Clifton Stanworth ‘Stan’ Brinkley, 91, died peacefully Sunday, May 29, 2016, at his home at Bay Lake. A native of Norfolk, born January 26, 1925, Stanworth was the son of Edward Stanley Brinkley, superintendent of Norfolk City Schools from 1943 to 49, and Alma Moore Stanworth Brinkley. He grew up in the Lochhaven neighborhood, at 7814 North Shore Road, a home built by his parents in 1924. He attended Meadowbrook Elementary School, Blair Junior High School and Granby High School, from which he graduated in 1943.
In autumn 1943, Stan, as friends and family called him, matriculated at University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was an active player (center and guard) on the university football team. He graduated from UVA with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1950, his studies being interrupted by the need for officers for the war. In late 1943, he began the V-12 Navy College Training Program at the University of Richmond, where he also played on the football team, and subsequently he completed U. S. Navy Reserve Midshipmen’s School in New York and line officers’ school in Miami, earning the rank of Ensign on 29 June 1944. Stan then saw active service in the U.S. Naval Reserve in the Pacific Theatre, where he served on several types of amphibious landing craft through 1946. After the war, he was discharged honorably from duty at the rank of lieutenant (junior grade). Returning to Charlottesville to complete his studies at UVA, he was a member and treasurer of St. Anthony Hall (The Fraternity of Delta Psi), and he continued to play football on the university team.
Stan’s first employment stints were for Coast Engineering Company (1948) and Door Engineering Corporation in Norfolk from 1949 to 1951. For the U.S. Navy at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, he designed HVAC and fire protection for buildings in Portsmouth from 1950 to 51, and he did similar work for E. I. duPont de Nemours Inc. at Kinston, N.C., from 1951 to 1953 and at Newport News Shipbuilding from 1953 to 1956, where he had been employed as machinist’s helper in summer 1947.
An offer to help engineer new naval and air bases near Seville, Spain, with Brown-Raymond-Walsh came in 1956, and he lived and worked in Madrid and Seville for the remainder of the decade, marrying his fiancée, Catherine MacDonald Lee, at King’s Chapel, Gibraltar, on Valentine’s Day 1957. From Madrid, the couple traveled extensively throughout Europe and Russia and made many lifelong friends. Returning to Virginia in 1960, Stan worked as a mechanical engineer with McGaughy, Marshall, & McMillan from 1960 to 1966, Chandler & Gibson from 1966 to 1979, at his own company, Brinkley Engineering from 1980 to 1990, at PRC Inc. in Hampton from 1990 to 2001) and at R.G. Electric Company with the wonderful Dashiell family from 2001 to 2012. He retired from his beloved profession at the age of 86. For most of this time, he made his home at 508 Mowbray Arch, in the Ghent section of the city, where he and wife Kate raised their children.
Stan was an avid boater and sailor from an early age. During flooding after the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane of August 1933, he guided his small rowboat around Norfolk’s flooded waterfront homes. Within a few years, he was sailing small racing dinghies, a Snipe and a Knockabout, around the Lafayette River. He and close lifelong friends—Charles ‘Waggy’ Etheridge, Alfred ‘Al’ Wood and Claiborne ‘Clay’ Fitchett—later explored Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore on a wooden boat they bought together, the Folly. In the 1970’s, Stan served as a helmsman for Frank Batten aboard Shadow in the Newport-to-Bermuda race. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, he spent many weekends sailing his Hampton One Design around Hampton Roads, often in regattas, or rowing his Alden Ocean Shell on the Elizabeth River, usually in company with dear friend, Joseph C. Addington Jr. Although he sailed less often in the 1990’s, he enjoyed many outings by boat with his family and a memorable 1994 James River batteau trip with family friend, Mary Lee Settle. Stan was a great lover of maritime history and artwork and a frequent patron of the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News.
Devoted to high standards in his profession and to the civic life of his hometown, Stan served as president of the Ghent Neighborhood League and the Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He was on the Board of Directors of the Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, a member of the Engineers’ Club of Hampton Roads, and an active member of the Norfolk Rotary Club. He worked tirelessly for the United Fund as the head of the Architects and Engineers Unit. He was a member of the Vestry of St. Paul’s Church (Episcopal), where he was a parishioner for 56 years and where he gave unselfishly of his expertise on many renovation projects. Through the mid-1990’s, he worked with teams of architects and engineers across the South to help rebuild dozens of churches that were damaged by arsonists. There were few joys greater in his life than helping others in need, which he did in countless ways, both small and considerable; but, watching UVA win a football game perhaps ranked a close second.
Family members, friends, and colleagues remember than Stan was thoughtful and always precise in his choice of words, reflecting carefully before speaking. This habit he shared with his father, and it may also have been a means of coping with his slight stammer. Above all else, Stan is remembered for his compassion and generosity, traits acquired early on in a family known for fairness and openness. In addition to his elder sisters, his home for a few years included young Gardner Rugg ‘Gus’ Hathaway, who would eventually become chief of Counterintelligence of the CIA in Moscow. During retirement, Gus and Stan spoke frequently by telephone. Following Gus’s death in 2013, his family invited Stan to help scatter his remains near Tanner Point, a favorite destination in their childhood. Stan’s enduring devotion to his boyhood friends was a hallmark of his life.
He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Ann Virginia Brinkley Olson.
Stan is survived by his wife, Catherine MacDonald Lee Brinkley; sister, Jane Marshall Brinkley Thumm; son, Edward Stanley Brinkley II; daughter, Mary Seddon Brinkley Webster; son-in-law, Nathan Paul Webster; grandchildren, Daniel Patrick Webster, Paul Stanworth Webster and Eliza Catherine Webster; great-grandchild, Nathan Andrew Webster; and many beloved nieces and nephews.
The family would like to thank the wonderful staff of Bay Lake for their many kindnesses.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, June 3, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Scott Hennessy will conduct the service. A reception will follow at the Parish House.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Paul’s Church and the The Mariners’ Museum and Park.
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