Mr. Edward Tomas Stone Jr.

Edward Tomas Stone Jr., the son of Edward Tomas Stone and Josephine “Happy” Stein, passed away due to complications from cancer on January 12, 2019. Our Dad was born in Cripple Creek, CO, on January 15, 1933. His father and uncles primarily worked in the gold mines, and had many colorful times shared with us from our father’s stories. The family moved to Denver in 1942 because our grandfather, a skilled welder, wanted to help build Liberty Ships because, “We had to win the war.” It was in Denver that Dad met Ralph Vance, who became a life-long friend of our family’s and “Uncle Ralph” to us. Dad and Ralph enlisted in the Air Force ROTC, and went to college together at CU-Boulder, with Dad majoring in accounting. Fortunately for us, Bonnie Gail Jorgensen, born in West Racine, WI, had decided to transfer from Rockford College in IL to CU-Boulder. Bonnie and Ed were married on June 19, 1955. Dad served as a navigator in the United States Air Force upon graduation, with time spent in Japan, the Philippines, and numerous USAF bases. He toured Iowa Jima about 10 years after the epic battle, when signs of the fight were still clearly evident. Daughters Ann (husband Tim Page) and Gwen (Stone, husband Mark Borchardt) were born on military bases, while Doug (wife Kris Vick), Bill (wife Megan Williams), and Meg (Stone, husband Steve Perkins) were born after our parents moved to Wisconsin. Dad started his accounting career with Ernst & Ernst, before joining S.C. Johnson. He left corporate accounting and joined a private accounting firm in Racine for a few years before opening his own accounting business. While he always did accounting work seven days per week, during “accounting season” our father would work pretty much nonstop, with his adding machine crunching numbers throughout most of the night. By far his favorite aspect of the accounting business was the interaction with his clients; he enjoyed talking with them, learning about their lives and businesses, and swapping stories. Our father enjoyed business, and started ventures in an indoor tennis facility, a car dealership, a real estate development, and finally a farm. We never quite knew how someone who grew up in a Colorado mining town wanted to learn about Midwestern farming, but were certainly glad when he and our Mother purchased a farm in Waterford, WI, in 1970. The farm opened up a whole new world for us, from animal husbandry and agronomy to unloading hay wagons and stone picking. Dad retired from the accounting business in 1990 and enjoyed a long and healthy retirement managing his farm.

Somewhat humbling for us, without a doubt the one aspect of his life of which he was most proud was his family. In addition to his wife and five children, he is survived by 13 grandchildren. We are eternally grateful to have had such an exceptional man to be our father and to provide us with such a great example of how to best live our lives.

A Memorial gathering was held on Saturday January 19th in the Plantation Room at the Cotton Exchange Banquet hall, Waterford, WI. Our father loved to take canoe trips to the boundary waters, especially to Quetico Provincial Park. In lieu of floral expressions of sympathy, memorials are suggested to: "Friends of Quetico"” P.O. Box 29127 Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada P7B 6P9 in memory of our father.

Our thanks to the loving care keepers at Linden Grove and Linden Court of Mukwonago, where Dad lived the past few months.