Drake, Vaughn P., Jr.

Drake, Vaughn P., Jr., husband of 65 years of the late Lina Wilson Drake, died April 7, 2025. He was born November 6, 1918 in Winchester, KY, son of the late Vaughn P. Drake and Margaret Willis Drake. He is survived by a son, Sam W. Drake, grandsons Anthony R. Drake (Crystal) and Patrick J. Drake, and three great grandchildren, Mya, Clara, and Henry Drake. He was predeceased by two sisters, Nell Drake White Dodd and Margaret Drake Parks. He was a 1936 Graduate of Paris High School. He attended the University of Kentucky College of Engineering, and was a registered professional engineer for over fifty years. He was employed by the General Telephone Company for thirty six years, retiring in 1981 as valuation engineering manager. He designed and supervised construction of all the underground telephone conduit placed in the cities of Lexington, Morehead, and Ashland in the 1940s and 1950s. He was author of the GTE Manual “Conduit Engineering for Telephone Engineers”.
He served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, and was a veteran of the battles of Pearl Harbor and Saipan in the Marianas campaign. He has the esteemed honor of being the Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivor in the United States. He received the special Congressional Medal for the Veterans of Pearl Harbor, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Medal with Foreign Service bar, the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with two battles stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and was a charter member and past president of the Bluegrass Chapter of the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers. He received the KSPE State Award in 1979 for “Outstanding Engineer in Industry”. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and was a former member of the Society of American Military Engineers. At one time he served on the professional advisory board of the Lexington-Fayette County Planning and Zoning Commission. He was a member of the Honrable Order of Kentucky Colonels and received the Mayor’s Spirit of Lexington Award. He had been a Troop Committeeman for Boy Scout Troop 5 in Lexington, and received the ten year service award from the national headquarters of the BSA. He was a life member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and a life member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

Visitation will be on Thursday April 17, 2025 12pm-2pm at Milward Funeral Director’s Southland Drive, with military burial services to be held at the Winchester Cemetery Thursday April 17, 2025 at 3pm.

Pallbearers are grandsons and nephews, Tony Drake, Patrick Drake, Barry Parks, Roger Parks, Reverend Bob White, and Denny Waldrup.