Stuart C. Eastman

Stuart Eastman. - Born February 17, 1938; Died January 15, 2016

Stuart Eastman's life story could have been written by Charles Dickens. Born to a mother whose husband left the family soon after Stuart's arrival, Stuart faced a young life filled with financial challenges and deprivation. Stuart's mother Vera, a nurse, tried valiantly to keep her family together, but found that she could not both support her two sons and keep them with her. During World War II, Stuart and his older brother Harold lived with their maternal grandparents in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It was during this early period of his life that Stuart formed a profound attachment to his grandfather Harold James who became Stuart's role model and champion. Grandfather Harold taught Stuart to play cribbage when Stuart was only four, a card game Stuart loved and played until the last days of his life. Due to the advanced age of his grandparents, however, other living arrangements were necessary for Stuart and his brother. At the tender age of six, Stuart entered St. John's Academy, a boarding school and orphanage on Long Island, New York, where he and the other children were tended by outpatients from the mental hospital that formed part of the St. John's complex. Among the stories Stuart told of that experience was the "St. John's Students Fight Fires" episode. Apparently, the school administrators thought it perfectly normal to recruit the pupils and send them off with shovels and towels to battle the brush fires that occasionally erupted around the school grounds.

Life became a bit less harrowing when Stuart left St. John's and lived with his mother and brother first in The Bronx, New York, and later in Waltham, Massachusetts. Paper routes and other part time employment helped to keep the family afloat. The tentative nature of the family finances resulted in another real disappointment for Stuart. Although he graduated from Waltham High School at the age of sixteen with a college academic scholarship, his mother could not afford the other attendant costs of university life. Too young for the military, Stuart travelled to Boston where he served as Massachusetts State Senate Page for a year. The highlight of that period was a trip to Hyannis Port where the young Jack Kennedy and his family hosted the state senators and the senate pages, Stuart among them.

At age seventeen, Stuart enlisted in the United States Air Force and tested into electronics school, an educational experience that changed Stuart's life. Stuart's training in electronics led to his career with California aerospace companies. His was an international career that took Stuart to the developing airports of Iceland, Greenland, Spain and Italy where he installed radar equipment and controls. It was a frantic life of travel and troubleshooting for him. During this period of his career he also worked at earning a college degree but because of the unpredictable nature of his career demands, it took him fifteen years to earn his undergraduate degree. He was proud of the fact, however, that he earned his masters degree in business in just a year when the travel demands of his career changed. Ultimately, Stuart developed a business of his own, a business in computer control systems that once again required international travel. In spite of the burdens of time zone changes and over familiarity with airports, he was always grateful for those trips to Australia where he explored the Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand where he skied The Remarkables.

Stuart's personal life took a happy turn when he met Judith Salzinski, a woman with a teenage daughter and son and a career in academia. Undaunted, Stuart plunged into a relationship and marriage that was to last twenty-eight wonderful years, twelve years in Laguna Beach, California, four in the Lake Tahoe area, and the last twelve in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was a present and loving stepfather who was known to tutor son Geoff in geometry via fax instructions from Singapore and to drive 500 miles through rubble and road blockades to make sure daughter Nicole had survived the earthquake that shook UC Santa Cruz and all of Northern California in 1989. He and Judith danced at both their children's weddings, one in Florence, Italy, and another atop Steamboat Mountain in Colorado. He welcomed Nicole and grandson Josh into our Fort Collins home as Nicole and Josh transitioned from life in Italy to life in the U.S. and awaited the arrival of Leonardo, Nicole's husband and Joshie's "Babbo." Stuart helped son Geoff establish and grow his own business with expert counseling and financial support. And, he was thrilled to be "Pops" to Josh as well as to Colton and Travis, the young sons of Geoff and his wife Cary. Nothing gave Stuart more joy than his family which also included his brother Harold, sister-in-law Soula, niece Susan, nephew Scott and his wife Gretchen, nephew Mark and his wife Carol, and nephew Andy, as well as great nephews and niece. He was his family's rock and his wife's hero.

When Stuart was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in 2002, he faced his health challenges with determination and optimism. He skied for years following that diagnosis. He took up golf after a forty-year hiatus, becoming a valued member of the Romeo Golf Organization, managing their handicap records. He loved to fly fish, chasing that elusive "big one" in Poudre Canyon and on the Yampa River through rivers in Wyoming and Idaho and Montana. He was so thrilled when on a fishing trip with Geoff last April he caught an enormous rainbow trout. In his retirement, Stuart also became an expert woodworker and his bookcases, ladder shelves, coffee tables, desks, chests, baby crib, and Murphy bed all stand as testament to his skill. Judith and her family are so consoled to be living among the many beautiful pieces created by Stuart.

Stuart loved living in Colorado, a place filled with nature's wonders that offered the outdoor activities he enjoyed, and populated with people so willing to extend friendship. Stuart delighted in the many friends he made in his social circles, his golf club, his cribbage and book groups, and his film group. He was an active member of the community, offering his talents to various organizations. For example, Stuart was an enthusiastic supporter of BASECAMP, an organization that provides before and after school care for our Fort Collins elementary school children. He served on their board of directors for years and was key in reorganizing BASECAMP's financial structure. Having been a "latch-key" kid himself due to his mother's financially strained circumstances, Stuart wanted to provide our local children with a safe place to play and do their homework before and after school. BASECAMP has done just that and is a model for other school districts in Colorado.

Like a Dickens hero, Stuart Eastman was a man of integrity who wore his virtue lightly and delighted those around him with his calm demeanor and quick wit. Although his disease slowly undermined his health, Stuart hoped for one more fishing season but was also ready to embrace the inevitable. He did just that on the night of January 15th surrounded by Judith, his wife, Nicole and Geoff, his children, and Scott, his nephew. Immediately upon Stuart's death, daughter Nicole quoted this passage from Shakespeare's Hamlet, a fitting tribute to our prince of a man: "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Stuart's wife Judith would add one more quote, also from Hamlet, to express her love and gratitude to Stuart: "I shall not look upon his like again."

A Celebration of Stuart's Life will be held Saturday July 23rd, 2016 at the Eastman residence.