Obituary of Richard J. Stander

Richard J. Stander, 79, peacefully left this world on December 18th, 2011, in the home he built on Penobscot Bay in Stockton Springs, Maine. Born in 1932, he grew up in New York City and moved to Belfast in 1986. In his teens he was drawn to the cooperative models of socialist economies. He moved to Israel in 1951, where he married his first wife, Havi Pollak. They worked with displaced children, ducking hand grenades and bullets in those early years of Israel’s statehood. Disillusioned by Zionist nationalism, he identified himself as an “Internationalist” - a perspective he held throughout his life. Upon returning to the U.S., he earned an M.S. in psychiatric social work from Columbia University, a career he fulfilled using self-help principles of empowering people to gain control of their lives. Married for 24 years, Havi and Richard had two children, Joseph and Dina, who live in California and Massachusetts, respectively. In 1977, he met his second wife, Nancy Galland, and together they established the first organic farm in Hadley, MA. They developed the original organic certification standards for NOFA-Mass. Eventually they were forced to leave Hadley due to pesticide spray drift from hostile neighboring farmers. In 1987, they took over Fiddler’s Green Farm in Belfast, where they milled organic baking mixes and hot cereals (“Penobscot Porridge”), as well as growing organic vegetables. They retired to Stockton Springs in 1997. His dedication to peace, justice and the environment took many forms, including leadership in ending mercury pollution of the Penobscot River, and civil disobedience against the Iraq war. He passes his torch to his four grandchildren, Micah Stander, and Eliza, Rebecca, and Grace Bannasch, all of whom made him a very proud “Poppa.” The quality of his love, the clarity of his principles, and his passion for making this world a better place, will be carried on by them and his beloved community.