Robert Walter Stanley was born on September 7, 1964 near Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He passed away in a skydiving accident in Jinan, China on July 4, 2019.
Rob’s love of the sky started at a very young age. The four Stanley kids, Eileen, Jo, Rick, and Rob, would sit outside the house on the sheep farm near St. Agatha. The clear summer nights were perfect for stargazing. Our dad, John, would point out the constellations: Orion, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Cassiopeia, the North Star. He would talk about the weather and we would watch the heat lightning in the distance.
This led to a fascination with rockets, fireworks, science fiction, science and how the world works. The three boys started skydiving at Parachute School of Toronto in the early 1980s. My mom would often go up to Arthur to watch them. They quickly moved into canopy formation work, relative work, freeflying and of course BASE jumping. I remember being the “getaway driver” for an antenna jump early in the morning. “Don’t hang around”, they said, “Let’s go before the farmer sees us."
Parachuting became his passion, his life. Every weekend and every penny went towards skydiving. He traveled and competed all around the world.
Rob spent many years at Cross Keys, New Jersey. He met so many people and some of them became his second family.
He also worked and jumped in Florida, Puerto Rico, Utah, South Africa, Australia, Thailand, Dubai and most recently in China. His family is world wide!
Rob was not a material person, nor religious but spiritual and deeper than he looked. I would like to memorialize him in a unique and creative way by using this Celestis service. I hope that this is something he would appreciate.
Thanks to all of those who have shared stories and photos! Rob would have been humbled to realize what an impact he had on those he met.
