Stan L. Sutliff, aka Stan the Man, of Williamsburg, VA, passed away suddenly on October 10, 2020, at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk, VA. He was a scientist turned business executive and spent his life seeking knowledge and learning new things. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served in the Vietnam War, Korea, and Alaska. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Chemistry and began working as a research chemist. He next earned an MBA from Michigan State University and began a distinguished 43-year career on the business side of the chemical and material science industry that took him and his family from Indianapolis to Chicago, Michigan, Baltimore, St. Louis, and, ultimately, Williamsburg, where he finished his career as vice president of business development for a local ethanol process technology and construction firm.
Retirement didn’t slow Stan down, allowing him more time to pursue his many interests, including volunteering at the Hospice House of Williamsburg as a patient volunteer and with William and Mary’s Mason School of Business as an Executive Partner. An avid fisherman and lover of the outdoors, he was active in 14 different fishing clubs in the Tidewater region, with greatest participation in the Virginia Beach Anglers Club. He was also a Clean Water Captain for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He could often be found biking, walking, and was always talking! An avid storyteller, he was also a self-professed unpublished author.
Stan was preceded in death by his brother, John Daniel “Butch” Vandivier, and his father, Wendall D. Vandivier. He is survived by his mother, Juanita Vandivier, his saintly wife of 44 years, Gail Sutliff, his brother, Stuart Sutliff (Candy) and sister, Nancy DeCamp (Mike) and his four loving daughters, Heather Sutliff, Amy Lenz (Brent), Megan Marvil (Patrick), and Lauren Sleesman (Matt). He will be greatly missed by his grandchildren Parker, Carter, Claire, Drew, Josie, Nora, Nell and Max, who will miss his energy, jokes, laughter, and dynamic yo-yo abilities.
The family will celebrate the life of this exemplary husband, father, and grandfather at a private gathering this weekend. Donations in his honor may be made to Hospice House of Williamsburg, 4445 Powhatan Pkwy, Williamsburg, VA 23188. Feel free to celebrate Stan’s life by raising your own glass this Sunday at 5pm, or whenever, because for Stan the Man, it was always 5 o’clock somewhere!
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