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Stanley Gillespie Obituary
"He just touched so many lives in his teaching throughout the years," said Gillespie's daughter Amy Silverstein. "The classroom was really his element to shine, and it was just evident by all of the students who would come back years later and track him down and want to go out to lunch and talk and visit."
Gillespie's literature classes were always popular with students. He received the Distinguished Teacher Award at McCallie School in Chattanooga and Pace Academy in Atlanta, and was named a STAR teacher at Pace. Yearbooks from Pace and McCallie were dedicated to him.
Gillespie's wife Dodie said her husband loved his students, and his students loved him back. "He never talked down to them. He always uplifted them. They wanted to give him all they had because he was giving all he had."
Stanley Gillespie, of Atlanta, died July 9 after battling several different illnesses. He was 73. Read the news obituary
Memories and Condolences
for Stanley Gillespie
40 Entries
November 16, 2019
I'm so sorry, Mr. Gillespie. Thank you.
January 21, 2015
Just planning a visit to Chattanooga for my family and found this news. Please accept my condolences. I am remembering a wonderful week spent at Mccallie for the state qualifying tennnis tournament with your sweet family, when Amy and I were in the 16's. Prayers for you all.
Love,
Julie Laughlin Bomar
Peter Kalanzis
November 17, 2014
Stan Gillespie was a great teacher. I still remember him letting me read Siddhartha in the back of the class when I had just picked it up for World Religions at McCallie and I just could not stop. Stan was a kind but exact teacher, does anybody else remember him excoriating those who used the word "nice". Heaven help you if found guilty of a comma splice. Stan's love of English and his respect for his own mind and his students' potential lives in my daughters love of language and in her precise mind. Mr. Gillespie, I am forever in your debt.
David Balloff
September 3, 2014
What a wonderful role model and teacher - while at McCallie he made me want to learn and look forward to his classes. He left an impact on me as I know he did others.
Strib '71
July 25, 2014
Mr. Gillespie - thank you for challenging our long held Southern assumptions.
Jim Blitch
July 20, 2014
I can hear Mr. Gillespie now, reading from "Go Down Moses" as he taught his students about The Bear, Faulkner's great hunting story. Before you knew it, you were filled with questions that went well beyond the hunting tale. Stan Gillespie was a most gifted teacher. He influenced countless students who were fortunate enough to have him. I was one of them. God bless him.
July 17, 2014
Dodie,
I was so surprised to see this. Please know that I am thinking of you and Amy.
Janet Teal (formerly DeWeese--your pals in Smyrna)
Tom Langston, MD
July 17, 2014
I will echo what others have said. Mr. Gillespie was the most gifted and passionate teacher that I've ever known. Whenever I've think of excellence...in any walk of life...Mr. Gillespie's name is at the top of my list. It was an honor to have been his student at McCallie. My condolences to Mrs. Gillespie and Amy. Thank you Mr. Gillespie for sharing your passion with us.
Howard Brooks
July 16, 2014
Stan Gillespie had a major influence on my life. I took two classes from him at McCallie in the 1970s. I've never met a better teacher. He helped me understand how to think critically about literature, and he opened the door to so many wonderful books. I always wanted to look him up in Atlanta, but I never got around to it. I hope Stan's family knows that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students feel as I do that Stan was a powerful lasting positive influence. I'm so sad that he's gone.
Sara Jane Freeman Eads
July 15, 2014
I was a classmate with Stan at Emory at Oxford in 1961. Upon reading the entries in this Guest Book, it is apparent that he fulfilled his potential and influenced most positively those lucky students whom he encountered. Thank goodness for teachers like "Mr. G."
Rachel B
July 15, 2014
He was my teacher at Pace and instilled in me a love of Faulker. He had a poster of Faulker on his wall and I thought they looked a lot alike...especially the mustache. His legacy lives on in the many students he inspired and educated.
Edward Loughlin
July 15, 2014
Oh Mr G..I cannot believe that your time is gone...
But what a teacher you were and will continue to be as your numerous students carry your lessons with them every day.
I cannot express how large an impact you made on my life..
To relate how good a teacher you were and what you saw in me..Briefly, let me explain how after realizing that English comp was not my strong suite the time I transferred into McCallie..you sought me out after I received a failing grade in your class. You wanted me to take another class with you...of all the nerve!
That class and your incredible attention to me opened up an adventure that only you could have shared. The class: Southern Literature. Faulkner, Penn Warren, Tate, Ransom, Davidson in heaping portions spooned out by you in each and every class. You made us immerse ourselves and literally swim and breathe our Southern Heritage. As you often told me when we talked of this wonderful subject that you shared with me.."Hit is my cawn"
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will be forever in your debt for steering me towards that which you saw in me and surprisingly enough lived some of those very times that we discussed.
Now I will have to do as you instructed me, pick up a pen and set it to paper and write of those experiences...just have to do it...just as you made me that time I couldn't leave campus until I had written the assignment. Me the prodigal student writing a book...stranger things have happened before..like you opening my eyes to your love of our heritage!
Miss G, Little G, my has the time flown by. My prayers and thoughts are with you both, find immense comfort in the impact on lives that you read in these submissions. He was one of the finest teachers, ever!
Jeff Ellington
July 15, 2014
Mr. Gillespie was a great teacher. Thanks to him I have retained a love of Faulkner and other great literature. Please accept my condolences on your loss.
