Stanley was born March 19, 1926, in Tangier, Morocco. During World War II in August 1940, he moved from Morocco to New York with his parents and two brothers. After attending the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, he was accepted to Yale, MIT, and Princeton. Following visits to each university, Stanley chose Princeton, notably because the campus was very green.

At Princeton Stanley studied liberal arts and electrical engineering. He spent his evenings working at WPRU and looking at the night sky, utilizing a key to the observatory provided by one of his professors.

Here is one of his typical days at Princeton, as he wrote in his diary. Stan was age 19 at the time.

Monday 23 April 1945

Here, at P.U., life goes on the same. I get up at 6:30; Breakfast at 7: eggs or pancakes or French toast; best meal of day. Classes. Lunch at 12: not so good: chow mein, hot dogs, beans… Afternoon: classes, labs, flying, riding on Saturday if possible, running or tennis but not lately. Dinner at 6: Fair, sometimes good. WPRU on Tuesday 7-8, 10-11, Friday 8-9: pop Music. Otherwise stay in room, work with radio on: it’s gotten so I cannot sit at my desk without turning radio on. Can’t work very fast. Once in while go to movies. To bed about 11:30, 12:00. Always use bicycle to get anywhere.

It is in Princeton that he experienced the last events and the end of WWII:

12 April 1945: I heard that Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died! Terrific shock; and so sudden, it is unbelievable. All throughout the night until 12:30 I listened to reports over radio from Washington, Paris, Rome, London, San Francisco, Honolulu, Guam, Okinawa. Everywhere it was a stunning shock, unbelievable. It was 12 midnight in Europe. F.D.R. died at 4:35 at Warm Springs, GA of brain hemorrhage, after fainting at 2:30. He had not been well, he could not taste his food. (…). I hope the peace can still go on. We’ll need more than crossed fingers… F.D.R. is getting terrific tributes, and he deserves it. He was a great man.

10 August 1945: Japanese radio: Japan agrees to surrender (…). Everybody thought the war would last for at least a year, and now, overnight we almost have peace. This means the end, the END of the war, of WORLD WAR II, at long last.


Stanley graduated in three years through the University’s Wartime Accelerated Program in June 1946, though he always maintained his affiliation with the Class of 1947. Following graduation, he returned to Tangier. He hoped to go back to the USA to work as an engineer, but his father wanted Stanley to remain in the family business, the Pariente Bank of Tangier, a small, old bank in Morocco.

In June 1951, Stanley married Jeanne Taourel in Paris. Jeanne was a medicine student and later became a psychiatrist. Stanley and Jeanne were married for over 70 years and had three children, Edith, Philip, and Aline, and three grand-daughters, Déborah, Raphaëlle, and Ariane, Philip’s daughters.

In 1956, the Abensur family settled in Geneva, Switzerland, and Stanley continued to work at the Pariente Bank, which moved from Tangier to Geneva. He retired in 1991.

Stanley remained an active member of the Princeton Alumni Association. He attended with great pleasure meetings of the Class of ’47 and participated in Alumni College travel programs to South Africa, Australia, Peru, and the UK. Stanley was a great sportsman until an advanced age, skiing in winter, swimming in summer, and walking or cycling to work.

His passion was photography. Stanley always had an up-to-date camera and carefully arranged 63 photo albums from the 1940s to the 2010s. Family members who visited him always enjoyed his marvelous photographs and albums.

All of Stanley’s family and friends remember him as a man for whom it was a duty to take care of people in need. During all of his life, he always pursued a job well done.

Stanley died in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 7th, 2019, at age 93. He had a long and fulfilling life and will be missed considerably by all his family.

Written by Philip Abensur, Paris, March 2021

 

Undergraduate Class of 1947