Daniel Crosby de Menocal, a longtime resident of Rye, New York, died peacefully on March 31, 2020. He was 92 years old.
Born on April 16, 1926 in Boston, he was the son of Daniel A. and Beatrice W. de Menocal. After attending Groton School in Massachusetts, he was a member of the class of 1950 at Yale University, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Daily News. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater from 1945-46.
In August of 1950, he married Grace (“Gay”) W. Niedringhaus of St. Louis, Missouri at St. Paul’s Church in Nantucket, Mass. They were married for 69 years, residing in Rye, and spending their summers in Nantucket. Gay de Menocal died in December 2019.
Mr. de Menocal worked in corporate banking for over forty years, at Citibank for several decades and then with the Nordic American Banking Corporation. Upon retirement, he joined the U.N. Development Programme assisting with the financial restructuring in Russia, Mongolia, and Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet economy in the early 1990s.
He was a longtime member of American Yacht Club in Rye, Nantucket Yacht Club, and the Wharf Rat Club.
His sons said that he was a role model for them. “Our father was generous, warm, and welcoming to so many and showed us the value of helping others. He was a devoted and loving husband to our mother for 69 years.”
Among the things Daniel de Menocal loved, according to his family, were long walks around the neighborhood, yard work, and fixing things around the house, and being near the ocean and surf casting.
In addition to his sons, Daniel Crosby de Menocal Jr., George Wallace de Menocal, and Peter Bedloe de Menocal, he was survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his elder siblings, Beatrice Simpson, Esmee Brooks, and Richard A. de Menocal.
No immediate plans have been made for a memorial service at this time. He will be interred alongside his wife at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.
