Stanley (Stan) Whitfield Burrows, most recently of Waltham, MA, was born in Boston in January of 1948, and passed away on May 1, 2020. As a nearly lifelong resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he enjoyed a forty-year career as an Information Technology and Software Engineering Executive, with a special emphasis on helping organizations use technology to enhance executive leadership and decision-making. He also successfully led efforts to design and implement many high-profile technology-based products and services.
During his career, Stan served as Programming Project Leader for the Data Services Division at The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; as Senior Software Engineering Manager for software engineering companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, where he managed worldwide strategic planning and competitive analysis processes; Assisted in the launch of Internet start-up organizations; and as a Consultant to organizations as diverse as the World Bank Group and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Among the many achievements, of which he was most proud, was his service on the boards of a number of local non-profits, including: Operation A.B.L.E. of Greater Boston; The Guidance Center in Cambridge, a service of Riverside Community Care; and the Microloan Foundation.
He also served as a volunteer on the Membership Committee of The Harvard Club of Boston, of which he was an enthusiastic Club member for 36 years; The Cambridge Club where he served as President from 2009 to 2010; the Administration & Finance Committee of the Board of Directors (for more than 9 years), and as a Consultant to United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, for close to 3 years.
Stan earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Boston, University; a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Boston University; and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, both in the same year.
He was the son of Oscar S. Burrows, Cambridge Attorney and former Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County, and Dorothy E. Burrows who was Head of the Boston Public School Art Program. His brother, Attorney Quentin Caldwell Burrows (husband of Janice Dost of Sunriver Oregon), passed away on May 17, 2006, in Taos, New Mexico, at the age of sixty-three.
He was also a devoted husband, father, brother, uncle, and will be remembered with love and affection by his wife, Jill V. Burrows, son, Dylan D. Burrows of Maynard, Massachusetts and his wife Mandy (Hyden), grand-daughter Avalon and her children Ryder and Raina, of Seaside, California; sons of his brother Quentin: Matthew Burrows and his wife Katherine (Lazar) and their sons Miles L. and Lloyd S. Burrows; and Christopher Burrows, and his wife Dr. Adrienne (Bell) and their children, Ryann E. and Jacob L. Burrows of Santa Monica CA; and step son Jeremy Bragdon, his wife (Hiromi), and sons Ray and Rio of Okinawa, Japan.
A virtual memorial service for him is planned for the not so distant future.
Stanley was also well loved by his many friends from coast to coast (many of whom date back to his childhood and years at the Lenox School in Lenox, MA), as well as an untold number of members of the many community organizations he was called to serve with distinction, and he will be sorely missed.