Necrology

Carol Lynn Stanis K'72

Dec. 10, 1950-Apr. 28, 2022

Carol Lynn Stanis K’72 died on April 28, 2022, in New York City. Born in Newark, N.J., on Dec. 10, 1950, she grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., attended Linton High School, and came to the Hill as part of Kirkland’s charter class. Characteristic of someone with broad curiosity, she was initially interested in chemistry, and scientific research more broadly, but ended up majoring in English literature. For a period of time, she withdrew from the College, but subsequently completed her degree after submitting her senior thesis in 1974.

She was drawn to New York City, where she would call home for the rest of her life. Her first job was at the Eastern Women’s Clinic, which provided obstetrical and gynecological care, but she radically changed direction beginning in the early 1980s when she decided to become a mechanical engineer. Admitted to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science in 1982, she completed her bachelor of science in mechanical engineering in 1986, and, two years later, earned a master of science from Columbia University in the same field.

In 1987, she went to work for IBM’s Research Division, rising from the entry-level position of materials scientist to senior associate engineer by 1995. Her areas of expertise included transmission electron microscopy and extended defects in silicon and silicon- germanium epitaxial structures. She published 43 papers, often in collaboration with her colleagues, and was also part of a team that received a patent for new forms of electrical interconnections. 

In 1995, she moved to National Semiconductor for a year, working in its Failure Analysis Laboratory as a transmission electron microscopist. From 1996 to 2009, she worked at Verizon as a central office engineer overseeing upgraded internet services throughout the New York area.

This work took a back seat for a period of time beginning on Sept. 11, 2001. For six weeks after the 9/11 attacks, she often worked seven days a week and virtually around the clock with coworkers to repair the damage to electrical and communications systems in lower Manhattan. She oversaw the installation of new equipment, working with real estate agencies and electrical engineers to prepare adequate lighting, restore HVAC capability, and bring power and communications systems back online.

Carol became a telecommunications engineer in 2009 at the Kenton Group, a British company that provides installation services in the area of broadband communication and database connectivity.

But Carol was by no means focused exclusively on her important work as a mechanical engineer. She was also a sailor, not only recreationally with friends but also with highly experienced crews that were part of the 645-nautical-mile yacht race between Marion, Mass., and Bermuda. She served as navigator, working both the old-school way with a sextant and compass as well as with electronic/satellite positioning. Closer to home, when she went out with more seasoned friends, she took charge of the spinnaker and sailed regularly along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida.

Carol’s dedication to sailing also led her to join the First District Southern Region unit of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the civilian-uniformed adjunct of the Coast Guard for New York City and vicinity. Its most prominent objective is the promotion of recreational boating safety: to that end, in 1999, Carol authored a booklet for novice boaters, particularly day sailors, canoeists, and kayakers, instructing them on the tides and currents, as well as how to deal with commercial shipping, in the sprawling New York Harbor. It was the first of its kind and is still in use. One example of her instruction: “Putting in a canoe at high tide may be easy, but taking it out at low tide when there is a four-foot drop at the pier could be a severe problem.” On 9/11, as part of her duties in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, she helped evacuate people from lower Manhattan to New Jersey.

Beginning in May 2012, she volunteered at the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan and helped restore the last of the Ambrose lightships, which once anchored at the eastern end of the deep water channel that ships use to enter New York harbor. Her landside community service also included volunteering for New York’s Department of Aging, where she led exercise classes and helped design a handbook for families of those diagnosed with dementia.

A Kirkland classmate, one of her many friends, observed that Carol “was a brilliant scientist and an accomplished artist. Her intellectual curiosity led her down many paths: scientist, sailor, crafter, chess player, and flutist.”

Carol Lynn Stanis is survived by two godchildren and countless friends.

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