Robert Bowne Foundation

Edmund A. Stanley, Jr., former CEO of Bowne & Co., Inc., died on December 16, 2009. The official cause of death was colon cancer but Mr. Stanley had been incapacitated for many years by a neurological disease. Better known as Ted, he was 85.

Born in New York City in 1924, he was the son of the late Edmund Allport Stanley and Emily Hasslacher. He graduated from Lawrenceville School in 1943, where he served as a trustee from 1969 to 1989. He was a major benefactor of the school, played a significant role in the school’s transition to coeducation in 1987, and funded the Aldo Leopold Distinguished Chair in Environmental Science and Ethics. Mr. Stanley served in the 175th Infantry in World War II in Belgium and France and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. Following the war he graduated a member of Princetonʼs Class of 1949.

That year he went to work for Bowne & Co., Inc., a financial printing company headed by his father. The company, founded in 1775 by Robert Bowne, is the oldest business in New York State operating under the same name since its founding. He was Chief Executive Officer of the company from 1956 until his retirement in 1986. Under Mr. Stanley’s leadership the firm concentrated on serving the needs of the financial community including mergers, public offerings, and acquisitions. With its increased market share (its sales volume had doubled in five years) the firm was gradually able to buy out its major competitors. When Stanley retired in 1986, Bowne & Co., Inc. had become the largest corporate and financial printing firm in America, with a national and worldwide clientele. In 1968 he took the Company public. He served as a Trustee of South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, and in 1975, Mr. Stanley along with the Robert Bowne Foundation financed the recreation of a printing and stationery shop at 211 Water Street at the Museum. The restoration commemorated Bowne & Co.’s 200th anniversary and replicated the Company during the 1850’s. In the 1980’s Mr. Stanley served as a governor of the American Stock Exchange, a director of the Venture Group of mutual funds and president of the Turtle Bay Tree Fund, a neighborhood beautification effort in the East 50’s.

An avid Chesapeake Bay sailor, he retired in 1981 with his wife, Jennifer, to Oxford, Maryland, where he served on the boards of the Port Wardens and the Oxford Citizens Association. He was the president and founder of two foundations, The Robert Bowne Foundation of New York City and the Town Creek Foundation of Easton, Maryland. In New York, his philanthropy is devoted to supporting the development of quality after school programs that offer literacy education to New York Cityʼs children and youth. The Town Creek Foundation is dedicated to a sustainable environment and makes grants to nonprofit organizations that work to promote ecological sustainability, largely concerning >the states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Mr. Stanley was a longstanding champion of the environmental and conservation community. His support was predominately for advocacy. He served on the boards of The Wilderness Society and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Mr. Stanley supported National Public Radio and the acknowledgment >tagline “Jennifer and Ted Stanley” was familiar to NPR listeners nationwide.

Mr. Stanley is survived by his wife, Jennifer; his brother, Thomas O. Stanley of Oxford, MD; three children by a previous marriage: Edmund A. Stanley, III of West Tisbury MA; Eric V. Stanley of Newtonville, MA; and Lisa A. Stanley of Reno, NV; three grandchildren Benjamin, Christopher, and Emily Stanley; and two great granddaughters. A memorial gathering will be held in Oxford on a date to be announced.

Mr. Stanley loved the Chesapeake Bay and felt that being connected to the nature of the Bay and engaged in its protection essential to his citizenship. To honor Mr. Stanley please take time to visit a favorite natural place.