ELEANOR WUNDLING STANDAERT

1933-2025

In loving memory of Eleanor Standaert

Eleanor “El” Standaert (née Wundling) passed away on December 13, 2025 at the age of 92. She loved birdwatching, sewing, the game Rummikub, adventuresome travels with her husband Bill, and keeping up with what was happening in the lives of her family members.

El was born in New Jersey in March 1933, the only daughter of Frieda (née Biffar) and Herman Wundling, and she grew up in Lyndhurst, NJ. As a young woman El was a great athlete, adept at sports such as badminton, basketball, archery, rifleshooting, volleyball and especially swimming. She was a swim instructor at a Catholic summer camp near Lindy Lake where her family had a summer home. El also worked as a summer camp counselor and swim instructor at Woods Hole in Barnstable, Massachusetts. While attending Newark State Teachers College, El became a proud member of a local synchronized swimming team, the Aquacons. As a young adult, El had a beloved cat named Mitzy, whom she still fondly recalled in conversations during her final days.

In her twenties Eleanor traveled extensively, including a trip to Europe after graduating from college in 1955. El met up with her cousins in Miltenberg, near Frankfurt, Germany, the hometown of her grandmother, Theresa Wundling (née Reis), with whom El was very close. This trip included visits with the cousins to Paris, London, and Switzerland, plus a Rhine River cruise. In 1956, El also took a trip with her parents and her grandmother from Florida to California via the Panama Canal.

El first met her husband of 65 years, William “Billy” Standaert, whom she married in 1960, when he was leading a nature walk about frogs. This mutual love of frogs, and nature, and each other would be a central thread to their adventures for many years to come. In her early career, El worked as a substitute teacher in the New Brunswick area and taught 4th and 5th grade at the Catherine E. Doyle School in Woodridge at while Bill was in graduate school. Later, as Billy completed his thesis on carpenter frogs, El worked right alongside him, dredging through ponds in the Pine Barrens, paddling in a canoe and wearing rubber boots, taking notes, recording frog sounds, taking photographs, and completing other critical tasks that helped advance Billy’s research.

For years, El and Billy spent the summers traveling across the North American continent, from Alaska to Mexico, on birding, botany, and hiking trips. They were living the “van-life” before it was cool. They lived and travelled in their famous VW Vanagon and their famous carry-all, which they self-equipped with their research equipment and all the living essentials, like a kitchen, a mattress, and even a clothes line from which they could hang their laundry. Their travels included visiting family, such as to the weddings of their nieces and nephews and visiting family in North Carolina.

El assisted Bill in maintaining 40+ years of detailed, hand-written natural history notes for every field site they ever visited, including site descriptions, lists of birds, plants, and other animals observed. They participated or led walks with organized groups such as the Hackensack Audubon Society, Torrey Botanical Society, Philadelphia Botanical Club, the Western Carolina Botanical Club and others. El’s legacy, along with Bill, includes a rich archive of natural history notes and photographs of animals and plants from their travels.

When not traveling, El and Billy lived in Salisbury, Maryland and Raleigh, North Carolina before settling into life in Midland Park, New Jersey. El was so lucky to have her close friend Marilyn nearby, where they would enjoy the occasional walk in the park. And, her sister-in-law Patty lived just up the road in Connecticut and spent many a holiday and birthday in Midland Park sharing delicious Chinese food.

El spent her final years, with Billy, at Mill Gardens, a place she loved dearly. She enjoyed no longer having to cook or do laundry. Instead, she kept busy mending clothes for other residents, staying diligent in her exercises, learning how to tie-dye for the first time, and going to all the different activities there. She kept her Rummikub skills strong, even into her nineties, once handily winning against her niece three times in a row. To the very end, El wanted nearby the things that had always brought her comfort: a notepad and pen, her glasses, her watch, and her family, particularly Billy and Patty. She also shared her wisdom whenever she could, reminding that “getting old stinks!” But really, we are so blessed to have her as part of our lives for as long as we did.

El is survived by her siblings-in-law Patricia, Joseph (and Mary), and Thomas Standaert and by her nieces Cathy (and Scott) Brashears, Patricia (and Wilbur) Ravenhorst, and Diane Standaert and her nephew Timothy Standaert.

Photo Gallery: