Thomas Melville Stanback

1920 - 2025

Thomas Melville Stanback

January 12, 1920 - November 2, 2025

Thomas M. Stanback, Jr. died peacefully at his home in Larchmont, N.Y., on Sunday November 2, 2025 at the age of 105. Raised in Spencer and later Salisbury, N.C., he was the son of Thomas M. and Ada M. Stanback of Salisbury. The elder Stanback was the founder of the Stanback Co. Ltd., maker of pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Stanback graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1940 and entered Harvard Business School, earning an MBA in 1942. Upon graduation, with World War II underway, Dr. Stanback reported to his draft board and was assigned to the 20th Fighter Group, U.S. Army Air Forces, as statistical officer and assistant adjutant officer. His unit shipped out to Europe aboard the famous ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth, refitted as a troop ship, with 19,000 other soldiers, sailors and airmen on board.

In England, Dr. Stanback got to know the fabled pilots of his fighter group and was responsible for provisions at the base. He said he was especially excited when he could get fresh eggs for his men from local farmers.

Returning to the States after the war, Dr. Stanback earned a doctorate in economics from Duke University. After a stint at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York City, he became a professor of economics at New York Univesrity, where he taught until his retirement in 1986. In addition to his teaching duties at NYU, he joined Columbia University's Conservation of Human Resources Project in a senior research position. He published many books on urban economics, the postwar growth of metropolitan areas, the decline of employment in manufacturing and agriculture and the rise of the service economy.

Dr. Stanback was an avid yachtsman and Lifetime Member of the Larchmont Yacht Club. On his sailboat, Mistral, and its successors, he explored the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, eventually sailing from Maine to the Carolinas. He attributed his longevity to exercise and physical fitness and the consumption of a Coca-Cola every day. To his family, friends and all he met, he exuded a radiant good will and a love of conversation. His other passion, besides sailing, was his family. Married to Margaret Lide of Florence, S.C. in 1947, Dr. Stanback had six children. He is survived by four of them, Margaret, Robert, William and Florence, 12 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and fourteen nieces and nephews. His younger brother, William C. Stanback, his beloved wife, Margaret, two sons, Thomas and Maxwell, and one grandson, Timothy, predeceased him. Funeral services will be private.