Stanton Davis Tate
Stanton Davis Tate
Stan Tate
peacefully entered eternity November 3, surrounded by his family, after a long
illness. Stan was a man of many
interests; a smokejumper, an Episcopal priest, a county magistrate, a college
professor, a juvenile justice advocate, a bioethicist with a lifelong search
for what is "just."
He learned the
value of hard work growing up in southeast Boise on the Triangle Dairy, the
youngest son of John and Marjorie Tate.
After Boise High, he met his wife, Lynn Campbell at U of I. The newlyweds and young daughter made their
way east to Princeton Seminary in New Jersey for graduate school During his studies, he worked at the maximum security
prison in Trenton, N.J. where he successfully helped free two falsely convicted
young men, and ran a gym for street kids in Newark. He was selected as a special student at
Philadelphia's Presbyterian Hospital and worked at the N.J. Neuropsychiatric
Hospital, all of which culminated in his lifelong interest in advocacy.
Graduating
Princeton Seminary with a degree in pastoral care and ordained as a
Presbyterian minister, Stan took his young family, with the addition of a son,
to a pastorate in eastern Montana and while there welcomed another son. He returned to Idaho where he sought
additional Episcopal ordination, taking a parish in McCall. This allowed him to continue summer
employment as a smokejumper, begun years earlier while at U of I. Long after his retirement as a an active
jumper, Stan continued to serve as chaplain for local and national reunion
activities, marriages and funerals.
Due to his
experience working with youth, he was asked to be a juvenile probation officer
during his Montana tenure. Stan
continued his juvenile probation work in Idaho leading to his two-term election
as probate judge, which allowed him to continue his focus on youth and
justice. At this time a foster daughter,
Karen, joined the family. During the Vietnam
War, ranking Captain, he served as chaplain in the USAF 124th Fighter Receptor
Group of the Idaho National Guard and was an active member of The American
Legion, Post No. 2. at the time of his death.
While working
in student services at Boise State, he taught a popular class on comparative
religion. His rapport with students led
to the development of C2ODAC, an approach identifying healthy thrill-seeking activities
as an alternative to drug use. A movie
documenting the program's development, "Good Vibes Van" won national
acclaim.
While a
presenter for the national Episcopal Marriage Encounter, Stan was offered the
opportunity to relocate to Good Samaritan Church, Corvallis, OR with
responsibilities to OSU students at Canterbury House. This led to a call to St. Mark's, Moscow, ID;
another college ministry. While in Moscow,
he taught a graduate class at U of I on professional ethics and served as a
guest lecturer in the WAMI program on medical ethics. He completed his Doctorate in Biomedical
Ethics at San Francisco Theological Seminary and University of California in Berkeley. Stan worked as a bioethicist at Gritman
Hospital and consulted with local nursing homes for a number of years before
retiring.
Stan is
survived by his wife of sixty years, Lynn, daughter Teri and her husband Dan
McColly, sons Scott and his wife Lauren, Phil and his wife Angie and foster
daughter Karen Dellgard. Six
grandchildren: Hilary, Emily, Kiefer, Clara, Charlotte and Gus, and five great
grandchildren: Abigail, Esme, James, Luke and Jack.
As Stan
embraced justice and advocacy throughout his life, his family would welcome
memorials made in his name to organizations with that focus.
A memorial
service celebrating Stan's life will be held at St. Michael's Cathedral on his
82nd birthday, December 5, at 1:00pm.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Stanton Davis Tate, please visit our flower store.
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