It was a privilege to have become a good friend of Stan over the past 10 years. I had known of Stan through my own association with the space industry in OTC, then AUSSAT and later as a consultant however my first memory of Stan as a friend was observing him climbing a ladder to fix an awning at his then new home. Stan could turn his hand to anything, from aeroplanes to clay kilns!! Stan had enormous energy and I later became aware that that energy was particularly in intellectual pursuits. I didn’t understand the breadth of that intellectual capacity until much later in our friendship. Certainly as fellow engineers, with a common interest in the space industry and a mutual concern about the demise of Australia’s industrial capacity, particularly in the application of advanced engineering skills, we had some fascinating discussions. Stan was rightly proud of his contributions to the Australian aerospace industry albeit frustrated by the missed opportunities for which he had developed a foundation. Stan was also proud of his Polish heritage and how his intellect, determination and energy had enabled his achievements throughout his life. An immensely resourceful engineer, Stan was able to gain the support of Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to the idea of developing a space launch capability on Cape York unfortunately support from other influential stakeholders was not forthcoming or was divided. Frustration at lack of support for an ongoing aerospace industry in Australia didn’t dampen Stan’s creativity and thinking skills. He wrote on a diversity of topics, some books I only became aware of since he passed away. He had almost as many manuscripts of unpublished works. Stan was a private person and had I been aware sooner of some of his thinking and the books he had written they would have formed great conversation pieces. Stan enjoyed a game of chess for which he exhibited a remarkable sharpness of mind until the last weeks of his life. I feel privileged to have known Stan, my only regret is that I didn’t get to know him better during his life.