Malcolm Stannard grew up on a Connecticut farm, but left his agrarian roots as a young man to pursue a maritime career. At 21, he bought and skippered a four-masted schooner with which he worked the coal trade in the West Indies. Later he married Barbara Stoltenfeldt, and the two purchased a run-down 230-acre farm back in Columbia, Connecticut.

Not long after they settled in, the United States entered the second World War; Stannard received a commission, served for a while [details not known], and earned the rank of Lieutenant before a medical discharge took him out of service. After this, he returned to farming. Using funds from an FSA loan, the Stannards renovated the barn and increased the size of their dairy herd; returns from the dairy allowed them to repay the loan over a short term.

Malcolm soon returned to service as an instructor at the Maritime Service Officers’ School in New London, CT. His story was told along with those of other veterans returning to civilian life in a September 24 1944 Parade magazine insert and in a 1945 insert in Free World magazine.