Stan Morketter

January 9, 1924 - August 10, 2011

 

Robert Stanley “Stan” Morketter, born in Whittier, California to George Henry and Ruth Sybyl (Fulbright) Morketter on January 9, 1924, died at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 10, 2011.

At Whittier High, Stan excelled in the classroom and in the pool where, according to the local paper, he “…won more swimming titles than you could count on the fingers of both hands.” At 17, he was awarded a scholarship to UC Berkeley which he attended for its academic and swimming programs. His class (originally 1945) was greatly affected by World War II, which bifurcated Stan’s education with the three years he spent serving in the Army (1943- 1946).

As a freshman, Stan, or "Fish" as he was known by his teammates and competitors, took collegiate swimming by storm. In addition to setting the National Intercollegiate Freshman record (freshmen could not compete on Varsity teams in those days) for the 50-yard freestyle (23.5 sec.), he also set the 50 and 100-yard freestyle Cal Freshman records. In his sophomore year he set the Cal Varsity record for the 100-yard freestyle while racking up an undefeated record in dual meet competition in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle.

Upon completing his sophomore year at Cal in June of ’43, Stan joined the Army. As part of the Army Specialized Training Program he studied at the Universities of Wyoming and Minnesota. He was eventually assigned to the Fighting Transportation Corps where his ship was active in the Pacific Theater repairing damaged invasion craft. While awaiting discharge at the war’s end, he was stationed at Leyte, the port of call for the members of the U.S. military from the Philippine Area preparing to participate in the Pacific Olympics. Stan remembered practicing in lanes that he and his fellow contestants laid out in the lagoon. He readily won the 150m free at the Philippines Area Championships. In order to allow Lieutenant William Richardson (later Lt. Governor and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii) to compete, Stan pulled out of the 400m relay. Their victories enabled them to participate in the 1945-46 Pacific Olympics in Honolulu and Richardson to accelerate his return home to Hawaii. Stan won the gold in the 100m free and was anchor on two winning relay teams; CJ, as he became known after becoming Chief Justice, Richardson was forever grateful to Stan and “never took his kindness for granted.”

Upon leaving the Army in the spring of ’46, Stan competed in the National AAU Championships and was selected as a member of the AAU All-American Team. He returned to Cal in the fall of ’46 and was soon back to his winning ways. Stan made his mark by setting the school records in the 50m and 100m freestyle events and being selected for the NCAA All- American Swim Team his junior and senior years. He also earned a letter in water polo for the three years he was eligible to play on varsity at Cal.

At the request of the swimming coach, in 1946-47, Stan initiated a campaign to have swimming designated a Big C sport. This necessitated appearing before the Athletic Director as well as numerous campus groups including the Big C Society, the Big C Alumni Society, the ASUC Executive Committee, among others. He was clearly persuasive, because as of the 1947 season, swimming became the 7th Big C sport. In his autobiography, Don Fisher (The Gap), friend and teammate of Stan’s, credited Stan’s Big C efforts for making it possible for Don to win 4 Big C letters, and recalls with pride that he “tied the time of a fellow sprinter, Stan Morketter, one of the top fifty and hundred-yard swimmers in the country. I felt terrific about that….”

Stan qualified for the 1948 Olympic Trial finals based on placing first in the 100m freestyle at the Pacific Coast Trials but was unable to compete due to employment obligations. Stan's final triumph in the pool came in 1977, when swimming for the Marin Swim Club and having had very little practice, he competed in the 1977 National Masters Championship where he placed second in the 50m free and swam the winning leg in the 200m free relay. His stellar collegiate athletic career was capped in 1993 when he was inducted into the UC Berkeley Athletic Hall of Fame for his extraordinary performances in both swimming and water polo.

His U.C. Berkeley academic and social memberships included: Pres. Skull and Keys, 1947; Pres. Beta Beta; Tau Beta Pi; Engineering Honorary Society, 1947; Chap. Pres. Kappa Sigma, 1948; Winged Helmet; Pres. Circle C Society; Inter-fraternity Scholastic Honorary Society; Society of the Golden Bear (and certain others that he felt “duty bound not to name”).

It was at Berkeley that he met his first wife, Josephine “Jo” Crane, of Piedmont, California. When they met at a fraternity party in 1947, they are said to have greeted each other with: “You must be Jo Crane, ‘The Skier’” (she being a well known collegiate skier who ultimately qualified as an alternate on the 1948 Olympic Team) and “You must be Stan Morketter, ‘The Swimmer.’” They married on December 9, 1949 and had three children: Robert “Bob”, born in Kansas City in 1951, Cynthia “Cyndy”, born in Sacramento on Stan’s birthday in 1953 and Thierry, born in Paris in 1959.

Stan began his business career in 1948 as an Industrial Engineer with Proctor & Gamble. For the following six years he managed P&G plants in Southern California, Kansas City, and Sacramento. His next career step was as Chief Industrial Engineer of the US Air Force’s Air Materiel Command in Sacramento. Upon joining the Atlas Services division of Atlas Corporation in 1957, Stan became General Manager of its Contract Maintenance operations in Oakland. Within a year he was promoted to General Manager of Atlas’ contract operations serving the U.S. Air Force and NATO in Europe. However, Stan’s promotion coincided with the election of Charles de Gaulle as President of France, which gave rise to the “Gaullist Era”, wherein the French government resisted being dependent on the U.S. or any country for its defense or economic well being.

