Stanley Merkin

On August 24 2022, Stan Merkin, beloved husband and father of five children passed away at the age of 82. Stan was born to Harry and Rose Merkin of Brooklyn, New York on March 24, 1940. He grew up in Brooklyn and gained his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Hofstra University. He worked at Bell Labs and then IBM in testing, programming and programming manager positions. In 1980 while working for IBM he met soulmate Cindy; they were married in 1981.
They went on working together at various locations for IBM and then moved to Dell during its start-up years. In 1995, prior to the move to Dell, Stan was the primary author of the El Torito Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification – that specification is still in use almost 30 years later. In 2003 they retired from Dell and divided their time between their home in Stuart, FL and their farm in Costa Rica.
Throughout his life his generous spirit and love of family had enormous impact on those around him. He invested in the education of personnel at their farm in Costa Rica and had finalized the creation of a 501c-3 to support the farm (which acts as an animal shelter) just prior to his death.
He is survived by his wife Cindy, his five children (Rebecca, Deborah, Daniel, Aaron and Joshua) and 10 grandchildren.
A celebration-of-life will be held later this year. Donations gratefully accepted to Guayabo Animal Rescue (https://garcr.org) in Stan's honor.