Earnest (Ernie) Vance Standish Jr., 77 of Mechanicsville, MD passed away on Saturday, July 22, 2023. Ernie was born on July 30, 1945 in Waynesboro, Virginia to Earnest Vance Standish Sr. and Katherine Coleman Standish.

Ernie is survived by his son David Standish and was preceded in death by his wife of 51 years, Janet Evans Standish and his son Steven.

Ernie was born to a military family. His father was a soldier in the United States Air Force. He was serving at Pearl Harbor during the attack in 1941 and then went on several overseas deployments during World War 2.
His mother raised four children – Ernie's older sister Shirley Esposito and younger siblings John Standish and Nancy Tippett. The family lived for a time on Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs and eventually relocated to a home off Sandgates Road in Mechanicsville.

It was this area where Ernie spent most of his life. He graduated high school from Margaret Brent and soon after met and started dating Janet Evans. In 1967, Ernie was drafted and served honorably in the 9th Infantry Division of the United States Army. He was deployed to Vietnam for two years where he served as a helicopter mechanic at Bearcat Base and earned a National Defense Service Medal and an Aircraft Crewman Badge. When he returned from the war, he married Janet and they began their family.

With his mechanical skills, he was employed by Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) where he earned a distinguished career and eventually retired as part of management. Ernie was a planner – his primary responsibility was to schedule maintenance on the power plant to keep it operational. This job included managing the logistics of the maintenance such as the inventory of parts and also managing the maintenance process to ensure everyone remained safe. He took his job seriously, was very organized, and had great attention to detail. Later in his career, he served as the Equal Employment Opportunity manager and organized PEPCO's fundraisers for the United Way before he retired.

Ernie loved his country. He was a member and past Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2632 in California, MD. He was part of the VFW Honor and Color Guard which performed military honors including marching in parades at the local, state, and national level.

He had many passions. Growing up, he was part of his high school basketball team. After his military service, Ernie enjoyed playing on horseshoe and softball leagues. Later, he became an avid golfer. At one point, he became enthralled with storage auctions often surprising his wife and son with the fact that he "won another". But his true passion was playing cards with his friends, in tournaments, and at the casino. He truly looked forward to this every week. During the summer months, he loved picking steamed crabs with family and friends and telling stories about his wilder younger years. And he really enjoyed a good laugh.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to the Veterans of Foreign Wars either by mailing a check to VFW Post 2632, 23282 Three Notch Rd, California, MD 20619 or going on the web to vfw.org and clicking Donate.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, July 27, 2023 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM in the Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, Leonardtown, MD, where a funeral service will be held in the funeral home chapel at 7:00 PM with Rev. Chris McCombs officiating. Interment will be private.