Stanley Everett Iversen was born on October 4, 1933 in Covina California to Sylvia and Everett Iversen. Stanley was the younger brother to Virginia, who was 9 at the time of his arrival.

Stanley’s father, Everett (Chris) worked for both the local Azusa police and fire departments as a dispatcher. His mother, Sylvia worked to provide a nurturing home for both Virginia and Stanley.

As a boy, Stanley enjoyed reading and cycling with his friends around the local orange groves and the cyanide pits near his home. He was active in Boy Scouts, and loved hiking in the canyons and camping in the local mountains.  Stanley enjoyed the chance to go to the Cherry Valley Boy Scout camp on Catalina Island each summer and he enjoyed reading comic books and had a large collection.

His mother said he grew very fast and always had a healthy appetite. Sylvia said he would come home from school and could eat a half gallon of ice cream and a big bag of potato chips. She loved to cook for him as much as he enjoyed the meals she prepared for him.

Stanley attended elementary and secondary school in Azusa.  He was on the football team in high school.  He then went on to college at Cal Poly Pomona.

He served for two years in the U.S. Army beginning in 1953 and had the good fortune to be sent to West Germany rather than the waning Korean War theatre. He was stationed in Wurzberg, Germany, where he was a driver in the motor pool. He managed to travel to many of the recovering European countries while enjoying the relatively uncrowded autobahns of the time.

When he returned stateside, Stan returned to Cal Poly and graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1958. It was around this time that he met a young elementary school teacher named Nancy Riddle and asked her for a date. She rebuffed him initially as she already had a date for the evening requested, but eventually the two began to date and in the summer of 1959 they were married. This was the same year that Stan’s Father, Everett, passed away after a short illness.

Stan had continued to study at Cal Poly to pursue his passion for horticulture with a further degree in landscape architecture but then made the decision to work full time and he took a job with Neil McClain Company doing chemical sales.

In 1960 Stan and Nancy had a baby boy they named Karsten. They were living at the time in a small home set amidst the orange groves. They welcomed their second child, Kathren, in late 1961 and then decided that three would be the ideal number of kids in early 1963 with the arrival of their son Erik.

In June of 1963, they moved to the community of Leucadia in San Diego county and thereafter followed an opportunity to move to the Pacific Northwest and relocated to the area of Des Moines near Seattle in late 1964. They purchased a home on Mercer Island in the middle of Lake Washington in late 1965 and raised their kids there for the next six years. Meanwhile Stan was working in Seattle with his colorful co-workers Mark & Joe in what seemed to his kids (on their occasional visits) to be a magical realm of adventure,- but which was, in fact, an industrial fumigation facility and warehouse.

It was during this time that Stan was selling MagAmp fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals to local growers in the area as well as providing fumigation services for agricultural imports.

In 1971 Stan had the opportunity to take a position at the Santa Clara County facility and the family made the move to California. They settled in the community of Los Gatos near the Santa Cruz mountains in the South San Francisco Bay area.

Stan subsequently came into contact with Dick Storkan, Jerry Hanes and Robert McCaslin and their company TriCal Inc. TriCal was involved in agricultural soil chemical application and fumigation in the Western states. TriCal hired Stan and he worked out of their offices in Morgan Hill, California.

Stan was involved in many aspects of TriCal’s expansion over the years as they developed subsidiary businesses to serve different niche markets and geographic locales. Stan took on the role of President of Soil Chemical Corporation within this corporate rubric and was always looking for ways to develop the company’s competitive advantage while fostering its culture and work environment.

Stan had many colleagues among the staff of the many offshoots of TriCal and many of those colleagues became real friends and compatriots in the struggle to always stay ahead of the competition and to have fun doing it. 

His involvement with agriculture always kept him close to one of his passions: horticulture. This interest found expression in his private life in his association with, and work for, the Saratoga Horticulture Foundation. It was through the S.H.F. that he learned of the imminent dissolution of the historic Leonard Coates Nursery in Watsonville, CA. Watsonville is South of Santa Cruz and Aptos and has an ideal climate for plant propagation.

Stan and a group of investors including the associated owners of TriCal & others formed Suncrest Nurseries Inc. in 1989 to focus on California native plant species for sale to the wholesale market. At this point, Stan transitioned to working as President of the new company while developing its core business practices and product line in conjunction with Nevin Smith.

Throughout his twenty-five year tenure at the helm of the operation, Stan supported the vision and progress of Suncrest in countless ways. He welcomed new ideas on all fronts and was willing to take risks with new plant lines, technology and methods. He was a patient listener and wise counselor to everyone who came to him with problems or ideas. He played a calm and capable role as peacemaker when disputes arose. And he was forever free with words of encouragement.

On the personal side of his life, Stan and his wife Nancy separated, and were divorced in the early ‘90’s. Around this time, Stan met Linda Anderson through mutual friends and the two took their time to get to know one another well, - before taking the plunge and marrying in 2002, in what was a second marriage for both of them. Suncrest again was central to the events, as the ceremony and reception were held on the attractive courtyard grounds of the nursery. Stan always considered himself lucky to have such a caring, companiable and classy person as his partner in his life at this point.

Stan was fortunate to have his son Karsten as an integral member of the Suncrest staff in various roles over the years; including inside sales and plant pathology manager. His son Erik was occasionally enlisted for his design expertise for annual plant catalog covers as well as the original, and still-in-use Suncrest Nurseries logo. His daughter Kathren was always his biggest supporter and steady counsel for new business ideas and competitive strategy development.

Stan always made time for his family and they received the benefit of the extension of their family to include the members of Linda’s family as well. Extended family gatherings around holidays and special events were enlivened by the joining of both groups.

Stan lived for a time close by Suncrest in Watsonville, but settled back in Los Gatos in recent years and had a very full life with his wife Linda in their downtown home. They enjoyed local events and traveled, - with Costa Rica being a consistent destination. Stan loved to read history and current events and he was constantly changing the outdoor landscape of their comfortable yard-scape to always integrate new plants to improve its appearance and functionality.

Stan cared deeply about his work, his co-workers, and most of all, his entire family. He passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly in Los Gatos on June 14, 2014. He will be very much missed by all of those who had the privilege of knowing him and experiencing the dedication, integrity, spirit, wry humor and goodness that was Stanley Everett Iversen.

We loved him and we will miss him.