Stephen Drake Obituary

Stephen Drake was born in Birkenhead, England on February 3, 1951, the son of Edgar Drake and Caroline (Thomas) Drake, brother of June Buckingham and Pauline Sherry. After growing up in Birkenhead in a large and loving family, he went to Edinburgh University where he received his BSc in Astrophysics. He came to the United States in 1973 to attend graduate school at UCLA where he received his Ph. D. in Astronomy. It was in California that he met his wife Janice and they married in 1978. After a post doctoral position at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, they moved to the Washington DC area in 1985. He worked at Goddard Space Flight Center until he retired in 2018. Here they raised their children, Jaemie Drake and Nicholas Drake, and had a life filled with love of theater, music, books, food, nature, travel and family. He is survived by Janice, Jaemie, Nick and their spouses, Chay Halbert and Listelle Ignacio Drake, as well as Nick and Listelle's two daughters, Evelyn and Eleanor; and his sisters and extended family in England, Hong Kong and Kentucky. Donations in his honor may be made to deathwithdignity. org or a charity of the giver's choice. In lieu of a formal service the family will have a reception/ celebration of life in the near future.