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Stanley Adrian Fishler was born on May 2, 1926, the son of Alice Ethel Mabey and Philip L Fishler. He was proud of both his Mormon pioneer and Jewish heritages. He was funny, a hard worker, a people person, a tease to the end. He was very affectionate with our mom and us kids. Family, all family, meant the world to him.
He grew up in the Avenues and was educated at Longfellow School, Bryant Junior High and East High School.
Among Dad’s fondest childhood memories were visiting his mother’s family in Davis County, picking fruit and vegetables at his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jasper Hepworth’s farm in Bountiful and then helping his mother can the bounty. He enjoyed attending concerts in the various Salt Lake parks and at Saltair, making and eating homemade ice cream, and listening to suspense stories on the radio. Dad developed his lifelong enjoyment of music from his father’s love of all music. And he developed his love of mysteries from listening to The Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, Suspense Theatre and others.
He attended college at the University of Utah and joined the Navy in 1944 at seventeen as a corpsman. After World War II he returned to the University, earning both a BA and a MA in Anthropology. He did fieldwork with the Navajo (Dine) Nation while living with his brother Kenneth and his wife Pat.
As a member of the Naval Ready Reserve, Stanley was called up as a corpsman in 1950 during the Korean War. He met his future wife, Darlene Dougherty, who he called “a beautiful coal miner’s daughter”. After they married, they moved to Boston, where Stanley attended Harvard working on a PhD in cultural anthropology. He was on the faculty at Clark University, Yale University and Georgia State University teaching anthropology and sociology classes. After several years, he became a Planner of Health Services for the Georgia Public Health Department and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. He was a fundraiser and community planner with United Way for thirty-three years. He loved his work as a community problem solver.
Darlene and Stan had five beautiful children. His career required moving the family often, living in six states. Valerie was born in Tooele, UT; Kevin Michael was born in Boston, MA; Geoffrey Guy and Andrea Lynn were born in Atlanta, GA; Stacy Ann was born in Savannah GA. Geoffrey died in 1995 in Portland OR with Kevin dying in 2019 in Beaverton, OR.
Our family vacations were spent exploring the areas surrounding our homes, traveling to Utah to spend time with family in Salt Lake and Price as well as visiting family members and friends around the country. We camped at national and state parks, visited historical sites and museums, played games and sat by the fire reading.
As a family tradition, on holidays we had to do a chore before we could have fun. We listened to musicals, singing along as we cleaned out closets, vacuumed the house or cleaned the bathrooms. Then we would go roller- skating, ice -skating or the movies.
Stan was very active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as a Ward Missionary, Bishop, as a member of several branch presidencies and bishoprics as well as on several stake high councils. He was a faithful home teacher.
In retirement, as in most of his life, Dad was very busy. He built their retirement home in Emigration Canyon, a place he had loved since he was a child where he had spent his summers roaming. Dad traveled with his family to many places around the world. He collected and read hundreds of books (several at one time), a habit several of his children acquired. He collected and refinished antiques, as well as collected coins, mechanical banks and pigs. He was a gardener, another trait his children acquired. He found peace and satisfaction in working in the dirt.
Dad was an avid genealogist, a hobby he started in his twenties and continued for close to seven decades. He gathered stories about both the Jewish side of his family as well his pioneer relatives. He enjoyed sharing those stories and if you weren’t careful you might turn out to be a cousin! Dad also never met a stranger, chatting up people everywhere he went. He wrote letters to nieces and nephews and grandchildren, just as his father and mother had done.
Dad was the chair of the Emigration Canyon Historical Society and did the primary research for a book on Emigration Canyon written by Cynthia Furse and Jeffrey Carlstrom. He collected items from the old wooden water system in the canyon, the trolley line to Pinecrest, and found items from the land where he built his home.
He also was the powerhouse, along with Robert Race, on getting the monument documenting the Ute Indian Tribe at Rotary Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon completed. Among his last wishes were the placements of another five monuments in the canyon as well making sure the Mormon trail was kept opened and accessible to the public.
He is survived by his daughters- Valerie Fishler, Andrea Fishler White and Stacy Fishler Buchanan (Robert). Grandchildren- Isaac Fishler, Adam Buchanan (Kristen), Taylor Bingham (Dillon), Matthew Fishler, Zachary Buchanan, Jacob Buchanan (Nichelle) and Lucas Buchanan (Ehlana). Great-grandchildren- Elija Fishler, Memphis Fishler, Adilynn Bingham, Scarlett Buchanan, Deacon Bingham, Felicity Buchanan, Jordyn Bingham, Aurora Buchanan, Skylar Bingham, Archer Buchanan, Robert Buchanan. He was very affectionate to our mom and to us kids, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. We knew we were loved.
Preceded in death by his loving wife, Darlene Dougherty Fishler; sons, Geoffrey G. Fishler and Kevin M. Fishler; son-in- love David O. White; grandchildren Andrew Buchanan and Melanie Stout; his parents and siblings.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, friends are invited to a visitation with the family held on Saturday, November 14, 2020, from 10:30 to 11:30 am followed by a private funeral service at 12:00pm at the Emigration Canyon Ward building at 2795 East Crestview Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah. The burial will be at 2 pm at the Bountiful City Cemetery. To view the private service via zoom please email: StanleyFishler@gmail.com
In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to charitywater.org or the Alzheimer’s Association.
A special thanks to Suzie, an angel hospice nurse at Intermountain Homecare and Hospice for taking good care of our dad.