Resident Spotlight

James Stanley “Stan” Cummings

“Stan” Cummings

James Stanley “Stan” Cummings was born in Springfield, MA on April 27th, 1930. Stan spent two years at school in Lausanne, Switzerland before attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1954. Stan graduated with a Bachelors of Science; he would later go on to receive a Masters degree and a Doctorate degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Stan married his wife, Clare, and they have three daughters: Carolyn, Lisa, and Margo. Stan served in the military as part of the Office of Special Investigation during the late 50’s. He  did a lot of traveling and has lived in Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as Switzerland. Stan returned to Massachusetts as a Financial and Development Officer at Springfield Technical Community College.

Stan wrote a book! ‘Your Preschooler: Developing Your Child’s Love of Reading.’ This is a book for parents, grandparents and caregivers full of practical advice about how to cultivate and support a child’s love of reading. Stan says that he was inspired to put this book together after reading articles and seeing newspieces about the difficulties students have in schools when they are not adequately exposed to reading at an early age. The importance of reading and being read to in early life has been scientifically proven – and Stan’s book assists caregivers in cultivating this important skill (and passion!) in children during those critical years. Stan himself is a voracious reader – whether it’s books, magazines or newspapers. During his life, Stan has also enjoyed travel, skiing and films (new and old).

Stan says that the things that he considers important to happiness in life are living within your means, financial security, family and maintaining a happy marriage – something he says can be done through sharing both interests and experiences. Stan and his wife Clare have been married for over 60 years now – so we will take his advice to heart! When asked what his happiest memories were, Stan recalled a trip abroad with his wife and college friends during which they were able to travel throughout Italy.

Stan has served – and continues to serve – on a number of committees at Springhouse.  We even nominated him as part of the new resident Welcome Committee.