Stanley Reifel Obituary (1934 – 2021) – Missoula, MT

Stanley Winton Reifel

Stanley Winton Reifel, 87, passed absent Monday, May possibly 17th, 2021, at dwelling, surrounded by his relatives in the wonderful home he built.

He was born May perhaps 13th, 1934 in Upland, California, to Philip J. Reifel and Eileen Young Reifel and more mature brother Philip J. Reifel II.

He was constantly a man of his fingers. His unparalleled craftsmanship started younger. He could construct anything, from a horse trailer to a sail boat, with fun and question alongside the way. He married Betty Miller in Riverside, California and had Lisa and Stan Jr. in Santa Barbara. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara and begun Stan Reifel Household furniture Patterns in 1957.

He was first and foremost a ‘wood man’. His furnishings styles were being executed with treatment and a human contact. They are works of art and renovate the spaces they inhabit. These days, they are living in collections all over the world. Just last year, his household was ready to carry residence one of his early chairs from a Midcentury showroom in Manhattan. The wonderful chair will continue to be in his Arlee dwelling, as will his spirit.

All who realized Stan encountered his light coronary heart and welcoming smile. He was without end humble and several close to him may perhaps not have acknowledged his quite a few glittering achievements. These incorporate prototyping the initial Hobie surfboard, building the furnishings for Billy Wilder’s home, building the American Wing of the San Francisco DeYoung Museum, creating furniture collections with Paul Tuttle and publishing a e book on exhibition design.

In 1971, he moved from Santa Barbara to New York Metropolis to get started the Fairtree Wonderful Art Institute & Gallery, the preeminent high-quality craft place in America. He learned and released the occupations of innumerable American craftspeople with enthusiasm and a sense of reason.

Whilst in New York Stan achieved, Dana, the appreciate of his lifestyle and was lured by her to Montana with a Jack Daniels Ditch and the aspiration of building a ranch on 60 gorgeous acres in the Mission Valley. He married Dana Boussard in 1978 and collectively they reworked a 1916 break up log cabin into a spectacular residence, Two Heart Creek Ranch. He called it his best satisfaction, not for the reason that of its architectural elegance, but simply because of the lifestyle that they lived in just the walls. This bundled the beginning of his youngest daughter, Ariana. His outstanding ability and unwavering assistance, coupled with Dana’s artistic expertise, permitted them to build an crucial artwork profession as properly as a life of creative collaboration.

In Montana, his operate remodeled from good home furniture to woodworking of the land. He crafted several residences in the Mission Valley, as perfectly as just one on the beach on the Sea of Cortez and an apartment in Manhattan. Each individual spoke to their feeling of spot with a sensitivity that was innate to Stan’s eyesight.

In the course of his everyday living he traveled The united states and the planet with his family members. He opened the eyes of his spouse and children to human range and instilled a sense of compassion and tolerance in each individual of them.

He acted as father and mentor to all who wanted just one and he guided several nevertheless the many years with an open up intellect and the salve of tricky do the job.

The best of him will are living on in his kids, who just about every grew up in the sawdust of his woodshop. In Lisa his eager eye for curation, in Stan Jr. his purposeful and meticulous hand and in Ariana the means to change scrap into one thing exclusive.

He is survived by his loving wife of 45 decades Dana Boussard and his three little ones, Lisa Reifel, Stanley Reifel Jr. and Ariana Boussard-Reifel, his son-in-law Yasser Ansari and his 4 granddaughters, Maggie Clarke, Meriwether Clarke, Zoe Shu-Reifel and baby Anaya Ansari, who made his final year a person of great joy.

There will be a celebration of his everyday living on his land in sunnier occasions.