Louis Smith Stanton

1928 - 2020

Louis Smith Stanton

Louis "Spike" Stanton passed away peacefully on March 12, 2020 in Seattle WA. He was born October 22, 1928 in Seattle to parents Louis Gaylord Stanton & Ellen Imogene (Smith) Stanton.

He was an outdoorsman and lover of history, music, theatre, and the wide-open highways of the state of Washington and surrounding states. He attended Coe School and West Queen Anne, then Bryant and onto Roosevelt High School. Much of his education was obtained during his summers working on a 10,000-acre cattle ranch near Cottonwood, Idaho. He studied agriculture at Washington State University where he was a member of the ROTC, the rifle team, and Delta Upsilon fraternity. Soon after he joined the United States Marine Corps and was proud to serve. He then attended the University of Washington where he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering in 1957. He was a proud lifelong Husky.

On October 2, 1959 he married Beverly Ann Burdette of Salt Lake City Utah, whom he met on a blind date arranged for New Year's Eve of 1958 by good friends. Spike and Bev were happily married for 54 years, until her passing in 2013.

Louie, as he was called in his work life, was a licensed Professional Engineer and had a long and successful career with the Washington State Department of Transportation. He initially did drainage design on the portion of I-5 through downtown Seattle and continued with I-5 related work until it was complete. He spent several years as a Project Engineer managing highway projects along the I-5 corridor and East to the Cascade Crest. He concluded his career as a Construction Engineer for the new I-90 bridge project. He was very fond of his co-workers at the state and one of his favorite activities was to drive across the North Cascades Highway, and to his passengers, he would recount in detail stories of wonderful memories working with his crews and the communities on highway projects.

He learned about the outdoors with The Mountaineers and proudly carried a three-digit REI number. He climbed every major peak in Washington State, despite a fear of heights, and he raised his two children with frequent wilderness trips, leading many youth hikes. He completed seven trips through the Bailey Range and Skyline Trail in the Olympic Mountains, one with a film crew for an episode of Exploration Northwest. Over the period of about a decade, he completed the entire Washington State portion of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Cascade Mountains in ten-day excursions with family & friends.

He was a vigorous reader, a lifelong student of history, a frustrated Mariners fan, and a sourdough bread baker. He loved the Porsche 356 Speedster he had in the 1950s, a great steak, lamb chop, or a perfect hamburger, a gin martini with several olives, a fine glass of Washington Syrah, local strawberries, raspberries, and peaches, a tall glass of lemonade while sitting in the sun, a well-crafted cappuccino, and good dark chocolate. He cooked elaborate meals for friends and family including Prime Rib at the holidays and the Thompson Turkey (also called the Black Turkey, made famous in the book Joe, the Wounded Tennis Player) at Thanksgiving and he and Bev enjoyed hosting Superbowl parties each year.

Following retirement, he enjoyed golf with friends and travel with Beverly, their Pleasant Beach condo at Lake Chelan, visits to his son's place in the Methow Valley, spending time with their grandchildren, getting into spirited arguments with his son-in-law, and visiting with friends in coffee shops. He and Bev were members of the The Seattle Repertory Theatre and Seattle's ACT Theatre for over fifty years, and they were supporters of many charitable causes including public television and radio, Washington Trails, the Pacific Crest Trail Association, the Nature Conservancy, the National Parks Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, and the League of Women Voters.

Louis is preceded in death by his sister Harriett and his wife Beverly. He is survived by son Louis Burdette Stanton and daughter-in-law Ann Dee Stanton, step granddaughters Sarah J. McCarthy and Carol A. Caley, daughter Elizabeth Stanton Kelly and son-in-law David Eugene Kelly, and grandchildren Allison Abeje Kelly and Aaron Malik Kelly.

A private celebration of life for friends and family will be planned for a later date.

Sign Louie's online

Guest Book at www.Legacy.com