- Date Of Birth: January 24, 1908
- Date Of Death: August 21, 2006
- State: Rhode Island
Stanton Charles Saunders, 98, died on August 21, 2006 at the Mariners Health Center at Pendleton in Mystic, CT. He was a leading citizen of Westerly, known by friends and business colleagues as Curly.
The husband of the late Winnifred (Newall Francis) Saunders, he was born in Westerly on January 24, 1908. He was the son of James Aldrich and Iva (Davis) Saunders and a direct descendent of Thomas Stanton, the second white settler in Stonington who established a trading post along the Pawcatuck River in the 1640s. He was also a direct descendent of Tobias Saunders, one of the original settlers in 1662 of the town of Westerly and the first representative from Westerly to the Rhode Island colonial legislature.
A lifelong resident of Westerly, Stanton Saunders was educated in Westerly schools and in 1928 joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving in Panama. Upon returning to Westerly he established ?Curly?s? newsstand, soda fountain, lending library and picture framing business in the building in Pawcatuck that now houses the Prime Time café. The rebuilding of the current bridge over the Pawcatuck River in 1930 left only a small footpath for access to Pawcatuck from Westerly, which ended the businesses on the Connecticut side.
Mr. Saunders went to work for The Cottrell Company in Pawcatuck, progressing from the shipping department to cost accounting and the job of paymaster. In 1936 he moved to sales. During WW II he procured government war contracts not only for Cottrell, but for many industries in the Westerly area, creating employment important for the town. After the war he became sales vice president of Cottrell and when Harris Seybold Corporation bought the Cottrell Company in 1953, he became vice-president of marketing and a director of Cottrell.
Mr. Saunders was also an active participant in community organizations. He served as vice-president of the Stonington Tricentennial Committee for the 1949 year-long celebration of the town?s founding. During that time he appeared on the Margaret Whiting radio talk show in New York, as well as Providence TV station WJAR to provide publicity for the Tricentennial. Mr. and Mrs. Saunders were both very active in the Westerly Historical Society and Stanton was for many years chairman of the Orlando R. Smith Trust which oversees the Babcock-Smith House Museum.
An avid sailor and golfer, he was a member for many years of The Watch Hill Yacht Club and The Misquamicut Club. He belonged to the Union League Club of New York, and in Westerly belonged for 51 years to a poker club which had been founded in 1914.
Mr. Saunders is survived by three daughters, Janet S. Wright of Miami, Florida, Margaret S. Barclay of Westerly, and Sally S. Saunders of Wamboin, New South Wales, Australia, as well as his son-in-law Donn J. Barclay. He is also survived by three grandsons–Roger E. Vaughan, Jr. and his wife Rochelle of Smithfield, RI, Courtland R. Chapman III and his wife Laurie of Guilford, CT, and Thomas S. Chapman and his wife Kerry of Brighton, MA — as well as five great-grandchildren and several nieces and a nephew and their families. He was predeceased by two brothers, Carl W. Saunders of Pawcatuck and Milton A. Saunders.
