1970s and her crucial support of him continued through that turbulent decade on the MIT campus.
Following Doc's death in July 1987, Mrs. Draper remained in their Newton Home welcoming news from old Lab friends and maintaining a tie to the Laboratory.
Mrs. Draper leaves her sons James Stark Draper and Michael Stark Draper both of Newton, John Clayton Draper of North Andover, and Martha Stark (Draper) Ditmeyer of Boise, ID, a brother, Clarke Willard of Miami, FL, and six grandchildren.
Memorial contributions in her name may be made to the Jimmy Fund, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115.
A version of this article appeared in the May 18, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 33).
