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Stan and I have known each other for several years. I can't really believe this has happened, and as a way of dealing I though I'd share my memories of Stan with whoever cares to read them:
Moonlight bike ride with the UT Canoe & Hiking Club, Cades Cove: I think this was the first time I met Stan. We were riding the loop at night, it was overcast and dark. There is a large metal gate at the end of the loop to keep cars out. Stan was riding a BMX bike for the entire 12 miles, and was out in front of everyone until he found that gate. Straight over it, over the handlebars, across the pavement. He was scraped up for a week or two, and we still joke about it every time we ride up there.
Random creeks, across the Southeast: whether I was boating with Stan, or he was simply passing through on his own trip, he always had an air of grace and confidence in a kayak, and in many ways was a role model boater of sorts for me. I was his senoir by 4 years, and yet he could paddle circles around me. I have, and still do, aspire to kayak as well as Stan.
The Ocoee River, last fall: I was hand-paddling at Staging Eddy, and Stan passed through on a Sunburst trip. He saw me and smiled at my hand paddles; "I see you've gone over to the dark side." Paddles are overrated, Stan would say, and considering the things he ran with his hand-paddles, I would have to agree.
Stan Guy was one of the most genuine, sincere people I have ever met. His sense of humor was unmatched, and his personality simply golden. It seems like a cruel irony that a person so... good, all around, would have his life ended so early. But such is the way of life, and the way of the river. Stan was doing what he loved, what he lived for, when he died.
My thoughts are with his family, and all of his friends that knew him much better than I did. He will be missed, but will live forever in our river memories and dreams.
~Trent Pearce |
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Some Stan Guy memories... New 
BoaterTalk 
