Stan Hungerford passed away on 12 May 2019, at his home in Kirkland (a suburb of Seattle), Washington State, USA. Stan was a member and great friend of HAFS, making many contributions to HAFS for over 20 years.
Some of Stan’s ashes have been interred in the Kirkland Cemetery next to those of his parents, the Reverend Claude David Hungerford, and Marjorie A (Tiny) (nee Arnold). His brother Stephen and his cousins and nephews will take the rest of his ashes to Hawaii to be placed in the Punchbowl Cemetery (National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu), with full military honours. Stan was a military veteran, serving in the United States Navy for three years, then working as an engineer in Alaska, in the Air Quality Control Department of Environmental Conservation.
Stan the writer
Stan had been a member of HAFS, since 1998, when he was introduced to Ron Prentice by Richard W Hungerford of Omaha, Nebraska. At that time Stan was researching a botanical project on the Ericaceous family of plants. Following this introduction Stan was a regular correspondent with HAFS, writing about family history, especially “Hungerford” and many other topics of interest to him. These included botanical subjects, shells, beetles, Olympic and Montreal Games, various team sporting events, stamp collecting, Hungerford heraldry, Hungerford place names and their history, to name a few.
His major work was A Summary of the Families Hungerford, 2nd ed 1980, which has been used widely by Hungerford family members in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. He donated many other books and items including a wooden carving of the Hungerford Coat of Arms, given to his father by his father’s colleagues at his place of work: see HAFS Newsletter No 55, Feb 2018 and Newsletter No 56, Aug 2018.
Stan contributed 18 articles to the HAFS Journal and Newsletters, as well as various correspondence, which was reported in newsletters, or filed away in our correspondence files for future reference.
In 2000, when Stan visited Australia for the Sydney Olympic Games, he met up with many HAFS members: see HAFS Newsletter No 21, Feb 2001.
Stan the traveller
One of Stan’s other interests was travel, and earlier this year he wrote to John BS Hungerford [E.1.1a.7b.1c.2d], recording that he had visited many additional countries for his list. He still had a few more places to go.
- many years ago he had visited England, tracing the footsteps of the earlier Hungerford families. Then, we note that he visited Russia in 2007, Mount Rainer National Park in 2008,
- in 2013 it was “the Stans” (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan),
- in 2015, Stan took a road trip through Washington State and Idaho, then travelled to the Czech Republic, Hungary & Rumania, Slovakia and Serbia. From Amsterdam he and his friend travelled to Prague, and on to Passau, Germany, then Budapest,
- Stan’s 2016 trips included Sri Lanka via Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Later he arrived in Southwestern India (Mumbai) and Rajastan, then Dubai, and the United Arab Republics,
- 2017 destinations included southern Africa – Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia (including the Victoria Falls), Angola, and South Africa (Cape Town). After this Stan visited his brother in Hawaii, and back to a friend in St Louis, Missouri, then to Earlville, Iowa. He returned home and with his brother attended his nephew Ryan’s wedding in Oregon, USA,
- His 2018 journeys took Stan to Northern Scotland, ending in Bergen, Norway. Now he needed a short vacation in Phoenix, Arizona, to attend the wedding of Stephen’s other son Jeff,
- His last trip with his brother Steve, was to Egypt and Jordan in April 2019.
Stan Hungerford in Egypt, February 2019
His legacy is immense to both the Hungerford & Associated Families Society Inc and The Hungerford Family Foundation, Inc. We remember our connections with him with grateful thanks and esteem for his continued efforts and advice.1
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Stan Hungerford [SH 1380]
[box type=”note” style=”rounded” border=”full”]by Deena Henkins.
Deena was Stan’s friend for 45 years. She knew him well starting in Alaska, and later both moved to the Seattle area and kept in touch, sharing attendance at the Opera, Symphony, Seahawks football games and Sounders soccer matches, as well as their mutual interest in music, horticulture and travel.
Eulogy sent by Stephen Hungerford.[/box]
Stan was an expert genealogist, particularly of the Hungerford families in England, the US, Canada, and Australia. He also generously researched the families of a number of friends. In one case, he helped a friend identify the original owners of a silver tea set that was a gift from a prominent Seattle family to “Margaret and John.”
The botanist
Stan was an accomplished amateur botanist with particular, but not exclusive, interest in Ericaceous plants (rhododendrons/azaleas, vacciniums (blueberries), etc.), cacti, and conifers. He was interested in them from a scientific standpoint, but he was also talented at combining them into a pleasing and varied landscape at his home in Kirkland. He thought that every plant that he gave limited space to should have at least three virtues such as spring or fall foliage color, foliage texture, flowers, berries, etc. He was a long time member of the American Rhododendron Society, the Seattle Rhododendron Society (serving as president in the early 90s), and the Rhododendron Species Foundation on the former Weyerhaeuser headquarters property in Federal Way, Washington.
The music and sports lover
Stan was also a classical music enthusiast with a good ear for composers, and a large collection of music. He was a long-time season ticket holder of both the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Besides music and plants he was a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, with season tickets from the 1993 season on, and a fan of the Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer team from its inception.
He avidly followed professional tennis, figure skating, and the Olympic games. He attended many figure skating competitions in the US and Europe, and summer Olympic Games in Mexico, Munich, Montreal and Sydney. He was scheduled to attend the Moscow Olympic Games but cancelled because the Soviets did not want people to attend the entire games, so that they did not have to build new accommodations and could get several groups of attendees rotated through the existing facilities during the duration of the games.
The cook
He was an enthusiastic and accomplished amateur cook and enjoyed preparing food from cuisines around the world. He was an adventuresome eater and always willing to try something new.