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Obituary: Dr Brian Stanton 1947-1999

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Al Goold took this photograph of Brian at the last meeting he attended on Tuesday 2nd August 1999
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It is with sadness that I have to report the sudden and tragic death of Brain Stanton, Atari Computing's Subscription manager, on Monday 16 August 1999.

To say that I am shocked and saddened is an understatement. I had been speaking to Brian on the telephone on the previous Saturday discussing our plans for a meeting later that week.

I first met Brian around six years ago because of a mistake by System Solutions. We had separately attended an Atari Show in Glasgow, and had both upgraded our NVDI disks. These were taken back to Dulwich for processing, and when the updates were placed in their respective envelopes some unknown member of staff dropped them on the floor and guessed which was which before refilling the envelopes and sending them off. I noticed I had received the 'wrong' disk because Brian had written his surname and postcode on his master disk so I traced him through the phone book.

I had been thinking of getting online, and Brian encouraged me to join CIX, which was a decision I have never regretted.

Brian was one of the founder members of STAG (Scotland's TOS/Atari Group) and one of its most staunch supporters and a regular attendee at our monthly meetings held in Howwood.

Brian and I travelled together to most of the UK Atari shows over the last few years often stopping off overnight with his sister Evvie, in Liverpool and we planned to do this again for the ACC'99 show this November.

Along with Sandy Thomson and Andy Wilson, Brian and I were the Scottish contingent of the original 12 members of the Atari Computing Group that started this magazine. Brian took on the responsibility of looking after the subscription database from day one. This became a massive and thankless task which he carried out dutifully until the day he died.

Brian successfully combined the hundreds of hours he put in 'working' for the magazine with his full time career as a Doctor in the X-Ray Department of Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, and with his wife Thea, and his 3 children Andrew, Fiona and Peter.

Brian was my friend and I will miss him.

Al Goold

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One of the Good Guys

Brian's death is absolutely terrible news. Brian had a knack for winding me up, which I think he secretly enjoyed, but I always knew he was one of the good guys.

Before the launch of Atari Computing Brian used to help Titan, manning their stand at shows for several years. In recent years we all enjoyed getting together after Atari shows to catch up on the latest gossip.

Ironically Brian's death co-incided with a flurry of incoming emails bemoaning the demise of Atari Computing. Magazines can be replaced, Brian can't :-(

RIP Brian.

Joe
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Steve Delaney

Brian Stanton was a true Atari enthusiast who had a real passion for his hobby. Over the years he helped out behind the scenes at Compo and Titan Design, was a popular contributor to CIX and worked tirelessly for Atari Computing since its launch, but I will always remember Brian as a good friend and he will be sadly missed.
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Mike Kerslake

I was the first of the AC team to hear of Brian's sudden death and phoning Al and Joe to tell them the sad news was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

I first met Brian in person at the Atari show in Birmingham where we launched Atari Computing, and both my wife and I instantly took to Brian. He had an endearing personality that you just couldn't argue with. He rapidly became a good friend, and our phone conversations and email correspondences were always interesting and frequently hilarious. Brian had a well-developed sense of humour, often at his own expense, but like him it was never malicious.

However, it wasn't all clowning about, Brian had a more deeper and caring side to him, and when members of my family were ill or in hospital, Brian was always there to offer professional advice and he'd frequently call up just to find out how they were.

Working with Brian as part of the AC team also showed what sort of person he was. Managing the vast and complicated AC database is perhaps the worst job anyone could do, but Brian just did it without complaining, and he'd phone or write to any reader with a problem to apologise, explain and then put it right without a second thought.

I could say a lot more about Brian, but there's no real need, all of us who met and knew him know exactly what a top class person he was.

I was privileged to know Brian, and I have some wonderful memories of the all too brief times I spent in his company.

RIP Brian
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