Robert Richard Stanley

Robert Richard (“Dick”) Stanley, Jr. of Greenville, SC, entered into larger life on February 4, 2026. Dick was born in Greenville, SC on January 4, 1944, to Robert Richard Stanley and Carl Denyse Bryant Stanley. Mr. Stanley is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ingeborg (“Inge”) Herbst Stanley, and his children, Sylvia Stanley Wood (Fred), Robert Walter Stanley (Rob). He was predeceased by his parents and his only sibling, Samuel Barry Stanley (Patsy). He is also survived by a niece, Tracie Elizabeth Stanley Duelmer (Jim), and a nephew, Barry Walter Stanley (Denise). Survivors also include two grandsons, Fred Marshall Wood III, and Mason Grosvenor Wood, a grand niece, Callie Duelmer and a grand nephew, Andrew Duelmer.

Mr. Stanley was a “cradle” Episcopalian, having been a communicant of a number of Episcopal parishes, during his lifetime. For the past 25 years, he was a parishioner of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Greenville. His Requiem Mass will be celebrated by the Rector of St. Andrew’s, the Reverend Gary Eichelberger, on a date to be announced. Interment in the columbarium at St. Andrew’s will follow the mass, after which there will be a reception in the parish house.

Mr. Stanley proudly served in the U.S. Army, enlisting at Ft. Jackson in 1962. He was on active duty from 1962 to 1968, in various assignments, during the Vietnam War. He underwent basic infantry training at Ft. Gordon, GA and then went to Fort Sam Houston, TX for training as a combat medical corpsman, later qualifying as a paramedic. He was then posted to a cavalry squadron in the Second Armored Division, famous in WWII as the “Hell on Wheels” division of General George Patton. After two years in the Second Armored Division, he was sent to Ft. Sam Houston again to train as a Surgical Technician. As a surgical technician, he served for three more years in the 4th MASH in Ludwigsburg, Germany and a final year of active duty service in the 94th Evacuation Hospital, Ft. Lewis, Washington. Ten years later, after establishing his career as a hospital CEO, he received a personal invitation from the Chief of the Medical Service Corps of the US Army, and accepted a direct commission as a Captain in the US Army Reserve, and served four more years. After serving four years in the active reserve, he was selected for promotion to Major, following which he received an honorable discharge.

Mr. Stanley was educated in the public and private schools of Greenville, SC (1961), Christ School in Arden, NC, Furman University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a B.S. in management (1971) and an MBA in Healthcare Management (1972). Following written and oral examinations, he became a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 1979 and was recertified in 1982. He also completed the requirements for certification in the Executive Management Program of Hospital Corporation of America in 1984.

Mr. Stanley became a member of American Mensa in1984, and Piedmont Area Mensa in 2001.

During his long career as a hospital administrator, Mr. Stanley served hospitals in Walterboro, SC (Associate Administrator), as well as in Danbury NC, Clinton, SC, Milan, TN, Huntingdon, PA, Brookhaven, MS and New Iberia, LA, all as CEO/President. Following his semi-retirement from full-time employment, he served as interim CEO of hospitals in several locations, including, Littleton, NH, Salt Lake City, UT, and Princeton, KY.

Following his full retirement in 2002, he pursued several interests, volunteering as a Guardian ad litem, in a program which protects and defends abused and neglected children. He also was a volunteer teacher of English as a Second Language, with the Greenville Literacy Association. His devotion to the appreciation of fine wine is well known to all who knew him. He was an oenophile, par excellence. He was also devoted to the cause of equal rights for all Americans. He was a member of PFLAG and of the Human Rights Campaign. In his youth, he was a member of SNCC and CORE. He will be remembered for his Guest Editorials in a variety of publications on various topics, and his strong opinions freely shared with anyone he cared enough about to educate. Most of all, he will be remembered for his irreverent sense of humor, quick wit, and love of telling a good joke.

The family requests that in lieu of floral tributes, donations may be made in Mr. Stanley’s honor to either the Greenville Chapter of PFLAG, or to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, in Greenville, SC.