While the families of the ex-pats he had recruited to join the operations waited on the East Coast, Stan furiously negotiated with the de Gaulle government in Paris to allow his U.S. Company to operate in France. With the help of highly placed French nationals, including his lawyer Rene De Chambrun, a direct descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette and the son-in-law of a former Prime Minister of France, and the enlistment of a French- owned company as a “ joint venture partner,” Stan prevailed on the French government. In the fall of 1958 Stan and his team took charge of the operationally challenged aircraft maintenance facility at Chateauroux in the Loire Valley. With over 850 French technical employees, the facility was the largest employer of French personnel within the Department of Industry.

While Stan and his team worked to turn around and manage the Chateauroux facility, the Morketter family resided in a tower of the 11th Century Chateaux de Villentrois in the Loire Valley. During their three years living in the Loire, Stan cultivated a palate for fine French wines which he bought by the cask and bottle himself, as well as purchase grapes from local farmers to produce his own wine.

During one of his experiments with bottling and racking his own production Stan noticed a bottle protruding slightly from the rack. Being an engineer at heart, Stan straightened out the bottle, and with great satisfaction he left the Chateau cellar. As soon as he closed the door the entire rack tipped over and he heard a crash; upon reentering the cellar he saw that all his hard work was now a big puddle of great French wine. Stan’s wine experience was crowned when he became a member of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, Cote d’Or, Burgundy in 1963, the certificate for which, along with the silver tasting spoon, always hung proudly in his home.

His considerable management skills and the highly successful turn-around of the Chateauroux operation resulted in Stan being elevated to the position of Vice President of European Operations for Atlas Corp, headquartered in Paris, where he and his family resided for the next three years.

In 1964 Stan was promoted to Vice President of International Operations for Atlas Corp. and President of its subsidiary, Global Associates, based in Oakland. Global had numerous contracts throughout the Pacific and Australia, primarily connected with the U.S. anti-ballistic missile program. Returning from France that year, the family settled in Piedmont where he lived until moving to Honolulu.

Stan’s love-affair with Hawaii began as a competitor in the Pacific Olympics in 1946 and strengthened with his frequent trips through the Islands on his way to the Atlas Corp.'s Global operations on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, Guam, and other parts of the Pacific region and Australia. After leaving Global in 1976, Stan worked as a consultant until moving permanently to Honolulu in late 1978 where he joined Tori Richard, a well-regarded manufacturer of Aloha attire. He retired as CFO and VP of Administration for Tori Richard in 1997.

His passion for swimming stayed with Stan throughout his life. In addition to enjoying his pool workouts and open water swims, he pursued a hobby in underwater photography in the Mediterranean and in the Marshall Islands during his long stays on Kwajalein and other parts of the Pacific and Australia. To much to his family and friends delight, he was also an enthusiastic abalone diver in California. In his 40’s Stan took up golf with the same focus and intensity he devoted to his swimming. His golf caree began at Claremont Country Club in Oakland, CA where he achieved a low- teen handicap and later at Oahu Country Club where in the mid-1980’s he earned the title of, "The Ace of Aces." Stan also maintained a reputation as a prodigious gin rummy player and arm wrestler.

Stan married Sally Stier of Oakland in Wailea, Maui on August 5, 1979. For the next 32 years they were avid golfers and active members at Oahu Country Club as well as world travelers, often making long visits to the Bay Area to spend time with their friends and family.

Stan was recognized at the Beta- Xi of Kappa Sigma Centennial Celebration in 2001 as the Beta-Xi "Man of the Century" for his exemplary academic, athletic and business career achievements. At the time of his award, one of his fraternity brothers summed him up as having been "...all over the campus and (doing) more to make our house known on campus than any member of the house in our era - probably in any era.” For those who knew him for a moment or a lifetime, he was truly, "Stan, the Man.”

FAMILY

  • - Spouse: Sally S. Morketter, Honolulu, Hawaii
  • - Children: Robert S. “Bob” Morketter, Jr. Hayward, CA; Cynthia M. “Cyndy” Chiles (husband John), Piedmont, CA; Thierry C. Morketter, Pleasant Hill , CA.
  • - Grandchildren: Josephine E. “Josie” Chiles, New York City; Frances M. “Franny” Chiles, New York City; John Whitfield “Whit” Chiles, Piedmont, CA.
  • - Step-children: Kem Kantor (wife Renee), Pleasanton, CA; Kari Fletcher, Granite Bay, CA; Keith Kantor (wife Michele), Danville, CA; Kevin Kantor (wife Diane), Danville, CA
  • - Step-grandchildren: Jami and Kemi Kantor; Nicole, Danielle, Erica and Taylor Fletcher; Kara and Max Kantor
  • Predeceased by:
  • - Spouse: Josephine Crane “Jo” Morketter, 1978
  • - Sister: Virginia M. Smith

EDUCATION AND ACTIVITIES

  • - High School : Whittier High School, 1937-1941
  • - UC Berkeley : BS Mechanical Engineering 1948 (Tau Beta Pi 1947)
  • - University of Washington : Post Graduate Business studies, 1953
  • - UC Berkeley: Athletic Council , 1946-47
  • - Director of Big C Society, 1956-58 and 1970’s
  • - Big C Society Board President, 1975-76
  • - Easter Seal Society of Alameda County Campaign Chairman, 1975
  • - Oakland Chamber of Commerce
  • - Commonwealth Club of California
  • - Claremont Country Club, Oakland , California
  • - Oahu Country Club, Honolulu , Hawaii
  • - Frequent attendee of the Bohemian Grove Monte Rio , California

At Stan’s request, no service will be held.