Stanford’s Ben Franklin Store

Obituary

Dec. 24, 1911 – April 4, 1999

Gene Phillip Stanford, 87, of Nampa, died on Easter Sunday morning, April 4, 1999, at a Nampa Idaho care center.

 Funeral services will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 7, at the Alsip Funeral Chapel, Nampa. The Rev. Joseph Newcomer and the Rev. Paula Martin will officiate. Burial will follow in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Caldwell.

Gene Phillip Stanford was born 1911 on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, the son of Morris and Grace Roberts Stanford, at Livingston, Mont. where his parents homesteaded. After living a short time in Spokane, Wash., the family moved to Idaho and homesteaded south of Marsing. They then moved to Nampa where his father started a small grocery store on First Street and later Stanford’s Variety Store on Second Street.

Gene was educated in Nampa, graduating from high school in 1929. He was a Boy Scout and a paper boy while growing up. He graduated from the College of Idaho in 1933, where he met his college sweetheart and future wife, Elizabeth Roddy, whom he married. in 1935.

Gene has been a member of the Congregational Church in Weiser and in Nampa.

Gene joined his brother, Harold Stanford, running Stanford’s Variety Store in Nampa and then moved to Weiser to manage another variety store owned by the brothers.

He was commissioned in 1943 into the Navy during World War II, taking his basic training in the Navy Supply Corps at Babson Business School in Boston, Mass. He served as supply office at Annapolis, Md., and was then transferred to New York City where he was appointed to catalogue naval supplies. Gene was then sent to the Navy Depot at Guam in the Pacific, for which he received commendation from the secretary of war for his work organizing the base. He was honorably discharged as a full lieutenant in the Navy Reserve in 1946.

The Stanfords raised their three children in Weiser where he returned after the war. Gene became actively involved in civic affairs, such as: president of the Chamber of Commerce; member of the Weiser City Council; chairman. of the Weiser School Board; 25 years on the Boy Scout Council for which he was presented the Silver Beaver Award; president of Lions. Club; director of the Weiser Industry Corporation; program chairman of the Weiser Fiddle Festival; and member of the College of Idaho Alumni Board. He received the Man of the Year award from the Weiser Kiwanis Club in 1960, and was awarded recognition for his many years of service from the Weiser Chamber of Commerce in 1966.

Gene and Beth built their own cabin in McCall, shortly after the war. Family summers were spent enjoying outdoor sports on the lake and skiing in the winter. Gene and Beth returned to live in Nampa in 1966 and started A to Z Rental Center, as well as, owned and operated Wholesale City Auto Parts. After retirement, they traveled frequently with the friends from Weiser.

Gene is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; a son and daughter-in- law, Rod and Jan Stanford; two daughters and sons-in-law, Linda and Jim Dobbs, and Carma and Dan Housman; three grandsons, James Dobbs Jr., Tyler and Mark Stanford; one granddaughter, Darci Dobbs Toscan and her husband, Eric Toscan; two great- granddaughters, Erin and Ellie Toscan; one brother and sister-in- law, Louden and Helen Stanford; and several nieces and nephews.

The Idaho Statesman – April 06, 1999 – Page 11