WEST LEBANON — For Stanley Liang, life was too short to get tied up in dull moments.
The longtime Lebanon resident was almost always on the move, tending to a multitude of priorities. His wife and children, the family motel, and fire and ambulance calls all sought his attention.
When there was time for leisure, Liang could often be found leading Boy Scouts, lending his expertise to the American Red Cross or volunteering for several Upper Valley charities. He did it all with a smile, and friends say they never saw him frustrated or mad.
“Everything he did was fun,” longtime friend Frank Currier said. “If it wasn’t fun, he wasn’t going to do it.”
Friends and family say Liang’s commitment to Lebanon, to blockbuster parties, and his gregarious and outgoing nature are just some of the traits they’ll miss most after he died at 76 on Nov. 25, 2020.
“Everybody loved him and he loved everybody,” said Pat Cook, another of the hundreds of people who called Liang a friend throughout his life.
Liang was born on Feb. 17, 1944, to Emily Curran Liang and Chi Kai Liang, an immigrant who had fled Nationalist China before the Communist revolution in the late 1940s.
The family settled in Teaneck, N.J., a suburb of New York where Liang and his two siblings spent the first part of their childhoods.
His sister Grace Dickerson said it was sometimes difficult growing up in a mixed-race family during the Korean War. She recalls being on the receiving end of racial slurs but said Liang, who was two years younger, might not have been old enough to recall the most vitriolic times.
Dickerson said her father, who went by the nickname Checky, encouraged civic activity in the family and always made a point to vote, no matter how big or small the election.
“Even if my mother didn’t know what was really going on with all of the different candidates, he would just drag her (to the polls),” she said.
Liang’s first son Lewis remembers growing up in a household where his grandfather’s traditions ran strong. Liang always acknowledged women in his presence, went out of the way to open doors for others and had a strict rule against wearing hats inside.
“He was very strong in his convictions, and traditions like that that were passed down,” Lewis Liang said.
Dickerson said she wasn’t particularly close to Liang while they were in Teaneck, saying she often viewed him as a “bratty” little brother. But that changed when they left the suburbs every summer for her maternal grandfather’s home in Cragsmoor, N.Y.
Summers at the old art colony near the Catskills were dominated by bike riding and time spent outside, she said. Albeit, the children didn’t have much of a choice. There was little access to phones and radio signals were spotty at best.
“You would hop on your bike and travel around the mountaintop to see different people,” Dickerson recalled fondly.
The family then packed up and moved to West Lebanon around the time that Liang was entering junior high school. Chi Kai Liang purchased the Sunset Motel on Route 10 north of the Wilder Dam, which would remain in the family until 1981.
Liang went on to graduate from Lebanon High School and attended Paul Smith’s College to obtain a hotel management degree, intending to someday take over the family business.
It was while attending college that he met his future wife Linda during a 1962 wedding in Claremont. Linda Liang said she was asked during the reception to go get more ice and Liang offered to drive her. He ended up driving her home after the wedding and the next night, she got a call from Liang, who had driven to a payphone in Claremont because at the time gas was cheaper than a phone call from Lebanon.
The couple was married in 1965 and a year later, Liang graduated from college. They moved into the motel and Lewis Liang was born that November.
Lewis Liang said his father treated those staying at the motel like family and would often come back from the grocery store with dozens of hot dogs that he’d grill up for larger gatherings with customers and friends.
“We had guests that would come into the hotel and they’d be at our dinner table in the evenings,” he said.
Still, the family was Liang’s priority.
“He worked extremely hard. He gave us everything we ever needed and then some,” Lewis Liang said.
He remembered the time his bike was stolen and Liang went out the next day to buy a new one. There also was the time he had to build an obelisk as part of a school project. Liang dropped everything and went to work in his woodshop, only to wind up in the emergency room after cutting half of his thumb off.
“I remember crying for a long time because I thought it was my fault that my dad was in the emergency room,” Lewis Liang said.
Liang also was strongly committed to the community. From an early age, Lewis Liang remembers his father leaving for Rotary and Chamber of Commerce meetings.
“I do not ever remember him sitting around. I don’t remember him ever sitting and reading a book or watching a movie or anything,” he said. “I don’t remember a downtime ever.”
