For several years Gil and I lived on campus at St Marks School. It was, for me, one of our happiest times. Being part of a community that shared so many interests, sports, music, theater, was like living in a perfect bubble. I made my way to NH and beyond each day but coming home to Southborough felt like my reward.
While living at St Marks, we spent summers in York, Maine where we enjoyed traveling and painting the Maine coast. Gil also devoted his days to researching his family, in particular his grandfather, William Stanley, an engineer who invented the electric transformer and the vacuum bottle ,as well as his father, Gilbert Stanley, a pilot in World War I, who survived being shot down over France. Family letters, his father’s diary, and photographs of the war inspired his paintings of battle scenes, aircraft and uniformed soldiers.
After retiring in 2009 we also resided in Bradenton, Florida and Gil attended classes and seminars on various topics including the Supreme Court, Vietnam, and racial injustice. He respected and supported the ongoing work of The Southern Poverty Law Center.
While at home with the corona virus breathing down our necks, our days were full and we shared our enjoyment of painting, reading and the best Netflix had to offer. Gil kept in touch, almost daily, with his many friends, finding and sharing political, cultural and social topics from his many magazine and news publications, interesting articles found on the internet, and stupid jokes about being old.
He will be deeply missed and remembered by his family, friends and neighbors as; a loving caregiver to Rosie, his beloved Havanese, a vibrant, loving partner in life to me, and his home made spaghetti sauce that he loved to give away, which he labeled “Grampy’s.”