Fred Terry
July 15, 2014
I am very sorry to hear of Mr. Gillespie's passing. I had the great privilege of taking several classes with him in the mid-70's at McCallie. He deepened and expanded my appreciation of literature, particularly with Faulkner, Thoreau, and Twain. He was the epitome of a great English teacher. His humor, intellect, and kindness were remarkable and the joy he brought to the classroom was infectious. I am very sorry that he has passed so early, but I hope his family can take comfort in knowing that he was a great influence on so many of his students.
Fred Terry, Ann Arbor, MI
Carl Denver Mullican
July 15, 2014
I often thought of his class and my classmates as I walked Faulkner's woods behind Rowen Oak these past years...he introduced me to V.K. Ratliff and The Bear, both who have been my companions through life.
July 14, 2014
As the days and weeks pass, and as you return to life's routine, may you continue to feel comforted by the love and support of family and friends.
C Christopher (Isaiah 25:8)
July 14, 2014
Grief can be so hard, but our special memories help us cope. Remembering you and your loved one today and always.
McDdonough
July 14, 2014
My condolences to the family sorry to
hear about the passing of Stanley may
you find loving support from family &
close friends, may you have peace.
July 14, 2014
So sorry for your loss. You are in my thoughts.
Rebecca Buttles
July 14, 2014
May the love of friends and family carry you through your grief.
July 14, 2014
With deepest sympathy to the family.
Phillip Walker
July 13, 2014
The world has lost one of its best teachers. As a 10th grader at McCallie in 1980, I did not always appreciate him while in his class. He was a stern taskmaster who pushed everyone to be their best, especially in writing, by not tolerating grammatical errors, poor reasoning, rote answers, or papers that were anything less than heartfelt when they needed to be.
Very soon after his class, though, I realized how he had broken my bad habits and changed the way that I approached writing, more than any one individual – and not just writing, of course, but in the way that I communicate and think. Because of his class, writing became fun for me. Even as a life-long computer geek, the ability he fostered is still my strongest tool.
He will not be forgotten by anyone who studied under him.
John Mayer
July 13, 2014
my prayers are for Stan's family,,, my thoughts are of a generous man helping students improve
Jean and Jim Parker
July 13, 2014
Our love and prayers to Catherine and Dodie and all the family.
Scott Parker
July 13, 2014
Uncle Stanley I do wish we had time to know each other better. My mother, your cousin Jean Smith Parker, Has told me much about you over the years and with such love in her voice. My thoughts and prayers are with your Sweet family.
Caroline Bootle Pendergast
July 13, 2014
I am deeply grateful to have been his student at Pace. He had an extraordinary gift for teaching and an infectious love of literature. He had a way of challenging us with paper topics which we had to rise to meet. I will never forget the feeling of sitting down to write my first "Gillespie paper"... wrestling with complex material, trying to develop my own thoughts about it, and then expressing those thoughts in writing, hoping to meet his high standard. He taught to our potential with great compassion.
Quint Daulton
July 13, 2014
So many of the men who shaped the lives of a generation of McCallie boys are leaving us now. Houston Patterson, Warren James, Bob Bailey, Miles McNiff, and now Mr. Gillespie. None of us understood him when we were teenagers, finding his passion for literature oddly misplaced, but did we ever come to appreciate him in retrospect. Many of us who shook our heads at how he could be transported by a passage of Faulkner or Shakespeare or Twain found ourselves similarly affected as the years went by, and we grew to understand that we were ourselves the work product of his dedication. I don't know if Dodie or Amy will read this entry, but if by chance they do, I hope that they find some consolation in the notion that hundreds of his students stand testament to a life well-lived.
John Cogan
July 13, 2014
I had the privilege of teaching with Stan during his years at Pace. I can tell you, the man loved to teach Faulkner. If Faulkner wrote it, Stan taught it! God bless you and your family, Stan.
Diane Minick
July 13, 2014
I will always remember Stan as a kind, thoughtful and friendly man. He was a wonderful educator and I was priviledged to work with him at Pace. He left a wonderful legacy to the world and will be missed.
Anna Muir
July 12, 2014
So sorry to hear this news, Mr Gillespie was one of my most favorite teachers at Pace..His love of literature was contagious. My prayers are with the family. Anna (Skiles) Muir (class of 1994)
Johnny
July 12, 2014
Stan and I were friends in high school...good memories..Johnny Rogers
Hilda O'Kelley
July 12, 2014
Remembering fondly the sweet memories of our childhood. I'm praying for the family in this time of loss. Cousin Hilda Smith O'Kelley
Katherine Drolett
July 12, 2014
Stan was such a kind and thoughtful person. He always had a smile, a hug and an encouraging word. He will be missed greatly.
Marian Owens
July 12, 2014
He will be missed. Marian
July 12, 2014
Eccl. 9:5: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.”
July 12, 2014
Offering my deepest condolences. ( Ps 46 : 1 )
July 12, 2014
I offer you my deepest sympathy to your family during your time of grief. God is for you a refuge and strength, A help that is there to be found during difficult times. May God provide you with peace and comfort to endure the days ahead.
July 11, 2014
Our prayers and thoughts are with you the family. Stan will truly be missed. He was a good man and loved our Lord and his church.
pat
July 11, 2014
may God bless you in this time of sorrow.
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