DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 1997           TAG: 9710150408

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: ONANCOCK                          LENGTH:   78 lines

L. FLOYD NOCK III

L. Floyd Nock III, architectural historian, author and prominent citizen of the Eastern Shore, died at his home Oct. 13, 1997. He was 64.

Son of the late L. Floyd Nock Jr. and Cora Byrd Ames Nock, he grew up at ``The Folly'' near Accomac. Mr. Nock lived his entire life on the Eastern Shore of Virginia except for his years in school and in the U.S. Coast Guard. After earning a degree in English at Washington and Lee University in 1954, he studied business administration, agronomy, horticulture and agriculture at the University of Virginia and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. In 1958 he and the former Anne Bryant were married and moved into the 18th century house, ``Vaux Hall'' near Onancock, on which property he began a farming operation.

In 1971 he returned to school at Hampton Institute to study architecture and architectural history and received a master's degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia in 1975. In the same year he established Shore Restorations and Designs in Accomac, the first professional architectural historian's practice on the Eastern Shore of Virginia which specialized in the traditional architecture of the Shore. Over the past 20 years, he worked on numerous projects, old and new, public and private, on the Shore and off, many of which were in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

He was a member of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society, served on its board at various times, and was keenly interested in its organizational development and in the care and maintenance of Kerr Place, its headquarters building. He was a past director of the Drummondtown Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, served on the APVA board at the state level, and was awarded the organization's Gabriella Page Historic Preservation Award in 1991 ``for outstanding contributions to the field of historic preservation, particularly on the Eastern Shore.'' Other professional organizations to which he belonged were the Society of Architectural Historians and the Association for Preservation Technology.

Mr. Nock was the first to bring to public attention and appreciation the architectural heritage of the town of Accomac, an interest which led him to write three books about the town's people and buildings: Drummondtown, A One-Horse Town (1975); What the Saturday Evening Post Missed (1986); and Walking Tours of Accomac (1986). His first book, now out of print, is increasingly rare and is considered a local classic. He taught classes at the Eastern Shore Community College on the history and architecture of the area and lectured frequently to school groups and civic organizations. A charter member of the Eastern Shore Yacht and Country Club, he served on the board of ACES in its formative years and was a member of the Onancock Rotary in recent years. An active churchman, he taught an adult Sunday School class at Market Street United Methodist Church, Onancock, for more than 30 years and held countless positions in the local, district and annual conference levels of the United Methodist Church.

Mr. Nock had an artist's eye for fine craftsmanship and appreciated beauty in small details as well as large. With the philosophy that an old structure or artifact was not ``beautiful because it was old, but old because it was beautiful,'' he labored not only to appreciate and preserve treasures of the past but also to help others to do so. A talented amateur photographer who loved to travel, he enjoyed taking pictures both at home and abroad. No stranger to hard work, he delighted in doing a job well, whether it was growing six tomato plants or a field of soybeans; designing a simple handrail for a small porch entrance or creating the entire plan for a house. Though heir to the courtliness of the old school, he resisted conformity, lived unpretentiously, and ignored traditional social barriers in forming friendships.

Cared for by his family and friends with the help of Hospice Care of the Eastern Shore, he spent his last months in a courageous battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Anne; a daughter, Sarah of Marietta, Ga.; a son, Levin of Bellevue, Wash.; a sister, Ellen Nock Nelson of Accomac; a brother, Samuel A. Nock of Quinby; numerous nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces and a host of friends whose lives he touched and enriched in many ways.

A funeral will be conducted at 11 a.m. today in Market Street United Methodist Church, Onancock, by the Rev. Michael Kubat, Dr. James H. Boice Jr. and Dr. Kirk Mariner. Interment will be in the Edge Hill Cemetery, Accomac.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Market Street United Methodist Church, Martha Joyal, treasurer, 41 Kerr St., Onancock; or to Hospice Care of the Eastern Shore, P.O. Box 334, Onancock, Va. 23417. Williams Funeral Home, Onancock, is handling arrangements. KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

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