Stanley/Gleason Memorial Fund

For many years, the Stanley family participated very actively in the life of their beloved Wakefield through their activities in veterans, fraternal and charitable organizations, as well as in the First Parish Congregational Church. They were all firm believers in the benefits of higher education for all. Calvin attended the Greenwood and Lincoln Schools. He enlisted in Wakefield’s Company “A”, 6th Infantry, and served in France during World War I. Edna attended the Lincoln and Franklin Schools. For two years she was a member of the Class of 1920 of Wakefield High School, which, at that time, was located in the Lafayette Building. Edna and Calvin married in 1922. Though not uncommon in their day, both Calvin and Edna were keenly aware that they both lacked their high school diplomas. That did not stop either of them from continuing to learn, as both were avid readers. Calvin particularly enjoyed reading history, political economy, economics and novels, both classic and modern. Elaine Stanley was Calvin and Edna’s second child and youngest daughter. She was very active in the First Parish Congregational Church and in the Rainbow, serving that organization as Worthy Advisor. A graduate of Wakefield High School in 1949 and of the Chandler School in 1951, Elaine Stanley died of cancer in 1952. Older daughter, Virginia, WHS class of 1944, married Edward Gleason, Jr. and raised four children, three daughters and a son. Edward, born in North Adams, MA, served in the Air Force and later earned a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern in 1953 and a PHD in latex chemistry from SUNY College of Forestry at Syracuse U in 1959. He worked 35 years for BASF as a research chemist, and enjoyed golfing, gardening, and serving his Methodist Church in TN, where he and Virginia lived for over 30 years. Following Edward’s death (2013), Virginia renamed the Calvin, Edna & Elaine Stanley Memorial Fund to the Stanley/Gleason Memorial Fund.