Everett D. Stanley passed away peacefully on April 3, 2024, at the Elder Ashram in Oakland, CA. He was 93.

The son of Mildred Mercedes (Riggs) Stanley and Earl Dudley Stanley, Everett grew up in Alhambra, CA, during the great Depression and World War II. He graduated from Pacific University, in Forest Grove, OR, in 1952, and later attended graduate school at UC Berkeley.

A man of many skills, Everett (also known as Stan or Stanley) worked as a teacher, a haberdasher, a respiratory therapist, and as a landscape architect mentored by Thomas Church. He was certified in ikebana flower arranging and collected bonsai. He loved working with his hands and could fix anything. He always had a twinkle in his eye.

In 1948, when other students refused, Everett readily agreed to room with Pacific University’s first black student. He did the same with the college’s first post-war German exchange student in 1949. The experience gave Everett a lifelong friendship with Rudolf Walz, and an enduring appreciation for other cultures.

Everett was preceded in death by his husband, Rex Chase. After meeting at a dog show in 1968, the two made a home in Berkeley, CA, eventually marrying in 2008 (when it was finally legal). Their shared passions included world travel, philanthropy, and genealogy (Everett’s 7th great grandfather, Abraham Finch, and Rex’s 7th great grandfather, William Chase, sailed from England on the same ship in 1629). They loved visiting museums, attending the opera, symphony, ballet and theater, and entertaining friends amid lavish collections of beautifully restored carousel animals, antique musical instruments, Inuit sculpture, modern art, and mementos from global adventures.

Everett will be buried following a brief service on April 26 at 10:30 a.m. at Sunset View Cemetery and Mortuary, 101 Colusa Avenue, El Cerrito, CA.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Everett D. Stanley, Rex G. Chase, Rudolf Walz Scholarship Endowment for International Studies at Pacific University, 2043 College Way, Forest Grove, OR 97116.

To send flowers to the family or place a tree in memory of Everett Dudley Stanley, please visit our Tribute Store.