Stanton Willard Alger

passed away on Bainbridge Island on Sunday, October 31, 2010. He was born on April 24, 1942 and was 68 years of age.Born in Maryland, Bud honed his passionate interest in all things mechanical at the prestigious Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. During the Vietnam war, he served in Thailand as a communications specialist and worked on early television systems. His training in the rapidly developing TV technology led to jobs around the country, from NBC in California to his final job as Chief Engineer at KCTS in Seattle.His entrepreneurial skills connected him with Stan Lee at Marvel Comics, where he worked on early 3-D films and developed patents on several aspects of 3-D technology. Later, he worked on the first in-flight film projectors for Hewlett Packard, traveling to England on the inaugural flight.A Renaissance man, Bud's lifelong studies took him from the Berklee College of Music in Boston to UC Berkeley's Department of Philosophy. Among other interests, he loved sailing, photography, mountain rescue, the Sierra Club, and reading. Involved with scouting from boyhood, Bud was scoutmaster for his son Fred's Bainbridge Island Troop 1564 from 1997 to 2001.Music was an early and constant thread in his life. As a child, he sang in the boy's choir at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Baltimore; during high school and college, he worked as a professional jazz musician. Up through the final day of his life, he sang with the choir at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church on Bainbridge Island and also played string bass for several jazz groups as well as Time and Tide, a folk and gospel ensemble that played at local farmers' markets and selected private engagements.Active in his church and community, Bud wired the restored Eagle Harbor church tower for sound so the town could enjoy Christmas carols and spooky Halloween music. When cancer forced his retirement, he studied painting with local artist Claudia McKinstry, built guitars, and taught music at Madrona School. Through the Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, he founded a Monday Men's Group for men with serious illness or disability, which still meets weekly at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church on Bainbridge Island.Bud met his first wife Kathy in the Army and they enjoyed forty years of adventures before her death from breast cancer in 2003. He is survived by his son Fred (Elizabeth) and three granddaughters, and by his wife, Ann Lovejoy, and step-sons Peter and Andrew (Kate) Lovejoy, and his much loved cats.A celebration of Bud's life will be held at Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor Congregational Church on Sunday, December 5th at 6 p.m., followed by a potluck. Memorial donations may be made to Bainbridge Public Library or Harmony Hill Cancer Retreat.