20/2/1935 – 28/3/2010
Stan was born in Scotland in 1935 and was an incredibly positive person. For most people a poor upbringing, especially in the Gorbals of Glasgow, would have been a burden. Not for Stan – he loved his life there. He remembered every street, every neighbour and every relative.
Post war, Stan came out to Australia with his family and settled in Brisbane. He secured a job in a department store – and found it very odd that the young people he worked with did nothing socially in the evening or at weekends. He approached the Managing Director to set up a Social Club – probably a first for Brisbane in the ‘50’s.
The family moved to Melbourne where he met Elly and they married 1956. They produced three children Allan, Lyn and Gary and on the 8th Anniversary of his Transplant his first grandchild Tara was born. A few years later Jemma came along.
Stan’s early work in Melbourne was selling electrical appliances door to door. He would also travel to country towns around Victoria and in 1967 opened his own business Stanmore Appliance Centre, one of the first Discount stores situated in King Street, a conservative banking and insurance district. The fluorescent exterior was noted by the city council as ‘visual pollution’. Many of the customers were the people Stan had met in country Victoria selling door to door and Stan believed they were all special. No family holiday by road would have been complete without the stops at many towns to say hi to his customers.
The Saints were his enduring love and for many years he never missed a match. He became involved with many of the players in the late ‘60’s through till his illness in the late ‘80’s. There was always a job, a meal or a bed for any of them that needed it. It wasn’t unusual for the kids to come home and find a note to sleep in the spare room as Stan had given their bed over to one of the team. In his last weeks many of those players, their families and even ex-wives came to see Stan reminiscing about the great parties, thanking him for all he did for them and for just being a great friend. The last couple of years saw Stan ‘coaching’ the Saints from the couch. He taped every game and would watch each winning one, time and time again.
Stan recently said that by age 10 he knew how he wanted to live his life and he felt he did it as he had decided back then. He always said he would never wait to travel or enjoy life, but do things when he could get the most out of it. Because of this attitude he never had regrets - never said I wished I had done this or that - he had done it all. He travelled extensively connecting and re-connecting with family and friends from his childhood.
Stan was only 45 when he had his first heart bypass in the ‘80’s. Of course his health issues did nothing to slow him down until at 55 he suffered a massive heart attack.
At 5 pm on December 26th, 1991 Stan’s beeper went off to alert him that a donor heart had been found. The person that made the call to him along with a number of people from the original transplant team and his Cardiologist of 30 years were still part of the team who helped him through his last weeks. After midnight he received the new heart and the long battle to survive began. Of course, this was Stan – and so of course he would defy all odds and survive. Multiple complications meant a 9 month stay in hospital but his determination and positive attitude saw Stan live for more than 18 years post transplant.
When he was told that his time was imminent, Stan said how lucky he was; lucky to know his time was up, be lucid, feeling pretty good and have the opportunity to say goodbye to friends and family. How typical of Stan to consider himself lucky at his end of time.
