Charles Lanier Stone of Greenwich, CT, passed away peacefully on January 8 of heart failure. He was 93.
Lanier was born on March 29, 1929, in Washington D.C. to Charles Parker Stone and Frances McKee Stone. He graduated from St. Paul’s School and Yale University. After Yale, he spent two years working in Tripoli, Libya, a stint that forged a lifelong love of travel and adventure.
In 1963 Lanier married Jacqueline Hekma and settled in Greenwich, where he lived for the rest of his life.
After several years as an operations manager at Burroughs Wellcome Pharmaceutical, he spent the rest of his working life as an entrepreneur, running a series of successful franchise businesses, including Noble Van and Storage in Westchester and SOS Oxygen in Greenwich. At SOS, an emergency response and CPR training company, Lanier counted many area country clubs and small businesses as loyal customers. He also founded and ran the Energy Clinic in Greenwich in the 1980s. It was one of the first clean energy companies in the Northeast.
Lanier’s entrepreneurial drive led him to become a lifelong early adopter of technology. He owned one of the first personal computers available in the 1970s and he bought the first iPhone in 2007. He could often be found scanning in photos of his grandchildren, creating online videos of his travels, and, in later years, teaching digital photography at the Greenwich Senior Center.
Kind, friendly, and a great storyteller, Lanier was extremely active his entire life. While an enthusiastic tennis player and accomplished skier, he was most at home on the water. From his days as a boy skippering his 10-foot Beetle Cat on Buzzards Bay in Nonquitt, Mass., to captaining the Red Tulip – the Nordic Tug he owned with Jackie until a few years ago – he loved the sea and being on the water with family and friends.
He and Jackie were also founding members of the Stanwich Club in Greenwich, where they played tennis, golf, paddle, and socialized with friends. At Stanwich he was chair of the tennis committee for five years and served two separate terms on the club’s board of directors.
Lanier enjoyed the arts, including listening to many different genres of music, collecting paintings, and reading both fiction and non-fiction. He was an excellent writer who enjoyed reflecting on his life in his own words. Lanier was also devoted to the Greenwich community. He served several terms on the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) and was particularly gratified by his participation in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a program in which he mentored several area youths in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lanier was predeceased by his parents. He is survived by his wife Jackie, daughters Francie Burke and Amey Stone, sons-in-law Nate Burke and Mike Brewster, and grandchildren Jackie Burke, Julia Burke, Lucy Brewster, Francie Brewster and Charlie Brewster.
A memorial service is being planned for family and friends in Greenwich in early spring 2023.
