Stanley Diamond was one of those people I always thought would live forever. So when I learned that he passed away  on December 18 at the age of 91 years young, I felt profound sadness. In our regular talks over the last year he would often discuss his own mortality. “I know I am over 90, but I feel great and I don’t want to think about not being on this earth anymore. I have too many things to do.”

Stan attended his McGill Faculty Management 70th Reunion on October 30. He is seen here with Dean Chan.

I first met Stan decades ago when he played in the Côte Saint-Luc Slo Pitch Association and I was the scorekeeper. Years later, in 1995, he established a reputation for himself as a groundbreaking researcher in genealogy and the executive director of Jewish Records Indexing – Poland, a searchable online database. His commitment to uncovering family histories obscured by war and upheaval paved the way for countless people of European Jewish ancestry to trace their roots and track down surviving relatives. I was a journalist by then and he always had a good story to share. In 2005 I was elected as the Côte Saint-Luc City Councillor for District 2 and Stan became one of my strongest supporters. Last year he called to tell me that he was selling his condo and moving into assisted living. It was not a move he cherished, but quipped “my wife and I are 177 years old between us and I wanted to ensure she is in a safer place with support for the day I am no longer here.”

Stan was passionate about what he did. And a week did not go by over the last few decades when he did not message me or pitch a story. He spoke proudly about earning a commerce degree at McGill and an MBA at Harvard, then starting a very successful decorative ceiling business called Intalite with factories and clients around the globe. He and his wife Ruth had three adoring daughters  and four grandkids.

Of Ruth, Stan told me in a blog I wrote last year: “My wife and I were born five years and five days apart.

In honor of Stan’s 90th birthday, JRI-Poland kicked off its 2024 NextGen Fundraising Campaign by adding $90,000 to their goal in recognition of his contribution to this organization. Funds raised went towards website development project.

JRI-Poland is a searchable online database. Stan’s commitment to uncovering family histories obscured by war and upheaval has paved the way for countless people of European Jewish ancestry to trace their roots and track down surviving relatives. His personal journey to trace his family lineage not only unveiled surprising connections but also ignited a vision: making genealogical research more accessible for all. JRI-Poland, since its inception in 1995, has become a cornerstone for those tracing their Polish Jewish roots. With collaboration from the Polish State Archives, the organization has built a database of over seven million records.

Stan going door to door with me in 2017

Back in 2017, Stanley gave a speech at his synagogue, Shaare Zion, which I happily covered. “It’s truly humbling to be honored by my synagogue where 71-years ago this week, I celebrated my bar mitzvah,” he said at the time. “Many years ago, my wife Ruth remarked, ‘what are you going to do when you retire?’ Other women in this sanctuary may have asked a similar question - if they witnessed what Ruth endured for many years…a husband who had a passion for his international decorative ceiling business…and was consumed with it almost every waking hour. Little did I know that the seeds for my post-retirement had already been sown back in 1977 when my nephew Mark Diamond was diagnosed as being a carrier of the beta thalassemia genetic trait, and blood tests revealed that my father Harry, all four of his children and nine of 13 grandchildren were also carriers. I could hardly have anticipated how being a carrier, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening up of the Polish archives…the growth of the Internet and the dramatic changes in communications made possible by personal computers and email…and my international business experience - all seemingly unrelated - would come together to play such a huge role in my second career…a new chapter in my life that blossomed into something far bigger than I could have ever imagined.

“My family does not suffer from the Thalassemia disease…but we carry the beta thalassemia genetic trait. Only children who inherit the trait from both parents can have the disease known as Thalassemia Major. Children who only inherit the gene from one parent - like the members of my family - live normal lives. Since the trait manifests itself as mild chronic anemia, carriers in populations where it is not prevalent – like my Ashkenazi family – were never or rarely tested for the trait. Although Thalassemia trait is widely seen in Mediterranean and Southeast Asian families, and a very small percentage of Sephardic Jews, we were one of the first among Ashkenazim diagnosed as carriers in 1977…and that’s where my story begins. Dr. Arthur Cooperberg, head of hematology at the Jewish General was fascinated to learn about our family as he had only seen the trait in Greeks and Italians in Montreal. Cooperberg’s 1977 study of our family revealed that my father was the carrier…as were the families of his sister Ray Steinhouse and brother Barney Diamond. Many of us had been misdiagnosed over the years as being anemic and had been prescribed massive doses of iron which are totally ineffective.But where did it come from? We were naturally curious about the source of the trait…and we knew the potential danger to future generations as well as relatives near and far who were likely unaware that their mild chronic anemia could be something else. But, we knew little if anything about genealogical research and no one bothered to learn. In 1991, I became both the family genealogist and beta thalassemia detective. But to build a family tree of carriers, I first had to discover if it was my father’s father or father’s mother who had passed the trait to him. This was a challenge because my grandparents came to Montreal from New York in 1898 and left their siblings’ families behind.

“Fortunately, my sole living aunt finally remembered a distant cousin in Florida, a descendant of my grandmother’s brother Aron Hersz WIDELEC. After identifying myself and discussing how we’re related, I hesitatingly asked, "Is there any incidence of anemia in your branch?" "Oh, you mean beta thalassemia, it's all over our family!" In that one moment I knew I had to concentrate my research on my father’s mother’s branch from the town of Ostrów Mazowiecka – halfway between Warsaw and Białystok. My luck continued when I learned about Michael Richman, a remarkable young lawyer in Washington who also has roots in my ancestral town. Using the Mormon microfilms of the 1808 to 1863 Jewish records of the town, Michael not only documented the early generations of his own early family but out of curiosity, two hundred other families – including my grandmother’s WIDELEC family. Within a year, after hundreds of phone calls and countless letters, I had connected the main branches of the WIDELEC family in the United States to the earlier generations in Poland documented by Michael. But to research the other branches of my family from Poland, I needed access to the post-1863 records in the Polish State Archives and the pre-war records in the city hall archives. In May 1994, it was bashert that the keynote speaker at the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Jerusalem was Jerzy Skowronek, Director-General of the Polish State Archives. Skowronek immediately grasped my humanitarian quest and offered his full cooperation. Eighteen months later I made my first visit to Poland. But before leaving, I sent letters to a fourteen genealogists with an interest in my town and nearby towns. I suggested we do joint research of the microfilmed records and avoid senseless duplication of effort. The reaction to the letter was swift and just months later, in the spring of 1995, it led to the birth of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland in its early, rudimentary form.”

Stan sporting a most unique Habs shirt.

Stan shared too many success stories from JRI-Poland to print here. Like the woman in France with records proving that her maternal line is Jewish so that she could get married in a Jewish ceremony in Israel. JRI-Poland also contributed invaluable research for two TV series “Finding Your Roots” and “Who Do We Think We Are” about famous personalities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Carole King, and Alan Dershowitz.

Stan was also a lecturer and author

For all of us, including Amy Fish, Stan left us too soon. For the past six years Amy has been writing a book about Stan. “I am heartbroken that he did not live to hold the book in his hands, and at the same time grateful that he trusted me to document his legacy,” she said.

Amy, I can’t wait to get my copy.

Stan we miss you already!!!