Stanton Jon Kan

In Loving Memory of Stanton Jon Kan

It is with sad hearts that we announce the passing of Stanton Jon Kan, who departed this life on February 26, 2025, at the age of eighty-eight. Stanton was a beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend whose carefree disposition and supportive, caring nature will be missed by all who knew him.

Born May 28, 1936, in Seattle, Washington, Stan was one of four children born to the late George Jon Kan and Patricia Corryne Au Kan. Stan grew up in the Seattle, Washington area, and graduated from Garfield High School in 1954. He was a solid B student in reading, writing, history, and science. He excelled as an A student in woodworking, jewelry making, bookkeeping, effective living…and skipping class to play ping pong. Stan was the number two ping pong player in Washington state and clearly a left brain, pragmatic thinker.

Stan joined the Air Force after high school for an 8 year tour of duty that sent him to Korea and Okinawa where he worked on the very first microwave landing systems. Being the pragmatic thinker he was, he noted that the heat generated by the system would be an excellent way to cook a hot dog. That was Stan, always ahead of his time! Though he did not invent the microwave oven, he did attempt to build a worm farm business to grow bait for fishing, one of his all time favorite life pastimes. His worms did not survive the Colorado winter, but his love of fishing never wavered.

After his tour of duty, Stan took a civil service job at Lowery Airforce Base as a training film editor where he developed state of the art flight training materials using imaginative film editing techniques that generated realistic views of takeoff and landing on a shoestring Air Force budget. The grand irony of his successful military and civil service careers was that flying terrified him. Stan finally joined the post office in 1972 where he took the job of Colorado’s first special delivery mail man (his hat badge had the number 1 on it) and finished his career as the manager of the Littleton post office, retiring at age 55 in 1992.

Stan spent the remaining 33 years of his life pursuing his 5G passions: Golfing, Game fishing, Gambling, Garage sales (the man could not resist a bargain and would dicker a $.50 item down to a dime whenever possible), and Good food with family and friends. Like his own father, he was always busy with his hands, buying townhomes or condominiums, remodeling them from top to bottom and then selling them only to buy another and start the whole process over again. He was never bored.

Stan is survived by his children from his marriage to Lois Irene Martin: son Jerry and daughters Patricia and Karis, his sister Cynthia, and his brother Kingsley. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren and many beloved nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, Stan was preceded in death by his older brother Daryl.

Stan will be interred privately at Fort Logan National Cemetery.