Liang, who first got involved in Boy Scouts, joined the local troop first as an assistant scoutmaster and then moving up to the top post of scoutmaster in 1968.
Lebanon resident Charlie Chapman was a scout at the time and said the Liangs provided him with his first taxpaying job as dishwasher at the motel. He recalled a time when he was asked to mow the lawn, which ended with him driving the mover over a nearby embankment.
“I went to tell him and I was scared to death he was going to be mad at me. He laughed. He thought it was funny,” Chapman said of Liang. “They were great people.”
Paul Boucher, who also was involved in Boy Scouts with Liang, said he was always laid back and never got angry. But that doesn’t mean Liang ever slowed down.
“He was a guy that couldn’t sit still. He always had to be doing something,” said Boucher, the former director of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, who later counted on Liang as a reliable volunteer.
Linda Liang said those initial years in Lebanon were “always busy.” She and Liang had three children, took over running the motel when Chi Kai Liang died in February of 1967 and opened a restaurant at the motel.
On top of those responsibilities, Liang, who devoted time to volunteer firefighting, became an EMT and ultimately joined and purchased the Lebanon Ambulance Service from longtime owner John Roche.
The long workdays came to a head in 1971, when the Liangs closed the restaurant and focused their attention on the motel and ambulance service.
“We decided that was not the way to raise a family,” Linda Liang said of the decision to slow down ever so slightly.
Together the family operated the motel until it was sold in 1981.
“The only day that the business was closed in the 25 years within the family was the day that he buried his father,” Linda Liang said. “And then that was only for a couple of hours.”
Lebanon’s fire department took over ambulance operations in the city in 1999. But Liang still kept busy, giving his time to the Elks, Shriners, Masons and Lebanon chapter of the American Red Cross.
He also had a decades-long career at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, where he taught classes on cardiac and pediatric life support systems. Ed Gannon, who took an instructor course from Liang, said he had a unique talent for taking typically boring topics and making them interesting.
“Stan was the first one who taught me that there’s no such thing as a disability. There is such thing, however, as different abilities,” Gannon said, adding that realization was profound.
Liang taught that everyone just needs to find their best abilities to succeed, and he did so in a non-judgmental way that made class attendees feel comfortable, Gannon said.
“He had a way of getting through to people and making them believe in themselves,” he said.
Currier, Liang’s longtime friend, took a first aid class in the 1980s, saying it was a “phenomenal” experience.
“He could make you laugh. He made serious business of first aid enjoyable,” Currier said.
Currier and Liang later became business partners for 15 years doing both catering as a side business and commercial fireworks. They worked together for a company out of Montpelier putting on shows throughout New England.
Liang’s coworkers at D-H said he was known for “under the radar kindness.” Patty Nolette, his boss for about 10 years, said Liang was known to place candy bars on people’s seats while they were away. There were times, she said, where he would bring everyone ice cream sundaes for no particular reason.
“He was generous with his time, generous with his resources. Always thoughtful,” she said
Nolette and several of Liang’s friends said that generosity followed him home. The Liangs were known to their Maple Street neighbors for an annual beef and beer event that started as a Memorial Day celebration and ballooned over the next two decades.
Linda Liang said the event ultimately entailed her husband cooking five full roasts and deep-frying three turkeys for more than 400 guests.
“He loved a good party,” Nolette said. “And it wasn’t a party for a dozen people. It was like whoever happens to be in the neighborhood or who he happened to know or see.”
The Liangs also went all out for Halloween, giving out bags of candy, cider and showing movies in their garage. Liang also made sure to set out treats to the adults.
“Stanley was known for his Jello shots,” Nolette said with a chuckle. “They were dangerous.”
Those traditions followed the Liangs when they moved to Sun City, Ariz., in 2013. There, beef and beer continued, and some friends even flew down to join in the festivities.
Liang’s friendly, outgoing nature continued to earn him friends in Arizona, according to Larry Vroom, head of the community’s leather craft club.
Linda Liang said the decision to move to Arizona wasn’t an easy one, as they left behind longtime friends and family. But, she said, they were never afraid of a new adventure.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic ends, she intends to continue the beer and beer parties.
“It’s been one whale of a 55-year ride,” she said. “We have done more things, seen more things and thoroughly enjoyed each other and enjoyed life.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-72 7-3223.