Helen Lewis Stanfield

Stanfield—Helen Lewis Stanfield, 91, on September 10, 2016, at Friends Homes in Greensboro, N.C. Helen was born on September 28, 1924, in New York City, to Helen Scarlett and Robert Ernest Lewis, business manager of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. She grew up roller skating in nearby Central Park. After graduating from Julia Richman High School, she enrolled in Guilford College in 1941, meeting her future husband, David O. Stanfield, on the train traveling to North Carolina. They married in 1945 and moved to Hartford, Conn., where David attended Hartford Theological Seminary to prepare for being a Friends minister. She used her ingenious skills at home for David and their four children, giving them her loving attention. She also worked in Edith Mattocks’s Farmland Nursery in High Point, N.C., and served in the High Point office of American Friends Service Committee’s Peace Education staff.

When the family moved to Richmond, Ind., in 1961, she served as First Friends Meeting’s office secretary. She then became administrative assistant to Earlham School of Religion’s founder and dean Wilmer Cooper, for nine years enjoying the stimulating spiritual development atmosphere of the students’ preparation for Christian ministry. In 1974 she moved to Greensboro for David’s work with Guilford College and became director of admissions and administrative assistant to the executive director at the newly launched Friends Homes at Guilford. She endeared herself to its residents for 12 years, retiring in 1986 after serving with four executive directors. She also worked for ten years as New Garden Friends School treasurer during its formative years. She was a member of Jamestown (N.C.) Meeting.

When David retired in 1992, they moved to their cottage on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. Here they continued their avocation as sailors, racing in regattas and cruising along the eastern seaboard. She loved to knit and was known for her hospitality, and nothing gave her greater happiness than seeing her family gathered together. In 2004 she and David moved to Friends Homes at Guilford.

Helen is survived by her husband of more than 70 years, David O. Stanfield; four children, David Ernest Stanfield, Judith Eleanor Stanfield (Donna Zerbato), Thomas Jesse Stanfield, and Mary Louise Stanfield (Barbara Bell); ten grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.