TBN Weekly – May 17, 2011
By Lester R. Dailey
SEMINOLE — Pinellas is the most densely populated of Florida’s 67 counties and some people say it’s overcrowded, traffic-congested and too touristy. But Bob Stanton doesn’t agree.
“I love Pinellas County,” Stanton said. “This is the best county in Florida.”
Stanton spent most of his life in New Jersey, the state where he was born in 1922. As a boy, he developed a keen interest in airships and was a frequent visitor at the Navy’s blimp facility at Lakehurst, N.J.
One day, while crabbing in Barnegat Bay, he saw the German airship Hindenburg pass overhead on its maiden voyage to the United States. A year later, he heard that the Hindenburg was scheduled to land at Lakehurst and persuaded his stepfather to drive him there to watch, but the stepfather backed out at the last minute. That was the day the Hindenburg burned and crashed at Lakehurst.
A train buff, he has written pamphlets about the railroads of Florida and the streetcars of St. Petersburg. He has also written an historical novel about the founding of Florida, entitled Where the Beach People Came From.
After completing his schooling in June 1943, Stanton unsuccessfully tried to get into the Navy’s blimp corp. When his draft notice arrived, he volunteered for early induction and ended up as an infantryman in Europe.
One day in February 1945, he was talking with two men when another man called him over. Just then, a German shell came in and killed the two soldiers with whom he had just been talking. Stanton was knocked unconscious but only slightly wounded.
A month later, the half-track in which he was riding was hit by a German shell, killing seven men and wounding Stanton. Afterward, he was amazed to find that the pockets of his field jacket were filled with shrapnel from the exploding shell.
Stanton ended the war with two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, although he didn’t achieve the goal he had set for himself.
“I wanted to cross the Rhine, but I got hit before I got the chance,” he said. But he’s not complaining; he considers himself lucky just to be alive.
“The Lord took care of me many times,” he said.
After the war, Stanton became a DuPont chemical engineer. He was promoted to management and sometimes given the job of writing operating instructions for chemical plants.
“You have to be very precise and accurate in what you write or somebody could blow up the whole plant,” he said.
He discovered that he has a talent for writing and has now written ten pamphlets and three books, with another book in the works. His topics run the gamut from history to science fiction. But he doesn’t write for the money.
“My only interest is in sharing knowledge and history,” he said.
While working for DuPont, Stanton had a 40-acre farm in Salem County, New Jersey, where he raised beef cattle, hogs, hay and produce. He jokes that the farm was his full-time job and he worked for DuPont in his spare time.
Today, Stanton is retired and widowed. He has five children, 13 grandchildren and five great grand-children.
Since moving to Seminole in 2003, he has kept busy. He is the vice president of the Seminole Historical Society and has continued his writing.
Three days a week, he volunteers at the Bay Pines VA Hospital, pushing the wheelchairs of his fellow veterans. On Saturday afternoons, he can be found guiding visitors through the restored H.C. Smith mercantile store at Heritage Village, the county’s 21-acre historical museum in Largo. He also supplies his books to the Heritage Village gift shop at cost, so the profits from their sale can be used to support the village.
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