The Stanalands Span Nearly 50 Years In Saudi Arabia
- Community
- Annuitants & Former ExPats
Author: Audrey Stanaland
Released 15 December 2005
The Stanaland Family
Photograph Contributed by Audrey and Scott Stanaland
Irving D. "Stan" Stanaland left his young family behind in the east Texas town of Lufkin and arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1948. In February, 1951, Stan brought his wife, Evelyn, and their son, Scott, over and they made their home in Ras Tanura. When Evelyn discovered she was pregnant, she made arrangements to drive to Dhahran before the birth. The trip was rough requiring a change of drivers at a halfway point. Evelyn gave birth to Brock in October, 1951, and stayed awhile in Dhahran in part of the clinic that became the old Women's Exchange building on the corner across from the Kings Road ball field which now houses some of Community Services.
Stan passed away on February 15, 2001. Later that summer, Evelyn moved to East Tennessee to be near Scott and his wife, Audrey, and her grandsons. She also lived a bit closer to Brock and his wife Linda McCarthy Stanaland who reside in Jupiter, Florida.
Brock returned to Dhahran in December, 1977. Shortly after, he married his wife, Linda, and she arrived in Dhahran in 1979. Scott and Linda are marine biologists, and they worked in Dhahran in the Environmental Unit until 1986. Linda, known affectionately as a "pollution policeman", is now in management for the State of Florida and Brock, who fished commercially with his own boat for awhile and did contract work with Continental Shelf Marine, now works for the county.
Scott and Audrey, after retiring from Aramco and leaving Dhahran in 1996, discovered a beautiful utopian area in east Tennessee known as Tellico Village in Loudon County deep in the Tennessee valley. They have two sons who live in New Jersey.