Stanley Large

Stanley Fredrick Large, age 93, passed away peacefully in Lakewood, CO on September 30, 2023. Stanley was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, the youngest of 4 children.
He was predeceased by his brothers Robert and Edward, and sister Lily.
Stanley is survived by grandchildren Natalie and Daniel, and daughter-in-law Carol of Illinois, nephew Malcolm and wife Rita of New Jersey, and their son Richard of Glasgow, Scotland, as well as many other family members in England. He is also missed by many dear friends in Colorado.
Stanley started his career as an apprentice painter and decorator in his hometown of Newcastle, and he soon developed into a master craftsman known for his meticulous work and attention to detail. Due to his reputation as a skilled craftsman, combined with his outgoing personality, he was inevitably recruited to work as part of the sales team of Leyland Paints, one of Britain's largest Paint Companies. He quickly adapted to this new, and very different role. However, in 1969, Stan's life changed forever when he and his then wife Esther decided to embark on a new life in Colorado. With children Stewart and Graeme in tow, Lakewood became the family's new home, and it was here where Stanley lived for the next 54 years.
On his arrival in Colorado, Stanley relied on his skills in painting and decorating to find work in the Lakewood area, and soon joined forces with Horst Maeding, a fellow European who shared Stanley's passion for quality workmanship. A testament to Horst's and Stanley's exceptional work was that, over 44 years of working together, they never once needed to advertise their services because their reputation kept continuously bringing in work for decades until they both decided to retire.
Sadly, Stanley also endured great tragedy in his life when first his older son Stewart died in a car accident in NJ in 1995, and then in 2018, his younger son Graeme died after a long illness.
Despite these enormous personal losses, Stanley remained focused on helping other people through donating blood and platelets. By the time he stopped at age 91, he had donated 600 times amounting to 65 gallons of blood and platelets. He was justifiably immensely proud of this.
Stanley was an avid fan of soccer, or football, as the game is called in Britain, and he passionately followed Newcastle United, his home team, from the age of 14. He shared this love of the game with his nephew Malcolm, who was in frequent contact with Stanley over the years talking about their team's wins and losses. In fact, one of the last things that Stanley was able to do shortly before he died, was to watch a match together with Malcolm in which their beloved team won 8-0, which naturally made him very happy.

Stanley was a veteran of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), having served as an engineer in the years immediately following the end WWII. During this period of his life, he lost his hearing in one ear due to a severe ear infection, and this made him hard of hearing for the rest of his life.
Despite living in the United States for 54 years, and becoming a US citizen in 1982, Stanley never lost his Newcastle accent, or the so called "Geordie" dialect, and he easily won people over with his sense of humor and 'charming' accent. His favorite meal was fish and chips and, as things turned out, his last proper meal before he died was just that, Fish and Chips!