Meet Stan Young, aka Mr. Volunteer

Now that Opening Day has been successfully completed our Deputy Commissioner, Stan Young, finally had time to talk to us. He is one of our busiest volunteers: organizing Opening Day, coming to the field early every game day to assess field conditions, set-up the misters and oversee the care of the sponsor banners. Then returning at the end of the day to make sure everything is perfect. Anytime something needs to be done his hand goes up; much to the chagrin of his wife, La Verne, because that means that she is volunteering also. For example, this year he put her in charge of the raffle.

Stan was born in Oakland into a large, boisterous Portuguese-French family of ten children. His mother’s people worked in the fishing industry and emigrated from the Azores by way of Hawaii to settle in Half Moon Bay. He was raised by an aunt and uncle just a few blocks from his mother’s home where his love of baseball started early as he shagged balls for Billy Martin, a family friend and neighbor. He played a lot of sandlot baseball growing up and at Berkeley High. He was an experienced batboy having several firemen uncles on his father’s side who played fast pitch at James Kinney Park. A highlight was when he filled in as batboy for the Pacific Coast League Oaks.

At the age of 17 he volunteered for the military. After a stint fighting in Korea, he ended up training recruits at Fort Ord. While there he met his first wife, Lorraine, who was enrolled in an all girl’s Catholic school planning to become a nun. They soon married and had a girl, Bernadette, who died at a young age. Due to Stan’s strong Catholic faith and lack of rhythm they soon had two boys, Mark and Bob. Both boys are career navy: Mark a captain and Bob a Commander and pilot in San Diego. Between the two they have five sons one of which had a son a few months ago. So Stan is now a great-grandpa.

When he finished his three year enlistment in the military, Stan enrolled at Berkeley Trade School where he learned to be a maintenance machinist. He had a satisfying 30+year career with the East Bay Municipal Utility District; the last 15 as a supervisor. Along the way he also became a licensed plumber. He continued his love of baseball playing for the company team in a rec league for several years, although his love of the beer and pizza afterward may have had something to do with his participation.

His first marriage ended. During the time he was single he volunteered with the Big Brother program for five years, finding it very rewarding.

He was very active in little theater in San Carlos where he lived. Every year the city sponsored a big benefit. In odd years it was the Kiwanis and in even years it was a seven night extravaganza based on the Chickens Ball of San Francisco which has a rich history: entertainers of the Barbary Coast started the tradition at the turn of the 20^th Century, organizing a show to benefit widows and orphans.

The San Carlos Chickens Ball of 1980 had 350 participants involved in skits and various vaudeville-type acts to raise money for local schools. Stan, never having learned not to volunteer, was up to his eye-balls stage-managing this gargantuan entertainment. La Verne was one of the dancers and the rest is history.

After getting married they were kept busy with little theater projects, a line dancing club (The Quicksteppers), and raising La Verne’s two boys; Clayton and Garrett, who now at the ages of 36 and 32 are starting their own families. So Stan may finally get a girl grandbaby.

He retired in 1998 and filled his time renovating houses culminating with working with his brother-in-law to build a three-story Victorian from the ground up. Early in the development of Sun City Lincoln Hills La Verne accompanied her sister and a friend on a visit and returned home to talk Stan into a week-end getaway at the Villas. While here a realtor showed them an open space lot in Village 20 and Stan fell in love. They made a snap decision, made a call and went home to put their house on the market. A week later they had three offers at more than 25 times what La Verne had paid for it. A month later they had nowhere to live.

Laverne is a well-respected hair stylist. (In fact loyal clients who have moved here have refused to let her retire so she works on Thursdays and Fridays at Reflections.) Two of her clients came to the rescue. One offered her finished basement to live in and another stored their belongings in his warehouse.

Nine months later Stan had finished all the personal touches in their Anadelle: including new floors. One floor is hand painted concrete with a fleur-de-leis pattern done by La Verne, and they moved in. It was winter of 2001 and Stan immediately signed up for softball and the bowling league, another long time interest. He has worked constantly since then to improve his softball skills playing year-round in the instructional league, the rec league and on the Classics: a team of players over the age of 70 who play in a tri-cities league with Placerville and Lodi on Fridays. He also umpires and runs the scoreboard. He says the only way to improve is to get out there and play. “Some days are rocks and you make a fool of yourself; but other days are diamonds.”

Stan spends his weekends talking about the past; leading tours of the California State Railroad Museum and one weekend a month being a docent at the Filoli Mansion and Gardens in Woodside in the Bay Area.

After being here a few years he says that he wasn’t busy enough with the line dancing, the performances with the Lincoln Hills Players, bowling and softball so he burned down his garage to give himself something to do. The real story is that a few days before Christmas in 2005 he was in the office rehearsing “A Ring of Fire”: a Karaoke number he was going to do with Ross Pelton, when he noticed people running down the street. Thinking one of his neighbors had had a heart attack he ran out barefoot to help; only to find out that his garage was ablaze. Faulty wiring in his GEM resulted in major damage to the garage, trusses and attic throughout the house. He took the opportunity to upgrade all the insulation and install state of the art fire alarms including one that will use strobe lights since he says he can’t hear a thing.

He also says he apologizes if he seems unfriendly or loud he just can’t hear himself and sometimes doesn’t realize when people are talking to him. He is really very friendly and loves the close knit feel of SCLH and the small town atmosphere of Lincoln.

One of his favorite features is the Fourth of July Parade. The first year he was here he dressed as a clown, pushed a wheelbarrow and walked behind an equestrian group scooping up what the horses left behind. The next year he kept the clown suit; but traded in the wheelbarrow of manure for a wagon full of candy to throw to the kids. In subsequent years he organized the softball entry including one year when the Ball Dudes entertained the parade route with a baseball themed song and dance. The league last year with 15 teams was too unwieldy too mount an effective entry and we did not participate. He is hoping we can find a way to have an entry this year.

He also wishes to acknowledge and thank all the people who help him out with his various softball projects and make it fun for him. We’d like to thank Stan for making it fun for us.