November 15, 1933 to April 13, 2016
Stanley George Frahm was born on November 15, 1933, to Herman and Elsie (Miller) Frahm, in Manning, Iowa.

Herman sold Studebaker cars, was a Manning city councilman and elder in the Lutheran Church. Elsie was a homemaker and avid golfer. Stan had an older sister, Ardella Frahm Mullen (deceased) of Bellingham, Washington, and Stan is survived by a younger brother, Lyle Frahm, of Columbia Falls, Montana.

In mid-1950s Iowa, big city sportswriters sometimes described the tiny western town set amidst acres of cornfields as "basketball crazy" Manning. The town population in 1950 was 1,801, and as much a part of the craze as anyone were the 5 Frahm family members.

In 9th grade, Stan was not eligible to play on the varsity basketball team, but he played trombone in the pep band that spurred on the legendary 1948 Manning High (184 students) Bulldogs basketball team that beat undefeated, perennial power Davenport (1992 students) by a score of 43-36 for the Iowa State High School Championship before 16,500 fans in the Iowa City Fieldhouse.

In his 10th-12th grades at Manning High, Stan did play for the Bulldogs basketball team, earning Coon Valley all-conference honors and, in his senior year, he led the team on a 22 game win streak and back to the Iowa sub-state tournament. Stan was elected class president and lettered in 5 sports: football, basketball, baseball, golf and track.

He got his high school diploma in 1951 and Stan next earned a scholarship on the Iowa State Cyclones basketball roster, where he was a 2-year starter and according to the Iowa State Daily News, "one of the Big Seven Conference's [today's Big 12 Conference] best defensive players."

Stan told the reporter that his reputed defensive prowess and "ball hawking" skills were due to years of trying to stop his younger brother Lyle from scoring against him in endless pickup games on their backyard court in Manning. Lyle eventually followed Stan to ISU and joined him on the Cyclones team as a prolific shooter/playmaker.

Lyle, in fact, made a key play in the final seconds of the 1957 ISU game in which the Cyclones defeated #1 ranked Kansas, and their superstar Wilt Chamberlain. That win raised the ISU ranking to #3 in the country, and it was celebrated as "the sweetest moment in Cyclone history," in a book later written about Stan and Lyle's All-American teammate during that era, Gary Thompson.

At ISU, Stan and Lyle were both, however, following in the footsteps of their older sister Ardella. Dell, like Stan and Lyle, played golf, and all 3 of them sang together for years in the church choir. Dell was as musically gifted as the boys were athletically talented, excelling with the flute, and eventually she played at church services and holiday events. She was also an award-winning baker, and it was Dell who left Manning to become the first in the Frahm family to graduate from college.

Stan graduated with a degree in Industrial Economics in 3 1/2 years, in December 1955. While at ISU, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Since leaving Ames with his degree in 1956, he returned for several Phi Delta reunions and remained in regular contact with his Iowa State "brothers" his entire life.

Within months of college graduation, after a brief stint in a sales training program, Stan was inducted into the US Army, and stationed in Germany until November 1958. While in Germany, he met Janet Lee Glaser on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend. Janet had attended Hillside High in New Jersey and Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, and was the daughter of Fred and Irene Glaser.

After serving in the Army for 2 years, Stan returned to the US and a waiting job offer at Armstrong World Industries. But, he was soon recruited away from the giant conglomerate by a very charismatic and persuasive Fred Losch, who convinced Stan to instead join Stanline, a small and recently formed California division of EJ Stanton & Sons, a West Coast building materials distributor.

With Jan's strong encouragement, Stan came to California and joined the young firm in 1959 as a salesperson, despite the obvious risks. Jan soon left Germany and followed him out west to begin their mutual adventure. Stan and Jan married in Glendale, California, on November 1, 1959.

In 1968, Stan and Jan discovered the Church of the Christward Ministry in north San Diego County, and it soon became the spiritual home for the Frahm family. For several years, weekly Sunday trips to church required 2 hours drives each way. So, the family began a southern migration to be closer to the church, first moving to Anaheim Hills, in 1972 and then moving to their home in San Marcos, in 1976.

During this time, Stan worked his way through the ranks at Stanline as the business began expanding. From its first location in Vernon, California, the company positioned itself to ride the historic home building boom of the 70s and 80s.

Stanline soon opened up warehouse facilities in San Diego, Sacramento, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Products like Formica, Linoleum and Corian were in high demand and Stanline trucked literally hundreds of tons of particle board, wood paneling, flooring, ceilings and counter tops to the builders constructing new homes at a frenzied pace across the Southwest.

By 1974, Stan had become President and COO and in 1980, Fred Losch retired and Stan became CEO.

In 1985 Stan took Stanline public, under the ticker STAN. By 1998, however, London-based Bunzl, PLC purchased Stanline off the public market, forever retiring STAN shares from public trading. In 1992, Stan also retired at the age of 59, after 33 continuous years with the same company.

Stan relished his new status, and his grandchildren Jenny, James and Grace. He attended weddings, graduations and family reunions. He obsessed over his golf game, but characteristically refused to ever take lessons. Jan also loved golf and they spent many hours as a twosome on the Rancho Santa Fe course. He and Jan took golf trips to Hawaii, and to Whistler BC with brother Lyle and his wife Darlene.

In 1997, his beloved Jan was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. For the next 5 years, he stood by her as her primary caregiver, taking her to appointments, tending to her recovery after multiple surgeries, monitoring her pain medication, coordinating her plan of care, and treating her chemotherapy side effects. In July 2002, Jan passed away, after their 44 year love affair.

Without Jan, Stan began a new routine, returning to golf and to his grandchildren: attending their plays, golf tournaments, and celebrating holidays. He formed a deep new circle of friends at LA Fitness in Encinitas, the gym where he worked out nearly every day of the week, starting at 5:15 AM. He usually occupied the exact same elliptical machine, which his gym friends dubbed as his "lookout point."

He met for lunch and stayed in frequent contact with old Stanline friends such as Kenny Christopher, his former COO, and he often met up with a group of regular Pala casino-goers, with which he would talk, laugh and play hours of video poker slots, one quarter at a time. He continued to take his trips to Montana with his former boss Fred Losch until Fred passed in 2010.

When his vision declined somewhat, he installed an extra-large computer monitor so he could more easily maintain email relationships with friends, fraternity brothers and former teammates, sometimes signing off his notes with his college nickname of "Squirrels." He kept in touch with friends he had had since the 7th grade.

Basketball and golf were, of course, frequent topics. In his final week, he was as excited about the amazing Villanova win in the Final Four as he was dismayed by the collapse of Jordan Spieth on the back nine of the Masters.

Stan is survived by his younger brother Lyle and wife Darlene, his son Dan and wife Claire, daughter Nancy (Baker) and husband Greg, and grandchildren Jenny, James and Grace.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Stan on Sunday, May 22, 2016, at 1:00 PM.
The Christward Ministry at Questhaven 20560 Questhaven Road San Marcos, California 92078
In lieu of flowers, please make any donations to The Christward Ministry, in memory of Stan Frahm.